When traveling through Yinchuan during Ramadan, you expect to see many restaurants and businesses closed during the day, as all Muslims are supposed to be fasting. Yinchuan is the capital of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in China and home to more than 100,000 Muslims. However, despite these large numbers, walking down a street in Yinchuan during Ramadan does not reveal that something is different. Tourists continue to pay to enter one of the older mosques. The Muslim noodle shops on the alleys beside the mosque stock up on beer in the afternoon, and by 5:30 p.m., the restaurants are beginning to fill with Han men and women eating noodles and drinking beer. It is actually quite difficult to find any men wearing the traditional Hui kufi hat (similar to a skull cap).
If you hang around a mosque starting at about 7:30 p.m., you will see older men and women wearing a kufi hat or a hijab entering the mosque while few middle-aged or young people can be seen entering. Then around 10 p.m., they will leave after finishing the evening prayers together. They scatter in different directions, headed to their homes to eat and celebrate through the night.
Though more than 100,000 Hui people in Yinchuan identify themselves as Muslim, few celebrate Ramadan according to the strict practices of Islam. Because many young people are choosing not to wear a kufi hat or hijab, it is becoming difficult to even identify Hui from Han. Despite the reality that most are not practicing Muslims, their identity as Muslim is their biggest barrier to accepting the truth of the Gospel.
Prayer Requests
- Pray that Muslims in Ningxia will have dreams and visions of Jesus during Ramadan and begin to seek the truth about Jesus.
- Pray that the association between being Hui and being Muslim will not be a barrier to Chinese Muslims believing in Jesus and turning to follow Him.
- Pray that followers of Jesus will have many opportunities during Ramadan to proclaim the Gospel to Chinese Muslims.