Protest by Chinese Hui Muslims at Weizhou Grand Mosque goes on as sides seek compromise
Government’s ‘rectification plan’ to make holy building more Chinese fails to impress devotees
Thousands of ethnic Hui Muslims extended their protest at a new mosque in northwest China into Friday night, after the local government halted its plan to demolish the building but insisted on remodelling it to make it less Arabic in style.
The gathering at the Weizhou Grand Mosque, which started on Thursday, is by far the most daring resistance in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region against a sweeping government push to “Sinicise Islam”.
At Friday prayer – the most important service of the week – the two floors of the prayer hall were filled with thousands of worshippers. Many had come from outside Weizhou – and some from outside Ningxia – to show their support for the local community, according to two people who attended the service.
Led by the imam, the congregation prayed for Allah to “solidify our faith and protect the mosque”, one said.
With its onion-shaped domes, crescent moons and towering minarets, the all-white mosque is the latest structure to come into the cross hairs of a campaign to rid Ningxia of what the government sees as creeping Islamisation and Arabisation.