CCP Promotes Ma Minglong’s Thought as a Tool to “Sinicize” Islam

The 17^th-century Muslim scholar is used to reduce Islam to a moral philosophy rather than a religion.

by Ma Wenyan

*What is called today Wuchang Uprising Street Mosque in Wuhan was built under the early Qing Dynasty at the time of Ma Minglong. From Weibo.*

The CCP continues to promote the “Sinicization” of Islam among Hui Muslims by looking for historical precedents of “Confucianized” readings of the Holy Quran. In a previous article, we mentioned the use of the 17^th-century Jinling School in an effort to create an Islam that, having been “de-Islamized,” would be reduced to a mere propaganda tool of the Communist Party.

After the forum of September 6 in Nanjing, in which he hailed the Jinling School, Yang Faming, the president of China Islamic Association, attended another seminar in Wuhan on September 21, devoted to “The Integration of China’s Excellent Traditional Culture and Islamic Scriptures.” In this second event, Yang proposed a parallel model, the thought of Islamic scholar Ma Minglong (馬明龍), who died in 1679 and was also known as Ma Quan. Yang also introduced a keynote speech by Professor Li Anhui, of Wuhan’s South Central University for Nationalities, on “Ma Quan’s Practical Exploration and Theoretical Contribution to the Sinicization of Islam.”

Li observed that Ma had Confucian scholars among his ancestors and was schooled in both the Chinese classics and the Islamic Scriptures. He went to the then famous Tongxin School of Islamic learning before returning to Wuhan, where he established his own school. In essence, Li said, Ma’s teaching was about “the interpretation of the Quran through Confucianism,” making him “a pioneer of the Sinicization of Islam.” According to Li, Ma believed that what is essential in the Quran are its moral teachings, and they are “consistent with Confucianism.”

*An image of the September 21 seminar in Wuhan. From Weibo.*

At the center of this interpretation of Ma, which is not undisputed, is a story told in a book discovered in 1987, the “Genealogy of Classical Learning,” a history of Chinese Muslim eminent teachers written at the end of the 17^th century by one Zhao Can. The book and the story have been discussed and studied by Israeli-American scholar Zvi Ben-Dor Benite (who also teaches in China and is read by CCP scholars there) in his “The Dao of Muhammad” (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2005).

Zhao reports that during the state inspection of Islamic schools carried out by Ming officers, they asked Ma, “What is the purpose of your teaching?” He answered that he taught “how to cultivate the Dao.” The officers, whose job was to make sure that religious teachings were not politically subversive, told him that the answer was not good enough. They wanted to know what “cultivating the Dao” meant in practice. Ma explained that it meant restoring the natural order, overcoming selfishness, and achieving stability.

*Weizhou Grand Mosque in Tongxin County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, was a typical late Ming mosque before it was destroyed by the Cultural Revolution. Credits.*

The officials, according to Zhao, were very happy about the answer. They told Ma that this was not similar to the problematic teachings of Buddhists and Taoists and appeared very much like Confucianism. Ma answered that this was not surprising, since “Our ethics and the ethics of Confucianism are the same. Those who follow our precepts and laws regard loyalty to rulers and obedience to parents as their duty. How can this be compared with the novel and disrespectful teachings of Buddhists and Daoists?”

One should consider that one of Zhao’s purposes seems to have been to persuade the suspicious Ming rulers that they had nothing to fear from Hui Islam. If we take his account of Ma at face value, however, we can agree with Zvi Ben-Dor Benite that “Put simply, Ma Minglong presents Islam as a moral philosophy, not as a religion. He does not mention Allah or Muhammad when asked to explain the basic principles of his teaching”—something also emphasized in Li’s speech at the recent Wuhan seminar.

Li and the CCP are probably not interested in ascertaining whether this interpretation of Ma is historically correct. It offers to them exactly what they are looking for: a way to reduce Islam to a simple moral philosophy very similar or “the same” with Confucianism. The next step is, of course, to claim that Confucianism in turn is not a religion but an atheistic philosophy compatible with Marxism, although less “scientific.” But this enterprise has been going on for several decades.