Throughout the month of March, we will be posting daily about Chinese Muslims, the prayer focus for our upcoming Secret Church gathering. We invite you to learn about Chinese Muslims and pray with us for God's glory to be made known among them. If you would like to read other posts in this blog series, you can find them here.
BACKGROUND
There are over 22 million Muslims of 10 distinct ethnic groups living within China without access to the Gospel. “Hui" means Muslim in China, so many times when we refer to the “Hui,” we are referring to these 10 Chinese Muslim people groups. However, the Hui are also the largest of these people groups with a population of 13 million. Our focus at Secret Church will specifically be on the Hui, Salar, and Dongxiang people groups. Today, we want to introduce you to the Salar people.
THE BASICS
The Salar people migrated from the Samarkand region of Central Asia many centuries ago. According to oral tradition their forefathers bound a copy of the Koran to the head of a camel and followed it until it stopped at a waterfall and turned to stone in their present home of Qinghai province in Northwest China. Today two-thirds of the 120,000 Salar people still live in this small area of Xunhua County, Qinghai province, far away from the Uzbeks and Uighurs and other people groups with similar languages and cultures.
THEIR BELIEFS
Ninety-nine percent (99%) of the Salar people are Sunni Muslim and follow the five pillars of Islam: Witness, Prayer, Alms, Fasting, and Pilgrimage. They believe that there is no other God but Allah and hold dearly to the teachings set forth in the Koran by the prophet Muhammad. In the early 80's there was in excess of 74 mosques in Xunhua County and that number would be considerably higher today. Life in each Salar community is centered around the local mosque and follows the instructions of the ahong, who is the religious leader and teacher in the mosque and community.
THE SITUATION
Historically the Salar people have been labeled as troublemakers by the Chinese because of their involvement in numerous Muslim uprisings. They are a proud people – proud of this history, proud of their culture and language, and proud to be Muslims. In 1933 a young American family had a home in Xunhua County where they ministered to the Salar people. They opened a small chapel in the main Salar town and preached the Gospel, but with no success among the Muslim peoples – only the Chinese. In the 80-odd years since then, little has changed in the spiritual situation of the Salar people. While Chinese people are coming to Christ by the thousands, the Salar are still clinging to their Muslim heritage and beliefs, which are the only ones that they have ever known. But praise God that in the past few years the first few Salar people have come to faith in Christ Jesus and that more workers are coming to work in the harvest every month.
PLEASE PRAY
- For Chinese Christians to go and live and minister to the Salar while exhibiting an attitude of sacrifice and service. Pray that the prejudice and mistrust that hinders this from happening will be dissolved.
- For the first group of Salar Christians – that they would grow into mature disciples who are bold in their faith and committed to building the church.
- For the preparation of new tools and strategies to reach the Salar with the gospel.
Information for this post was taken from Pray4Hui.com. For more information about and prayer requests for Chinese Muslims, please visit Pray for the Hui and follow @pray4hui on Twitter.
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