Discourse of Hygiene in Islam: Response of the Muslims in China to SARS Event / Islamski dyskurs na temat higieny: chińscy muzułmanie a kwestia SARS

• Authors: Jianping Wang
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The general mentality of the public in China towards religion is that it is definitely “backward, anti -science, and connected with superstition”. This public opinion continues even though the country has embarked on its ambitious opening and reform program for more than twenty years, and despite freedom of religious practices being guaranteed by the national constitution. Such a paradoxical phenomenon is due to and is obviously rooted in the long -standing communist propaganda and its atheistic ideological education. Lot of Chinese people, particularly young people, regard religion as totally negative and thoroughly opposite to science. The majority of Chinese also think religion has been blocking China’s road toward its modernization and social advancement. However, SARS, or the “Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome”, the grave pestilence, which caused several hundred people to die and infected thousands, plunged China in a calamity during the first part of 2003 and has taught people a bitter lesson. It was not religion causing this virus. Rather religion took a positive role to prevent its spreading and to promote a scientific, healthy way of life. In the event of SARS, Muslim clerics and scholars wrote articles in their discourses to discuss Islamic hygiene, nutrition, and the way to keep in good health from the perspective of the Quran, the Hadith (the Prophet Muhammad’s speeches) and the Sunna (examples of the Prophet Muhammad). For instance, Islam teaches people to not consume impure meats such as pork or dead cattle, and it prohibits consuming blood, dog meat, meats of strange poultries, and other animals that may trigger plague, i.e., eating civet meat causes the virus of SARS. Muslims also say that the Quran advises people to eat food in moderation and not to lead an extravagant life. Islam also teaches people not to be greedy in lifestyle in order to avoid damaging the ecological environment or creating an unbalance between nature and man. Muslim scholars argue that the Quran, though an ancient text, predates modern science in providing ways to prevent the spreading of diseases, like SARS, that afflict many people. Such religious discourses made by Islamic religious people during the SARS crisis has not only contributed to the measures taken by Muslims in their own communities, but also has greatly helped non -Muslim Chinese people understand the correctness of Islamic teachings, the scientific wisdom of Islamic hygiene, and the compatibility of Islam or religion with modern sciences. The discourse has resulted in the mutual understanding between Muslims and non -Muslims in China, and also resulted in newly formed public opinions that religion is not anti -sciences, and religion is complementary in some degree to science, even that sciences are embodied in religion and can be guided by religion. This paper was prepared and read for “Continuity + Change: Perspectives on Science and Religion”, June 3-7, 2006, in Philadelphia, PA, USA, a program of the Metanexus Institute (www.metanexus.net). Based on the final draft the author has revised this paper afterwards.

Keywords

EN

SARS; Islam; Hygiene; Chinese Muslims

• Publisher: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej
• Journal: Annales Universitatis Mariae Curie-Skłodowska, sectio K – Politologia
• Year: 2012
• Volume: 19
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 71-87

Dates

published

2012-12-01

online

2013-02-28

Contributors

author

Jianping Wang

• Department of Philosophy, Shanghai Normal University (People’s Republic of China)

Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/v10226-012-0014-x