If you can't go Dutch, go Chinese! But go carefully...

In "Go Dutch!", posted yesterday, Walt rehashed [What an admission! Ed.] a story from June 2011 on the Dutch government's plan to end its disastrous experiment with official multiculturalism. Specifically, they want to put a stop to the growth of a Muslim "parallel society" in the Netherlands. As of January 2013 Muslims who immigrate to the Netherlands are supposed to fit in or ship out.

The usual gang of "progressive thinkers" and celebrants of diversity denounced the new Dutch legislation when it was introduced and every day since then, but, as far as I know, the Dutch are not going to back down. Stubborn people, they are. But we wait (so far in vain) for other western governments to follow suit instead of following burqa.

Perhaps western governments should look for guidance and inspiration to that model of freedom and enlightenment, Communist China. Religious freedom is enshrined in the constitution of the People's Republic. Yes, the Chinese are perfectly free to believe whatever they like, and practise their religious beliefs as they see fit... subject to government approval of course. And provided you're not, errr, a Muslim.

You might think Muslims would be pretty thin on the ground in China, but in the western province of Xinjiang they are (just barely) a majority. Xinjiang, which constitutes 1/6 of the total area of China, was formerly known as Eastern Turkestan, because it was inhabited mainly by Turkic and Mongolian peoples. The largest "minority group" in the province are its nine million Uighurs, nearly all of them Muslims.

A couple of weeks ago, as the Muslim month of Ramadan approached, an edict was issued by Xinjiang's local and regional governments, prohibiting students, teachers, "officials" (including retirees) and all Communist Party members from taking part in religious activities, including visits to mosques and fasting during daylight hours as Islam requires.

The discouragement of Muslim practices in Xinjiang is presented as a matter of social stability and security. Believe it or not, the Chinese think that some of their Muslim citizens could be "separatists" or, worse yet, terrorists! Why some of them might even favour violent resistance to the Communist government, as has occurred in the neighbouring provinces of Qinghai and occupied Tibet.

Certain awkward questions arise. Can there be limits of freedom of religious expression? How much tolerance of pluralism and diversity is too much? Is forbidding the peaceful, normal religious practices of Muslims or Jews... or Christians... not contrary to the principles of freedom and natural justice for which millions have died?

Let me cut a little closer to the bone. If Muslims are to be prevented from praying in the street, does it make any difference whether the street is in Urumqi or Utrecht? Those of us who hold to the One True Faith do that Faith -- and ourselves -- no good service by insisting on religious freedom for ourselves but not for others.

If you wish to learn more about Xinjiang and the oppression of the Uighurs and other "minorities" by the Han Chinese, Walt recommends Wild West China: the Untold Storyof a Frontier Land, by Christian Tyler (John Murray, London, 2003).