Religious and/or ethnic issues on ships

Brumby said:

I have said many times on this forum I don't have any issue in engaging in a roboust manner i.e. either in giving or receiving. The only caveat is that it is done in good faith. I don't resort to personal attacks because when I disagree I will be honest and tell you directly why I disagree. I don't believe in veil personal attacks as often practiced on this forum because that is such a low character attribute.

When you responded which I considered as mischaracterisation of what I said, it was based on my interpretation of your opening statement. Given that you have clarified your intended meaning of that statement it would be that I had mischaracterised what you said. For that, I apologise to you.

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Alright, let's turn over this page.

Adders30 said:

as great grandson of hainanese hui (now i live in thailand) , i'm don't know about mainland government's policy about religion.... is mainland government alllowed its officer , both civilian and military , to practice religion now ? since i saw many picture of mainland government officers with hijab like this....can someone in mainland china explain ?

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No, Government staffs and military personells are not allowed to practice ANY religion. There are recent decree forbidding public servants from feasting during Ramadan. Put it in a simple way, China in regards of state employee was and still is very much like Soviet Union, it is still a Leninist Communist state.

Some current military members may have hidden there religious faith or converted/adopted after joining the military. But once found out, they will have to leave. I know someone who kowtowed in a Buddist temple in his full army uniform some years ago, that shocked his colleagues although they didn't promptly report him, but people talk, eventually he resigned.

Also, a junior (under 18 years old) are not allowed to join religious activity in Church or Mosque, this is not easy to apply to Buddhism not because more tolerate but because Buddhism is not organized religion so practically difficult to do.

A correction, in the picture, the women in headscarf are not officers or not officials because such posts can only be assigned to communist party members who can not be religious as per party constitution and principle, with some exceptions of some state servant not of a leadership role and in certain place such as close contact to local population. An example is that in the army, all commissioned officers are either party members or candidate party members or members of communist youth league. Soldiers can be prompted to NCOs if the are at least communist youth league members, it is the political qualification.

The picture is probably of President Hu Jintao meeting representatives of workers.

Also need to know is that wearing headscarf is quite common and not an issue in China. It is not a symbol of strong religious conviction at least not in the view of Chinese government, but rather an ethnic tradition.