“People are God” Third World Internationalism and Chinese Muslims in the Making of the National Recognition in the 1950s

Abstract

This paper investigates the role of Islam, particularly the Chinese Muslim scholars’ participation in the nationbuilding of the People’s Republic of China. It also looks at the political narrative of the CCP on Islam in the context of the Chinese revolution. Anti-imperialism and socialist construction were the two primary political goals allowing people to be politically engaged and consequently create a common ground for recognition. Hence, religion was considered as merely another form of ideology which needed to be incorporated into the political mission leading toward human liberation. The internationalist support of the anti-colonial struggles in the Arab World also played a crucial role in the formation of the national recognition in the 1950s. The reports on the Chinese political support towards the Arab world presented the Arab people as a unity with their revolutionary spirit rooted in Islamic religious tradition and inspired by their recent history of being oppressed by colonialism.