The American New York Times published a new report indicating that the Chinese authorities are working to suppress Muslims in the city of Sanya on the island of Henan, southern China.
The Chinese government is seeking to put restrictions on religious beliefs, and in Sanya, the authorities tried to hide the symbols and rituals of the Islamic religion, as they deliberately covered the signs on shops and homes on which “God is Great” was written in Arabic with foot-wide stickers promoting the “China Dream,” a nationalistic official slogan.
The Chinese characters for halal, meaning permissible under Islam, have been removed from restaurant signs and menus. The authorities have closed two Islamic schools and have twice tried to bar female students from wearing head scarves.
The report said that the Utsuls, a community of no more than 10,000 Muslims in Sanya, are among the latest to emerge as targets of the Chinese Communist Party’s campaign against foreign influence and religions.
The new restrictions in Sanya represent the new policies of the Chinese authorities that seek to put obstacles in the way of Muslim activities there.
