Geographical background

Tibet is located in an isolated area surrounded by mountains in Central Asia. It is bounded by China on the east, Eastern Turkistan on the south, Kashmir on the west, and India on the south.
The area of Tibet is about 1,221,000 square kilometers and its population is 3,000,000. The Muslims of Tibet are 250,000. The Capital is Lhasa. Tibet remained as a mysterious area for a long time as a result of its natural location that is surrounded by mountains that isolated it from the outside world. This is why some European geographers called it "dead heart of Asia". Tibet used to be under Chinese dominance at the times of China mighty, and used to be independent at the times of China weakness. This continued till after the First World War, till the people of Tibet sought independence from China and they had their own Tibetan ruler. In 1924 China re-occupied Tibet and exiled its ruler Dalai Lama in 1951. From this date on, Tibet became part of China.
Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of the Buddhists of Tibet. The West made him a leader and supported him through media so that the West can interfere – through him – in the affairs of China, the stubborn enemy of West.

How did Islam reach Tibet?

Islam entered Tibet through its neighboring countries, especially East Turkistan, which China occupied and named it Sinkiang in order to conceal its Islamic identity. There were early Islamic relations with the Tibet, as the early Muslims made friendship ties with the people of Tibet. Islam reached the western borders of China in the 1st hijrah century when the Muslims opened "Kashgar/Kashi", a city that is close to Tibet.
In the era of the Umayyad Caliph `Umâr Ibn `Abd Al-`Azîz, the people of the Tibet sent a delegation to Al-Jarrâh Ibn `Abdullah – the Ruler of Khorasân – asking him to send with them someone in order to teach them Islam. It is reported that he sent with them Sulayt Ibn `Abdullah Al-Hanafî to teach them Islam.
Moreover, there were good relations between The Abbasid Caliph Al-Mahdî and the King of Tibet. It also reported that, one of the kings of Tibet converted to Islam at the time of the Abbasid Caliph Al-Ma'mûn.
Great efforts were exerted by the Muslims to spread Islam in Tibet and the Center of Asia. This was the first way of the call to Islam in Tibet.
The second was through Kashmir after Islam prevailed in the East of India. The Muslim rulers conquered Tibet more than once. The first time was in 1523 AC, but Islam was not spread only due to such conquer. The Muslim propagators reached Tibet from Kashmir, Khorasan, and Central Asia. Islam continued to spread among the people of Tibet till the second half of 13th Hijri century.
In the Tibetan Ladakh, some Muslim merchants married Tibetan women after accepting Islam and they gave birth to Muslim children who were called "Oregonians". This first Muslim generation also married Tibetan women, and formed Muslim families and worked on spreading Islam. Then, Islam spread from Tibet to the neighboring cities of China.

This shows the zeal of the early Muslims to spread Islam everywhere as well as their sincere will to guide humanity to Islam. It also reflects the noble manners those early Muslims had in all aspects of life, the matter that inclined the non-Muslims of Tibet and other places to convert to Islam. In addition, it reflects Muslims' desire to co-exist with other nations. Allah says: "O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted." [Al-Hujurât: 13]

Communist Occupation

When the Communists controlled the reign of China, they took the Tibet and made it part of China. The Muslims had a great national participation in resisting the Chinese occupation in 1924. However, China used its might power while dealing with the people of Tibet, who were of few number and primitive weapons. This resulted in the death of thousands of Muslims due to the aggression of communist China.

The first thing the Chinese did, during the previous communist rule, was preventing the Muslims from practicing their religious rituals, depriving them from all commercial merits, and closing their institutions such as schools and mosques. Moreover, they prevented Muslims from burying their dead according to the Islamic way, prevented them from traveling, and took whatever properties they owned. This situation continued and the Chinese authorities stipulated that the Muslims of Tibet must give up their properties in order to be allowed to immigrate to any Muslim countries. They imposed a general boycott against Muslims as they prevented people to sell anything to the Muslims. Consequently, this resulted in a famine in which many Muslims died.

In 1959 hundreds of Muslims managed to immigrate to border cities of India such as Darjeeling, then they directed to Kashmir in the period between 1961 and 1964. Later, those Muslims established an association that was responsible for caring the immigrant Muslims of Tibet. This association was formed by the aid of the Muslim world and it built 144 houses and one mosque for those immigrants. Had it not been for those hard circumstances, the number of the Muslims of the Tibet would have increased. It is worthy to mention that in the capital Lahsa there are 4,000 Muslim families living there.

Muslim Awaking

There is a noticeable Islamic awaking in Tibet. 200,000 of the people of Tibet declared their Islam after finding historical documents that reveal that they are of Arab ancestors.

The provinces in which the Muslim minority - "The Hui" - lives had witnessed serious assaults. During these assaults the great mosque of the capital Lahsa was burnt as well as seven schools, five hospitals, and 120 houses of Muslims. Also, about 84 cars were burnt and 908 stores were plundered. The Muslims lost approximately more than 244 million Yuan (about 34.59 SUD).

All this riot and aggressive acts were done by the Buddhist monks and their followers of both public and police. During the strike they called, in the beginning for, the independence of Tibet from the Chinese dominion, but they used the situation to attack the Muslims on religious basis, the matter that went unreported by the state-controlled news media and Western media. On the other hand the Western media focused on reporting the strikes of the Buddhist followers Dalai Lama, a matter that reveals the double dealings of the West and the organizations of human rights.

The Chinese police tried to save the properties of the Muslims there by closing the Muslim provinces and banning people from entering these provinces except those who are coming for Muslim prayer or the original residents of the area (i.e. the Hui). The Hui are excellent in managing the trade there, for they run the butcher shops, sell cell phones, sell food, and run the management of the restaurants.

The position of the Chinese police towards the Muslims there might be interpreted in the light of the strong economic power of Muslims there, which means a great amount of tax that are to be paid to the Chinese administration. The second interpretation is that the China does not desire to gain more enemies. China wants the Muslim world to take a neutral position concerning the clash between China and the West.

Our duty towards the our brothers

It is worthless to blame the West for what happens to the Muslims in the Tibet. For, we do not expect much from the West. However, we – Muslims – do blame ourselves, whether rulers or peoples, because we do not support our Muslim brothers and sisters despite all the hardships they face.
The Muslims of Tibet, Kosovo, Bosnia, Iraq, and Palestine are the victims of our silence.
Many Muslims were surprised upon knowing about the existence of Muslims in Tibet. How can they support their Muslims brothers there, if they do not know that they exist?! We made a poll, in our Arabic site, concerning the number of the Muslims who always seek the news of the Muslims of Tibet during the last crisis. The result of this poll was that those who seek the news continuously are 1.8% while the number of those who read little about their news is 8.5 %, and those who never heard about the Tibet and the Muslims of Tibet are 89.7%.

Undoubtedly, these results express how Muslims did not perform their due role towards their Muslims brothers. It is necessary, then, that we should change our life style entirely and re-arrange our priorities in order achieve the victory of Islam and Muslims and defend Muslim cases.
We ask Allah to glorify Islam and the Muslim.

Dr. Ragheb ElSergany

External link: http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jun/23/world/fg-muslims23

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