Mass Protests By Muslims As China Seeks To Demolish Newly-Built Mosque

In a rare occurrence of public protest against Chinese authorities, hundreds of Hui Muslims in China’s Ningxia took to the streets as Chinese authorities moved to demolish the newly-built Weizhou Grand Mosque, South China Post has reported.

Hui Muslims, considered by most to be well-integrated into the Chinese society. are amongst the newest targets of atheist China’s push to clamp down on religion. The Hui had recently allayed fears of possible Chinese interference in religious practice and the latest incident seems to confirm the fears.

Chinese authorities had earlier issued a notice to the mosque’s management to demolish the building as it lacked necessary planning and construction permits. The notice also said that authorities will be forced to demolish it themselves if the 10 August deadline is not met.

Hundreds of Muslims poured into the mosque last night to stop the authorities from the demolition.

The mosque had been under construction for two years and was completed the last year. People are hence questioning what took the authorities so long to object to the building.

China has been aggressively clamping down on Islam as well as Christianity in its policy to ‘sinisice’ the country. The clampdown has been the strongest against Islam in Xinjiang and Christianity in Henan but the Hui, till now left largely untouched are also now subject to the policy.