Islam With Chinese Characteristics

About 25 percent of the world’s population is Muslim, and China is reaching out to Muslim nations with soft power, low-cost construction and infrastructure expertise, reports Massoud Hayoun for the Atlantic. “China Railway Construction Corporation put the finishing touches on the Mecca Light Rail, a metro linking Mecca and Medina, Islam's holiest cities in Saudi Arabia,” he writes, adding that the China State Construction Engineering Corporation secured a contract in Algeria to build the world’s third largest mosque. US interest in infrastructure projects throughout the Muslim world waned after the 9/11 attacks, followed by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. China moved in 2001 starting the Chinese-Arab Friendship Association to promote exchanges between China and 22 Arab states. Hayoun concludes: “China, for which ideology is at once all-important and ever-flexible, could become better skilled at reaching out to certain foreign cultures than the United States.” China and the US also cannot afford to mistreat Muslims within their own borders. – YaleGlobal