China | The Hui

China’s other Muslims

By choosing assimilation, China’s Hui have become one of the world’s most successful Muslim minorities

|TONGXIN

THE faithful are returning from the haj. Waiting for prayers outside the Great Mosque in Tongxin, a remote town in the western province of Ningxia, Li Yuchuan calls his pilgrimage a liberation: “Our prayers are just homework for it.” His 84-year-old friend (pictured, right) leaps up and twists himself with lithe agility into the shape of a pretzel. “We Muslims pray five times a day,” he says. “We are flexible and tough.” China’s Muslims need to be.

This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “China’s other Muslims”

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