It's the kind of cute kid video guaranteed to go viral in China – a little girl in kindergarten reciting verse while her classmates look on admiringly. But not if the child is a Muslim in a headscarf in the northwest reciting the Koran.
The video, which dates from 2014 and goes out under the banner “Lovely girl from Gansu reciting the Koran”, has taken off in China and prompted the education ministry in Gansu province, home to 1.6 million Muslims, to reiterate a ban on religious activities in schools.
“Recently, a video named ‘Lovely girl from Gansu reciting the Koran’ has gone viral online. Gansu province’s department of education strongly condemns this activity that is harmful to youth’s physical and mental health. We require all education departments to resolutely prohibit all kinds of religious activities in schools,” the department said in a statement posted on its Weibo microblog and its homepage.
The Weibo posting even used the “angry” emoticon symbol.
The fiercely secular Communist Party keeps a firm grip on religion in China, requiring the faithful to worship at state-organised mosques and churches.
Some 60 per cent of Linxia’s 250,000 residents are Muslims, divided between mainstream Muslims and the Salafis, who belong to an ultra-conservative branch of Sunni Islam.
The statement from the government has been broadly welcomed online.
One blogger with the name “Incomplete Heart, Incomplete Dream” posted: “I don’t really know Islam, but I know that many Muslims don’t’ follow basic laws. I don’t really understand the world, but most terrorists are Muslim and many Muslims support terrorists.”
Another commentator called Little Rabbit Loves Earth said: “The announcement is quite good, but I hope to see if officials can walk the walk”, while @k80ing: “I respect religious freedom, but there should be a ban on religious activities in schools, even in the university.”
Another wrote: “They say we are all infidels. Boycott halal food, do not rent to Muslims, do not let Muslims through your door.”
Beijing has been particularly strident in its clampdown in the northwest. Gansu is home to many Hui Muslims, while the nearby province of Xinjiang is home to more than 10 million predominantly Muslim Uighurs, whom the Chinese government says have orchestrated a campaign of separatist violence in recent years that has killed hundreds of people.
In recent years, the government intensified its crackdown on “illegal religious activities” among Muslims, offering rewards to those who expose illegal practices such as the growing of large beards, and has forbidden government officials from fasting during Ramadan.