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ters. Mao ordered all temples destroyed and all religious books burned,
and Confucians began to be persecuted. Successive regimes subse-

quently eased the pressure and, especially in recent history,
Confucianism’s heretical principles have begun to play a role in every-
day life once more. At present Confucianism plays an important, albeit
unofficial, role in public life. Indeed, many Sinologists have referred to
current Chinese government doctrine as “neo-Confucianism”.
In Japan it has about 10 million followers where it enjoys wide-
spread support in society.

THE SUPERSTITIOUS SOCIAL ORDER
ENVISAGED BY CONFUCIANISM
Confucius’ life is largely mythological as far as in the written
records are concerned, the reason being that there are no written
records remaining from that period. All of what is today the written
material was based on verbal transmissions. At present the material
available to us consists of his views reworked, altered and rearranged
by his followers. This is what comes to mind when Confucianism is

spoken of, and it is therefore all but impossible to verify the authentic-
ity of the material accredited to him. However it is still possible to get
a picture of his fundamental ideas from the available material.

❖ Confucius and Belief in Allah
Works written on Confucius claim that he had a belief in Allah,
and it is possible to encounter claims that he believed in a “god of the
Heavens”, but the works accredited to him make no reference to a be-

lief in Allah. Confucius advises people to be individuals of virtue, de-
scribes deeds that are damaging to law and order and sets the rules for
inter-personal relations. Besides these, he does not make any revela-

Islam And Far Eastern Religions