CAIR condemns China’s crackdown on mosques in Muslim-populated regions

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in the US, released a statement yesterday condemning the closure of mosques by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in China’s Ningxia and Gansu provinces.

The CCP is significantly reducing the number of mosques in Ningxia and Gansu provinces under its “mosque consolidation” policy, in violation of the right to freedom of religion, according to a Human Rights Watch report.

Since 2017, Chinese authorities in Xinjiang have damaged or destroyed two-thirds of mosques in the region, according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI). About half have reportedly been demolished outright.

In a statement, CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper said the CCP is effectively waging a war against Islam in China, adding that “The shutting of these mosques is but one element in a larger strategy that includes the mass interment of hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims.” Hooper urged world leaders to condemn this assault on religious freedom and human rights.

The Chinese Communist party (CCP) has long maintained a tight grip over China’s religious and ethnic minorities, and since 2016 when Xi Jinping, China’s leader, called for the Sinicization of China’s religions, the pace and intensity of mosque alterations has increased, particularly in western region of Xinjiang, home to more than 11 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities.

News reports also suggest the Chinese government has closed or altered mosques in other places around the country, occasionally facing public backlash. In May, protesters in Nagu town in southern Yunnan province clashed with police over the planned demolition of a mosque’s dome.