Thousands of Hui Muslims Protest Mosque Demolition in China

CNN Indonesia

Tuesday, 30 May 2023 20:47 WIB

Jakarta, CNNIndonesia —

Thousands of Hui Muslim ethnic minorities surrounded a mosque in Chinabecause the dome and the mosque will be destroyed by the Chinese government.

In videos that have gone viral on social media, residents can be seen clashing with riot police forces who blocked the entrance to the mosque and pushed the crowd with shields and batons.

Residents shouted back, throwing water bottles and bricks at the police.

“This is our last dignity. It’s like coming to our house to destroy our house. We can’t let that happen,” a local witness told CNN.

An unnamed source said that thousands of Hui residents had gathered around the mosque since last Saturday (27/5).

“After arriving at the mosque, we realized that they (Chinese authorities) had brought cranes into the compound and were ready for forced demolition,” the source said.

This is not the first time Hui Muslims trying to protect the mosque have come into conflict with the authorities.

In 2018, thousands of Hui residents in Ningxia staged a three-day sit-in to prevent authorities from demolishing a newly built mosque.

The local government delayed demolition, but later replaced the dome and minarets of the mosque with traditional Chinese-style pagodas.

The revamp of the mosque’s architecture is in line with allegations of increasing pressure on religious freedom for the Hui ethnic group. This ethnic minority of 11 million people lives in several cities on China’s east coast, including Ningxia.

Believed to be the distant descendants of Arab and Persian traders, the Hui have assimilated into Chinese society. Most of them speak Mandarin.

But Hui activists say their ethnic group is often the latest target in the Communist Party’s crackdown on Islam, which began in the western region of Xinjiang.

They claim authorities continue to restrict the religious practice of Hui Muslims across China including by closing Islamic schools, Arabic language classes, and banning children from learning and practicing Islam.

(dna/bac)