This year Ramadan started on Sunday, June 5th. Ramadan is one of the most important tenants of Islam and it unites the religion’s ethnically diverse adherents across the globe. For one month, Muslims across the world observe this religious fast.
China officially recognizes fifty-five ethnic minorities. There are many more that consider themselves linguistically and culturally distinct, but do not have their own official status. Of China’s officially recognized minorities, ten are Muslim. Here are the names of these groups in descending order of size:
– Hui
– Uyghur
– Kazakh
– Dongxiang
– Kyrgyz
– Uzbeks
– Salar
– Tajik
– Bonan
– Tatar
Pray this week and throughout the month for the Muslim population in China. Pray for the light of the gospel to shine on people’s hearts in midst of this month of spiritual reflection and fasting.
How to pray:
– Pray for good relations between the Chinese government and Muslim ethnic minorities during such a sensitive time. Pray particularly for those minority groups that have contentious relationships with the government.
– Pray for spiritual awakening among these groups and for Jesus to make himself as known among Muslim Chinese as he has among the ethnic majority, Han Chinese.
– Pray for the Han church to be increasingly burdened for China’s ethnic minorities and pray that the church will lead the way in crossing the barriers that so often exist between ethnic groups.
– Pray for other Chinese minorities who are already engaged with the gospel to help share the good news with Muslim minorities.
Articles:
– Ramadan 2016: China bans civil servants and students from fasting in mainly Muslim region
– A Tale of Two Chinese Muslim Minorities
– Harmony and Martyrdom among China’s Hui Muslims
– If China Is Anti-Islam, Why Are These Chinese Muslims Enjoying a Faith Revival?
– Light Government Touch Lets China’s Hui Practice Islam in the Open
– China Wants to Feed the World’s 1.6 Billion Muslims
