Chinese Muslims in Yunnan Province clashed with armed police in an attempt to stop the communist regime’s forced partial demolition of a local mosque.
Several viral videos on social media showed that protesters gathered at the entrance of Najiaying Mosque in Nagu Town of Yuxi City in China’s southwestern Yunnan Province on May 27.
A large number of special police equipped with batons and riot shields formed a human wall surrounding the mosque’s entrance to prohibit people from entering.
In the video footage, some protesters tried to charge the police line, and some pushed down the scaffolding for the destruction work on the outer wall of the 14th-century mosque.
Police used violent means to disperse the crowd, leading to a fierce clash between the two sides. The police line retreated once, and a demolition team also temporarily retreated.
Discussion of the incident on Chinese social media platforms was quickly censored.
In one of the posts, Ma said the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) authorities dispatched a large number of police officers to be deployed throughout the city.
Signal shielding vehicles from various telecommunications companies were put in place to shut down cellphone and internet connections in the area, he said.
“More than 30 people were arrested today, and a few people were snatched back from the police by other protesters,” Ma wrote in a May 27 Twitter post. The post contained a video of a man in handcuffs with bruising on his chest, and a woman could be heard complaining about how he was being treated.
On May 28, a video showed that under the escort of armed police, the engineering team continued to enter the Najiaying area, preparing for the forced demolition.
Local Chinese police issued a notice on May 28, stating that an incident that “seriously disrupted social order occurred in Nagu Town on May 27” and giving protesters until June 6 to turn themselves in.
‘Sinicization’ of Mosques
Yang Na (pseudonym), a Chinese Muslim man with friends in Najiaying, told The Epoch Times on May 29 that the conflict started when Muslims refused a demand from the communist authorities that the mosque be remade in a Chinese style.“They [Chinese authorities] want to demolish some parts of the mosque and rebuild it [in Chinese style]. The two styles won’t match; it will be too ugly,” Yang said.
The Najiaying Mosque has a history of more than 600 years, with the current building completed in 2004. It’s four stories high, has a dome and four ceremonial towers, and can accommodate more than 3,000 people. The authorities plan to remove the dome and minarets of the mosque.
In recent years, CCP authorities have demanded the “sinicization” of religion, requiring newly built mosques to have Chinese palace-style domes in place of Islamic-style mosque domes.
Yang said that there are more than 10,000 residents in Najiaying, most of whom are Hui Muslims.
“Since the morning of May 27, the special police blocked all the roads in Najiaying Township; nobody could enter, exit only,” Yang said.
“At that time, at least 1,000 special policemen entered the town with guns and ammunition. They tried to break their way into the mosque, but local protesters wouldn’t let them.
“Our demand is simply that nothing would be demolished. We have not violated the law. Now we, the Muslims, are determined to die for it, and there is nothing else we can do. If a few more people are arrested, bloodshed will definitely erupt. Now it has escalated to the level of sending in the riot police, using the means to deal with rioters on us.”
Yang added that the authorities have now blocked the news.
“They didn’t say what happened in the police notice but only that it disturbed social order. If anyone posts messages online, they will call and threaten them. I received a call from the police, threatening me not to post anything about the incident.”
Moreover, the government had installed cameras in mosques before the incident and sent secret agents to pretend to be Muslims attending worship to seek information, Yang said.
International Attention
Western and Middle East media have reported the incidents and reposted the videos of the clash.Ma wrote on Twitter on May 30, “Because of the attention of the global media, your retweets and appeals, as of May 30 local time, everything is alright for now,” indicating the mass arrests and bloodshed haven’t occurred.
The spokesperson of the World Uyghur Congress, Dilshat Rishit, told The Epoch Times on May 29 that the international community must recognize the CCP’s aim of taking away people’s right to spiritual belief.
“The CCP has expanded the extreme policies of eradicating spiritual belief and demolishing mosques in Xinjiang against Uyghurs to the rest of China,” Rishit said.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States, called on the Biden administration on May 30 to take action to prevent China from partially demolishing the mosque and continuing to suppress the Muslim minority and the practice of Islam in mainland China.
