China destroys domes of famous mosques as cultural whitewash continues

AbdiGeedi

To keep your balance, you must keep moving.
China’s campaign to suppress Islam is accelerating as authorities remove Arab-style onion domes and decorative elements from mosques across the country

Sophia Yan, The Telegraph

October 31, 2020

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Stark changes have been observed at the main mosque in Yinchuan, capital of Ningxia province


China’s campaign to suppress Islam is accelerating as authorities remove Arab-style onion domes and decorative elements from mosques across the country.

Stark changes have been observed at the main mosque in Yinchuan, capital of Ningxia province, where most of China’s Hui ethnic Muslim minority live.

The bright green onion-shaped domes and golden minarets that used to soar into the sky atop Nanguan Mosque have all been pulled down. Golden Islamic-style filigree, decorative arches, and Arabic script that before adorned the mosque have also been stripped away.

What remains is unrecognisable – a drab, gray, rectangular facility with “Nanguan Mosque” written in Chinese, as shown in photos posted online by Christina Scott, the UK’s deputy head of mission in China, on a recent trip.

“TripAdvisor suggested the Nanguan Mosque in Yinchuan well worth a visit,” Ms Scott wrote on Twitter, along with ‘before and after’ photos. “Only this is what it looks now, after ‘renovations.’ Domes, minarets, all gone. No visitors allowed either, of course. So depressing.”


Nanguan Mosque before.jpg

The Nanguan Mosque in Yinchuan City pictured in 2015 - Xinhua / Alamy Stock Photo


Nanguan Mosque after.jpg

The Nanguan mosque today, stripped of any art that indicates its purpose


The UK foreign office said: “We are deeply concerned about restrictions on Islam and other religions in China. We call on China to respect Freedom of Religion or Belief, in line with its Constitution and its international obligations.”

Islamic-style onion domes and decorative elements are also being axed from mosques in neighbouring Gansu province, home to Linxia, a city nicknamed “Little Mecca” for its history as a centre for Islamic faith and culture in China.

Erasing Islamic decorative elements from mosques is yet another step Chinese authorities are taking under Communist Party leader Xi Jinping, who has vowed to ‘Sinicise’ religion.

More recently, the coronavirus has given Chinese authorities convenient cover to keep many mosques closed – even as Beijing crows victory over the pandemic and a flurry of activity has picked up again.

China has for years waged a campaign against Islamic influence, removing decorative elements and Arabic script from buildings, signs and arches, and now, targeting mosques in Ningxia and other provinces.

In Xinjiang, things have taken an especially sinister turn with “re-education” camps that subject detainees to horrific physical torture, political indoctrination and forced labour. Growing a beard, fasting and reading the Koran have all been deemed suspicious behaviour by the government and reason enough to be interned in camps.

Former detainees have told the Telegraph of being electrocuted by cattle prods, made to pledge loyalty to the ruling Party, and of being forced to work in factories manufacturing gloves for little pay.



Schools that previously taught Arabic language and trained imams have also been forced to shutter, the Telegraph has reported. Instead, the government has set up special schools to train imams to have the “correct political stance,” according to Chinese state media.

Chinese authorities are “really worried about external religious influence and authority,” said Dru Gladney, an expert in China’s ethnic minority groups and a professor of anthropology at Pomona College.

Being religious “is a threat to the political authority to the state; you’re giving allegiance to a non-Chinese authority,” said Mr Gladney.

“Whether it’s the Dalai Lama or the Pope, or it’s the head of Falun Gong [a spiritual group], the state won’t tolerate it.”

Pictures of exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama are banned, though photos of Mr Xi are allowed, and encouraged, as observed by foreign journalists on a recent government-arranged trip to Tibet.

“Xi is centralising authority and centralising power,” said David Stroup, a lecturer at the University of Manchester who has studied ethnic minority groups in China.

There’s an interest “to build a nation-state identity,” he said.

Indeed Mr Xi has talked of the “Chinese dream” – an effort to foster a shared identity, a move the Communist Party is betting will secure greater political stability in the long-run.

Experts, however, argue that the suppression campaign in the long-term will backfire.

“They’re creating more resentment among Muslim communities, and theyr’e going to push more of them into more radical solutions,” said Mr Gladney.


Nanguan Mosque prayer.jpg

This picture taken on March 2, 2018 shows ethnic Hui Muslim men praying at Nanguan Mosque during Friday prayers in Linxia, China's Gansu province - AFP


Officially, the ruling Party recognises five major religions – Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicisim and Protestantism. But in practice, the government tightly controls and regulates the practise of these faiths.

China, for instance, has long insisted that it approve bishop appointments, clashing with absolute papal authority to select them. Even mentions of “God” and “Bible” have been censored from children’s classics, like Robinson Crusoe, translated for school curriculums instead as “good heaven” and “several books.”

The suppression is not “just targeted exclusively at Islam, but seems to be prosecuted most vigorously when it comes to Islam,” said Rian Thum, senior research fellow at the University of Nottingham.

That is because of broader Islamophobia in China given a misperception that terrorism is linked to Islam, he said.

Another reason is “the turn toward ethnonationalism as a legitimising narrative for why the Communist Party should be the organisation that runs China".
And that is why religions deemed to be foreign are being targeted, he said.

“This is an ethnonationalist purge of cultural material seen as foreign by virtue of not lining up with the Han ethnic majority.”

 
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Chinese are rediscovering Chinese Islamic Architecture

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Islam didn't come to homogenize everybody and eliminate the various cultures.

Chinese Islamic architecture


The Chinese Islamic architecture or the Islamic architecture in China is a term used to indicates to the architectural heritage of the Muslims in China both of mainland or outer land of China since the earliest times to the present.

 
China isn't perfect but what will happen Muslim countries completely rule out dealing with China? In practice, they will end up as being slaves of the West. The West is way worse.

China is concerned about separatism in Xinjiang. They're not showing blasphemous content on government buildings and antagonizing Muslims just to antagonize Muslims, nor do they have the record of bombing and invading Muslim countries.

Furthermore, if we are completely fair and just with China, we also have to consider their role in helping and supporting Pakistan and Turkey.

They've done things I don't agree with but they've also helped Muslims and helped free Muslims from the Western imperialist power structure. They're not perfect but I prefer them over the West.
 

AbdiGeedi

To keep your balance, you must keep moving.
@Omar del Sur

Chinese government is physically destroying the Islamic heritage in China on a systematic basis.

Blasphemous content in some European media is not as damaging and can be overcome. China is literally eradicating Islamic heritage.
 

AbdiGeedi

To keep your balance, you must keep moving.
China is concerned about separatism in Xinjiang. They're not showing blasphemous content on government buildings and antagonizing Muslims just to antagonize Muslims, nor do they have the record of bombing and invading Muslim countries.

The destruction of the main mosque in Yinchuan, capital of Ningxia province has nothing to do with Xinjiang or separatism. It is an example of chauvinistic and supremacist policies against Muslims in China.
 
@Omar del Sur

Chinese government is physically destroying the Islamic heritage in China on a systematic basis.

Blasphemous content in some European media is not as damaging and can be overcome. China is literally eradicating Islamic heritage.

oh no, they're becoming less Arab culturally and rediscovering Chinese Islamic architecture...... so do you want to be Arab? it's not crime if people want to have their own culture. it definitely doesn't compare to bombing and invading Muslim countries.
 
The destruction of the main mosque in Yinchuan, capital of Ningxia province has nothing to do with Xinjiang or separatism. It is an example of chauvinistic and supremacist policies against Muslims in China.

again.... rediscovering Chinese Islamic Architecture. it's not the end of the world. yes, they're not PC white people without a sense of cultural identity. I don't care. Having one's own cultural identity isn't a crime, even though I know that's how white people think.
 

AbdiGeedi

To keep your balance, you must keep moving.
oh no, they're becoming less Arab culturally and rediscovering Chinese Islamic architecture...... so do you want to be Arab? it's not crime if people want to have their own culture. it definitely doesn't compare to bombing and invading Muslim countries.
Being Muslim has nothing to do with being an Arab. I see you support the destruction of historical religious sites to fit the Chinese agenda.
 
It has nothing to do with getting checks in the mail from Xi Jinping.

I'm not an idiot. What, realistically speaking, would happen if China disappeared?

The Muslim world and the Third World would be under extreme Western subjugation. Muslims would be enslaved by the West. Western imperialism would be ten times worse than it already is. There would be a lack of a counter to it.
 
My message to Muslims is not to think emotionally and to think strategically. There is a war being waged against you and the outlook is not good for you if you have no concept or understanding of strategic thought.
 
Chinese Islamic architecture looks good. This might be an interesting opportunity to re establish local architecture vernaculars.
 

AbdiGeedi

To keep your balance, you must keep moving.
Compare mosques in America to what China is doing to theirs.

Here are two mosque in the US.

Shia Mosque in Dearborn, MI:
Shia mosque in Dearborn MI.jpg



Ottoman Sunni Mosque in Lanham, MD:
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AbdiGeedi

To keep your balance, you must keep moving.
Chinese Islamic architecture looks good. This might be an interesting opportunity to re establish local architecture vernaculars.
Not at the expense of the existing historical mosques.

Are you another Chinese plant in here?
 
You are not part of Ummah, but a Chinese supremacist.

I'm not even hostile towards you, I just feel bad if you really have been taken in by the Western narrative. Of course, the vast majority of mainstream English-language content is going to be pro-Western so I don't really blame you.

For people who are into researching and studying, I recommend this book:

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and I'd like to mention.... Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was pious but he understood strategy as well

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