Religion

Muslims resist Beijing's campaign to demolish mosques, 'sinicise' Islam

By Salaam Times

Men walk past the closed Niujie Mosque in Beijing on April 3, 2022. China is destroying any Arabic and Islamic style architecture of mosques, such as minarets and domes, as part of the government's 'sinicisation' plan. [Noel Celis/AFP]

Men walk past the closed Niujie Mosque in Beijing on April 3, 2022. China is destroying any Arabic and Islamic style architecture of mosques, such as minarets and domes, as part of the government's 'sinicisation' plan. [Noel Celis/AFP]

BEIJING -- In the small village of Nagu, Yunnan province, in the mountains of southwestern China, local Muslims are protesting the government's plan to demolish parts of their mosque.

The Najiaying Mosque is the pride of the Muslim Hui ethnic minority that lives in the town.

Originally built in 1370, the mosque has been expanded several times. In 2001, workers constructed a new mosque building. The towering white structure includes five floors, a hall that occupies an area of 10,000 square metres, four minarets more than 72 metres tall and a green dome.

Now the mosque is the target of Chinese President Xi Jinping's "sinicisation" campaign.

On the morning of May 27, local Muslims clashed violently with the police outside the Najiaying Mosque in Yunnan province, China. The conflict is believed to be over the government's plan to forcibly demolish the mosque, according to the 'Teacher Li is Not Your Teacher' Twitter account. [@whyyoutouzhele/Twitter]

On the morning of May 27, local Muslims clashed violently with the police outside the Najiaying Mosque in Yunnan province, China. The conflict is believed to be over the government's plan to forcibly demolish the mosque, according to the 'Teacher Li is Not Your Teacher' Twitter account. [@whyyoutouzhele/Twitter]

Police were deployed May 27 following protests over the government's plan to forcibly demolish Najiaying Mosque in Yunnan province, China. [@whyyoutouzhele/Twitter]

Police were deployed May 27 following protests over the government's plan to forcibly demolish Najiaying Mosque in Yunnan province, China. [@whyyoutouzhele/Twitter]

After the police temporarily evacuated and retreated from Najiaying Mosque in Yunnan Province, China, local Muslims entered the mosque and dismantled the scaffolding. [@whyyoutouzhele/Twitter]

After the police temporarily evacuated and retreated from Najiaying Mosque in Yunnan Province, China, local Muslims entered the mosque and dismantled the scaffolding. [@whyyoutouzhele/Twitter]

"The [Chinese Communist Party (CCP)] has systematically closed, demolished or forcibly redesigned mosques in Hui enclaves across the country, condemning Arabic architectural features, such as domes and minarets, as proof of unwanted foreign influence over Islam in China," The New York Times (NYT) reported June 8.

The Najiaying Mosque and the Grand Mosque of Shadian, also in Yunnan, are among the last major ones with such architecture still standing in China.

China has sought to more tightly control religion since Xi came to power a decade ago, and in its crackdown on Muslims, Beijing claims it is working to combat terrorism and extremist thought.

An estimated one million Uighurs, Hui and other Muslim minorities have been detained in the western Xinjiang region since 2017 under a government campaign that the international community has called a genocide.

Reports, investigations and revelations have detailed widespread torture, arbitrary detention and violations of religious and reproductive rights of Muslims.

Accusations include forced labour, compulsory sterilisation, systematic rape and the destruction of Uighur cultural and Islamic sites.

Fighting back

While the impact on communities outside Xinjiang has been milder, many have seen their mosques demolished or "coercively renovated" to match official notions of Chinese aesthetics, said David Stroup, a scholar of the Hui at the University of Manchester in England.

The CCP's "sinicisation" campaign reached Nagu in 2021, the NYT reported.

"Government officials began visiting homes, sometimes on a daily basis, to coax residents to support changes to the mosque," it said. "A town billboard shows a rendering of the government's plan: the dome gone, the minarets decorated with pagoda-like tiers."

Similar efforts have been made in Shadian as well. Officials have gone door-to-door to rally support, and a large red sign in front of the Grand Mosque -- which is modelled after the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, Saudi Arabia -- reads "Adhere to Sinicising Islam".

"Because of the sheer authority these places occupy in the imagination" of local Muslims, "they had to leave these two mosques to the very end," Ruslan Yusupov, a scholar of China and Islam at Harvard University, told the NYT.

But residents are fighting back.

On the morning of May 27, workers with construction cranes, scaffolding and bulldozers entered the area of Najiaying Mosque in Nagu -- accompanied by approximately 400 riot police, according to local witnesses and video posted online.

The deployment of such a robust police force indicates protests were expected.

Thousands of local residents resisted in a violent clash with police, forcing the officers to retreat and return the next day with even more armed security personnel, the religious freedom magazine Bitter Winter reported, citing social media reports.

According to some sources, as many as 5,000 police and military officers were deployed to the town.

Dozens of officers wielding truncheons and riot shields repelled the crowd outside the mosque that was hurling objects at them, videos circulating on social media and the witness said.

"They want to proceed with forced demolitions, so the people here went to stop them," a local woman who asked not to be identified told AFP on May 27.

"The mosque is home for Muslims like us," she said. "If they try to knock it down, we certainly won't let them."

"Buildings are just buildings -- they do no harm to people or society. Why do they have to destroy them?"

The bottom line

A notice issued May 28 by the Tonghai government -- which administers Nagu -- said it had opened an investigation into "a case that severely disrupted social management and order".

The notice ordered those involved to "immediately stop all illegal and criminal acts", vowing to "severely punish" anyone who refuses to turn themselves in.

Those who voluntarily surrender before June 6 will be treated with leniency, the notice added.

Police have made an unspecified number of arrests over the incident and several hundred officers remained in the town as of May 30, two witnesses said.

Residents of areas around the mosque had struggled intermittently with internet outages and other connectivity issues since the clashes, they added.

Contacted by AFP on May 31, an official in Tonghai's publicity department denied the internet outages but declined to comment further.

A week later, when the NYT visited Nagu, construction cranes still sat in the mosque courtyard. Security remained tight, and a drone was flying over the mosque. Plainclothes police officers approached the reporter and had her driven out of the town.

The demolition is likely inevitable, said Mr. Na, a Hui resident in his 30s, who asked to be identified only by his last name for fear of government retaliation.

However, he expressed hope that residents would be allowed to hold on to other freedoms that they were not willing to compromise, including the right to pass their religion to their children.

"If you can't guard your bottom line, then others will see you as someone without a bottom line," he said, "and they'll trample over it again and again."

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6 Comment

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This is a clear oppression of Chinese Muslims by the Chinese Communist government. Disgracing of sacred things is not acceptable for a Muslim in any corner of the world. This has very bad consequences. We hope that the Chinese government will not use the conflict against Chinese Muslims and go along with them slowly. A day will come as this super government system of China will be destroyed. Those who oppress the people will not see a good day.

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After reading this report, I hate China so much that I disliked two important Chinese pages on Facebook. I used to watch the broadcasts of China's international radio broadcasts in the Pashto language, but I wouldn't say I liked the page, and now I don't see any posts. Similarly, there is a page called China Daily. I used to read that page occasionally, but I disliked it. It seems that the Chinese Communist Party government is hostile to Islam and Muslims. There are indeed evil people among Muslims. They commit crimes, but Islam is a holy religion and comes from Allah. When Hazrat Isa (a.s.) was born, and Maryam (a.s.) was carrying him in her lap, the people asked him, "Who is this, you sister of Aaron?" You are a holy woman, so who is this child? She told him to ask this child. People said that the child could not speak. The Holy Quran says that Jesus (PBUH) started talking and said I am Allah's Messenger. I have been sent to guide people to the path of Allah. Allah is One, and I am His Messenger. In the same way, Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) is the Messenger of Allah, and Islam is the path of Allah that Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah (PBUH), has brought to the people to lead people to Allah. However, from this and other media reports, it is clear that China intends to fight against Allah and the Messenger of Allah because the oppression of the servants of Allah is a declaration of rebellion against Allah. Curse on China, curse on the Chinese communist system.

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Islam is the only religion that opposes hatred and violence against the people. What some radical people in the world are doing today in the name of Islam, is not only allowed by the blessed religion of Islam, but also it is not an Islamic practice. From this, it is clear that Islam is a fraternal religion, it does not oppress anyone and does not like oppression, so in such cases it is necessary for non-Islamic countries not to insult Muslims and not to insult their sanctities.

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Muslims are peaceful people. Muslims respect and have respected followers of all religions, hoping that the people of different non-Muslim countries will understand that no harm will come to them from Muslims. If it is assumed that a Muslim harmed a non-Muslim, know that this person is not a representative of Muslims but is either mentally ill or a follower of some other group filled with hatred. Our Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) had very high morals, and Muslims believed that they would follow the path of their Prophet. Those who are bad people cannot be followers of the Prophet. It should be noted that Muslims are saddened by their holy places and persons. I have been following the media for a long time. Once, I saw that a group of Hindus in India destroyed the Babri Mosque, upsetting the Muslims. Also, the Koran was set on fire in Denmark; this time, it looks like its the Chinese' turn. They are playing with Muslims' sentiments. Such actions create hatred among nations and nationalities. The good news is that as a result of committing a crime, he will be handed over to the court whether he is a Muslim or a non-Muslim. It would not be appropriate to force a person to commit a crime or to force another Muslim. What is important is how to prevent extremism.

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Islam is the only religion with which the rights of other religions are protected, and no Muslim is allowed to insult other people's faiths and beliefs. If there is any interaction between the infidels and the Muslims, Islam orders with good intentions. Even though there are rare cases of Muslims that harm non-Muslims' religions, non-Muslims have started insulting Islam with full energy. A good example is the burning of God's book (the Holy Quran) in Sweden a few days ago, which the people of that place burned. This creates hatred among the followers of different religions in the world, and this mutual hatreds reach the level of a country, which may lead to destruction and great misery.

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Muslims are being oppressed all over the world. Muslims have not attacked a non-Islamic country. In every country where the Muslim minority lives, they are oppressed by the non-Islamic governments of that country. Still, the non-Islamic countries call Muslims as terrorists. In Palestine, Muslims have been oppressed for many years, no non-Islamic country raised its voice that Israel is oppressing Palestinians. In China, Muslims have been living under many hardships from the Chinese communist government for years, but no country raised their voice in the United Nations Security Council, that the Chinese government is brutally oppressing the Muslims living in China.

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