Clashes were reported over the weekend on social media in China. Clashes between the Muslim Hui minority and the police in the province of Yunnan, in the south-west of the country. A movement of anger which would have burst following rumors evoking work of demolition of a mosque.
With our correspondent in Beijing, Stephane Lagarde
The images were quickly deleted by the censors, but they can still be found this Monday on Twitter, censored in China. Kicking, punching, throwing projectiles, demonstrators tried on Saturday to push back a wall of black shields from the People’s Armed Police. The security forces then prevented access to the Najiaying mosque in Yuxi.
Sinicization of Islam
Among the ethnic minorities in this prefecture of Yunnan province, many members of the Muslim Hui community. On another video, some of the protesters manage to approach a perimeter wall and knock down a construction scaffold. Still other images show men in fatigues shouting slogans. Comments also mention the presence of many plainclothes officers.
Dating back to the Ming dynasty, the Najiaying mosque has a dome and four minarets, it is the high parts and in particular the dome which would be targeted by the local authorities who qualified the construction “ of illegal “.
The Sinicization campaign in China in recent years has knocked down crosses from churches and tattered the ornaments of several mosques. According FRGthe court and the Tonghai County Public Security Bureau Procuratorate issued a joint notice on Sunday, saying that a ” affair Saturday, May 27 had seriously disrupted the social order. Around 30 demonstrators were reportedly arrested.