Muslims in China's 'Little Mecca' fear eradication of Islam

Green-domed mosques still dominate the skyline of China's "Little Mecca", but they have undergone a profound change -- no longer do boys flit through their stone courtyards en route to classes and prayers.

In what locals told AFP they fear is a deliberate move to eradicate Islam, the atheist ruling Communist Party has banned minors under 16 from religious activity or study in Linxia, a deeply Islamic region in western China that had offered a haven of comparative religious freedom for the ethnic Hui Muslims there.

China governs Xinjiang, another majority Muslim region in its far west, with an iron fist to weed out what it calls "religious extremism" and "separatism" in the wake of deadly unrest, throwing ethnic Uighurs into shadowy re-education camps without due process for minor infractions such as owning a Koran or even growing a beard.

Now, Hui Muslims fear similar surveillance and repression. "The winds have shifted" in the past year, explained a senior imam who requested anonymity, adding: "Frankly, I'm very afraid they're going to implement the Xinjiang model here."
"They want to secularise Muslims, to cut off Islam at the roots," the imam said, shaking with barely restrained emotion. "These days, children are not allowed to believe in religion: only in Communism and the party."