After Uyghurs, Atheist China Now Goes After ‘Integrated’ Hui Muslims As Locals Allege Moves To Eradicate Islam

'The winds have shifted', a senior Hui Muslim imam said on the condition of anonymity referring to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s treatment of the Muslims in the Linxia, according to a report by Daily Mail.

'Frankly, I'm very afraid they're going to implement the Xinjiang model here,' he added.

While the Uyghurs are ruled with an iron-fist by the CCP, the Hui are used to a much more gentle treatment. However, that has changed in recent years with the CCP now slowly tightening their grip on religion in Linxia too.

In its latest set of measures, the CCP now allows only 20 officially registered pupil above the age of 16 to attend studies at mosques which previously used to house over 1000 such boys.

The Hui now fear a similar surveillance and control regime like the one faced by Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Linxia in China has 1.3 million Muslims, close to 60 per cent of the population.

China has also instructed the mosques to display national flags and stop sounding the call to prayer, to reduce ‘noise pollution’. Loudspeakers in all 355 mosques in a neighbouring county have also been removed.

'They want to secularise Muslims, to cut off Islam at the roots. These days, children are not allowed to believe in religion: only in Communism and the party,' the imam added.

The report further quotes an imam saying that the environment of control is seemingly like the decade long Cultural Revolution, when most of the China’s mosques were either dismantled or turned into donkey sheds.