Yiwu Islam

Yiwu Islam could trace back to 1990s. At that time, the Hui nationality, the Uyghur nationality and some other minorities came to Yiwu to ship goods or to run eateries. Since 1998, Muslims from Pakistan, India, Afghanistan have been coming to order goods. And after 2000, Muslims of foreign nationalities increased a lot, and gradually they became merchants. They set up a lot of agencies and companies in Yiwu city.

Yiwu Islams are mainly engaged in expoting trade, islamic catering, textile manufacturing and preschool education. It is estimated that the maximum number of the islam population is 21310, and the minimum number is 10310. If classfied by outmigration, the islams are mainly from home and foreign countries. In our country, they mainly come from the northwestern area. As to abroad, they are from Arab countries, Africa, southest and central Asia.

Yiwu Islams now have many activities. In 2001, Yiwu government authorized islams from foreign countries to hold activities in Ramada Plaza Yiwu. By 2004, the number of those people have exceeded 2000,and they usually make traffic jam in Yiwu city. In consideration of this, the government began to build mosques for them. Now there about 13 places for those islams to hold activities.

Yiwu Islam is developing at a quite quick speed. One of the most important reasons is the development of Yiwu Commodity City. The extensive and active market attract lots of Muslims. Yiwu is a smelter which accommodates so many nationalities. The islam is growing in this city, they benefit from this huge market and at the same time they make contributions to this market and the economy and culture of this smelter.