Maintaining Social Stability: The Regulation of Authority in a Chinese Sufi Order

Abstract: Historically and today, Chinese Sufi orders have been perceived as problematic by both state and non-state actors due to their potential to generate social instability. Drawing on Laliberté’s concept of “secularity with Chinese characteristics,” the article explores how the state has demarcated the internal organization of Chinese Sufi orders as outside the religious sphere, thus legitimizing state regulation of religious authority. Importantly however, non-state actors within the Sufi and wider Chinese Muslim community have also directly and indirectly reinforced these state-defined boundaries. The article thus extends Laliberté’s approach, demonstrating that secularity can be co-constituted by both state and non-state actors.