However, despite its compatibility with Chinese civilization, Islam in China did not, as it did in so many other places in Asia and Africa, become the major belief system of the land. It has always remained small-scale, and Muslims, with their different lifestyles from Chinese, have been seen as a "marginal group." Why is this?
然而，和中國主流文化相容的回教，在中國的傳播卻不像其他接觸伊斯蘭文明、改奉回教的亞洲及非洲許多國家，很快地成為該地主要信仰，反而一直是所謂的邊緣宗教；生活習慣與漢人有異的回教徒，也被歸類為「少數民族」，這又是為什麼呢？