A review of anti-Muslim movement in China’s Internet

当“反回”的声音在中国的社交媒体上异军突起时，来自澳大利亚的中国问题专家（Follow her on Twitter @WLYeung）撰写了一篇深度剖析文章，梳理了事件前前后后的诸多疑点，以及舆论水面下的深层次原因，解答了一段旧视频何以会引发“新公愤”……

虽然我不尽然认同那位澳大利亚朋友文中的观点，这里也确实不是伦敦，不可能冒出萨迪克·汗（Sadiq Khan）从人权律师到伦敦市长的族群传奇……

但无论如何，无论在哪里，都应对不同族群保持最低限度的自由和正常利益博弈的空间，这不仅应是资本主义世界的共识，我想马克思先生也会赞同……

摘译：

Recently a video of a 5-year-old Hui Muslim kindergarten pupil from Gansu province reciting verses from the Qur’an went viral on China’s social media, attracting almost unanimous condemnation from presumably Han Chinese netizens. At a discussion forum, for example, several comments labelled the preaching of religion to children as “evil cult” behavior. They called for netizens to “say no to evil cults and to stop evil cults from invading schools.” Others questioned why schools allowed children to “wear black head scarves and black robes as if they’re adults.” They also expressed support for legislation that “set an age limit to religious freedom.” One comment went as far as asking all Hui Muslims to move to the Middle East. “ In my opinion, their religion has no part in Chinese civilization. It belongs somewhere else. I hope they will all leave.”

近来，一段甘肃回族穆斯林儿童背诵《古兰经》的视频像病毒一样快速传遍了中国的社交网络，引发了部分汉族网民的众口一词、无异议的“谴责”。在天涯论坛上，一些人甚至给穆斯林儿童的信仰教育贴上了“邪教”的标签，他们呼吁人们“对邪教说不并阻止邪教入侵学校”，另外一些人则批评学校容许穆斯林儿童穿着黑颜色的布袍，他们还声称“应该给宗教自由设定年龄限制”。其中一个评论走得更远，它要求所有回族人滚回中东，“依我看来，伊斯兰教不是中国文化的一部分，它属于别处，我希望他们都走！”

It was subsequently discovered that the aforementioned video was initially posted on YouTube in 2014. It makes one wonder why the video has suddenly emerged and become popular, and whether the “public anger” it has generated is indeed genuine and spontaneous.

随后，这个视频被发现早在2014年就已被发布在国外的YouTube网站上。这让人产生疑问，这个两年前的旧视频为什么会在这个节点突然浮现在中国的社交网络上，并且流行起来？而由这个视频所激起的所谓的“公愤”的真实性和自发性也受到了质疑。

Provincial education authorities subsequently ordered a strict adherence to a ban on religion in schools. On Twitter, when Ismael, a Hui Muslim poet and blogger from Shandong, a coastal province, defended Hui Muslims’ right to freedom of religion, his Twitter account was invaded by a torrent of abusive responses to his recent tweets (here, here and here for just a few examples). As someone who re-posted Ismael’s tweets, I bore witness to this unfortunate episode of cyberbullying on Twitter; I later learnt that Ismael had sustained even more serious abuses at other Chinese online fora.

在这一网络“公愤”下，地方教育部门随即重申了学校中的宗教禁令。当回族诗人和博客作家安然（回族经名：Ismael）在网络上发声，为回族穆斯林的宗教自由权利辩护时，他的网络账号受到了持续不断的洪流般的攻击。我在推特上见证了这段令人遗憾的网络霸凌事件，后来我也了解到安然正在其他中国在线论坛经受着更为严重的辱骂。

Ismael worries about the implications of what he describes as coordinated campaigns to ramp up racial tension against Hui Muslims. His suspicion is not groundless.

安然担心这场有组织的反回运动将加剧种族关系的紧张，带来负面的影响。他的忧虑不是没有理由的。

Recent events targeting Hui Muslims, however, suggest advocates of this agenda have gone a step further to forge public opinion against ethnic-based rights to religion, challenging directly the traditional policy of regional ethnic autonomy.

最近针对回族人的事件，无论无何都暗示着民族同化政策的拥护者在进一步地采取行动，试图操控伪民意来向少数民族的信仰权利施压，挑战中共传统的民族区域自治制度。

but its possible expansion to the Hui Muslims is noteworthy. For a very long time, this fourth largest national minority group has been the poster child of China’s ethnic policy. It epitomises the benefits of ethnic autonomy as an arrangement that promotes social stability. It highlights the success of a policy that allows ethnic minorities the freedom to maintain their language, customs, and religion. Most importantly, it helps negate the negative publicity that the Chinese government is receiving due to its draconian policies in Tibet and Xinjiang.

对回族穆斯林的有可能的政策变化值得注意，在很长一段时间里，中国的这一第四大少数族群一直是中国民族政策的“海报儿童”（译注：一种比喻，意为“美好的典范”），它象征着民族区域自治政策有利于提升社会的稳定，凸显了允许少数民族自由地维持其语言、文化和宗教传统所带来的政策上的成功。这非常重要，因为它有助于中国否定反对者在西藏、新疆问题上的负面宣传。

Indeed, a recent report in New York Times provided us a closer look at the religious life of Hui Muslims in Ningxia. China’s Hui Muslims have assimilated rather thoroughly with the Han Chinese majority over the course of 1,000 years with Hui Muslim streets or districts in many cities across China, and co-exist remarkably well with the Communist Party. They have been allowed space to openly practice their religion with minimal government hostility and intervention, in stark contrast to restrictions imposed on Uighurs in Xinjiang.

的确，《纽约时报》新近的一篇报道就提供给我们一个近距离观察宁夏回族穆斯林的视角。在超过一千年的相处过程中，中国的回族穆斯林和中国的汉族社会融合地相当彻底，回族穆斯林聚居的街道、社区遍布整个中国，引人注目的与中国共产党和谐相处。他们被允许保留实践其宗教信仰的空间，极少引发政府的敌意与干预，这与新疆形成了强烈的对比。

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