He was detained by dozens of plainclothes officers while he was in a restaurant and for two days the local Islamic community has been protesting in front of the town hall. The province where the Hui are the majority has long been one of the most affected by the “Sinicization” policies imposed by the authorities.
Beijing (/Agencies) – The arrest of an imam in the city of Yuxi has once again increased tensions between the Beijing authorities and the local Muslim community in Yunnan province, in the southwest of the country. On December 15 at noon, a restaurant in Hongta District was surrounded by a large number of plainclothes police. Ma Yuwei, an imam who was having lunch, was forcibly arrested by about 60 officers. Some eyewitnesses told China’s Chinese language channel Radio Free Asia that restaurant employees and customers asked police to show a legal warrant, but police reportedly responded by saying, “Please cooperate with the investigation.”
Some videos shared on social media show several officers taking away Imam Ma Yuwei. Other images show many Muslims praying in front of the town hall and asking for his release. It was reported that the demonstration continued today and that the police sent a large number of military and security forces from Kunming and southern Yuxi, blocking the entire protest area.
Ma Yuwei is the imam of the Daying Mosque in Yuxi and is highly respected by the community. In recent years, as government control over religious activities has been tightened, he was repeatedly monitored and threatened. It is even said that he stayed inside the mosque with his family for six months precisely to avoid the security forces. The arrest would be related to the classification of the Daying mosque as a “place of illegal religious activity.”
Last year Yunnan – where the Muslim Hui ethnic group is the majority – was the scene of violent clashes between worshipers and police over the Najiaying mosque, in Tonghai county, in whose restructuring the authorities had imposed the demolition of the Arabic-style dome to be rebuilt in a “Sinicized” style, in accordance with the nationalist dictate imposed on religions by President Xi Jinping. The transformation is not only architectural: around the mosques of Yunnan there have also been pressures and impositions from the authorities aimed at a change in the organization and management of the places of worship. “Now – denounced a local source to Radio Free Asia – there are no longer democratic elections, but appointments made directly by the Government Office for Religious Affairs and by the United Front Work Department” which, under the leadership of the party, has the task of “correcting” the course of organizations and external groups to follow the official line.
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