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Some of the mosques were in areas of Urumqi that saw street fighting earlier this week, after angry demonstrations by minority Muslim Uighurs sparked a crackdown by security forces and clashes with the Han Chinese majority that left at least 156 dead.
They included the White Mosque, one of the most popular places to worship in the large Uighur neighborhood of Er Dao Qiao. About 100 men argued with guards, demanding they be allowed in for prayers, a focal point of the week for Muslims.
A Uighur policeman guarding the mosque, who would not give his name, said: "We decided to open the mosque because so many people had gathered. We did not want an incident."
On Liberation Road near the White Mosque, a group of about 40 Uighur men and women began to march, shouting, crying and pumping their fists in the air as they walked.
Madina Ahtam, a woman in a multicolored headscarf, begged foreign reporters to stay with them as they walked.
"Every Uighur people are afraid," she said in English. "Do you understand? We are afraid. ... The problem? Police."
A group of 10 police in bulletproof vests and helmets and armed with batons and stun guns blocked their march within minutes, followed shortly by several dozen more police who surrounded the group and forced them to squat on the sidewalk. Police pushed journalists away from the area.
Kaishar, a 23-year-old car salesman, said his heart hurt when he first saw that the gates to the mosque were closed.
"There was no reason to shut the gate. They said it was for our safety but actually there is no need, nothing will happen here," said Kaishar, with a red prayer mat folded under his arm.
It was not known how many of the mosques across the city of 2.3 million people were opened.
A few blocks from the White mosque at the Yang Hang mosque, hundreds of men streamed in clutching green and red and blue prayer mats. A white notice that had been glued to the front gate canceling the day's service was gone.
An mosque official, who refused to give her name, had said earlier the closure was ordered for public safety reasons after the widespread ethnic violence between Uighurs (pronounced WEE-ger) and Han Chinese. She didn't elaborate.
The Government has imposed curfews and flooded the streets with security forces to avoid a repeat of the running street battles earlier in the week.
The secretary-general of the Urumqi Islamic Association, who would give only his surname Ma, denied there had been any order to shut the mosques and said individual mosques may have decided to do so independently.
But a man from the Urumqi Administration for Religious Affairs, who refused to give his name, said only mosques in areas not affected by the violence were told they could open.
"In the areas where there were serious clashes and violence, some mosques were closed for the safety of the religious people," he said.
Despite tight state control over Islam - imams are paid and vetted by the Government - there are too many mosques in Xinjiang to enforce a mass closure, said Barry Sautman, who specializes in China's ethnic politics at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. There are 23,000 mosques in Xinjiang, the highest mosque-to-Muslim ratio in the world, and that provides room for some anti-Goverment critics to slip through, said Sautman.
"It's impossible to control such an extensive number of religious personnel," Sautman said. In rural areas, he said, many officials in charge of religious affairs are Uighurs and are more sympathetic to Islam.
The violence in Urumqi (pronounced uh-ROOM-chee) began Sunday when Uighurs clashed with police while protesting the deaths of Uighur factory workers in a brawl in another part of the country.
The crowd then scattered throughout Urumqi, attacking Han Chinese, burning cars and smashing windows. Riot police tried to restore order, and officials said 156 people were killed and more than 1,100 were injured.
Other cities in Xinjiang, such as Kuqa, where bombs were set off before the Olympics last year, said mosques opened as normal.
The official Xinhua News Agency quoted the director of the Urumqi Civil Affairs Bureau, Wang Fengyun, as saying that families of innocent civilians killed in Sunday's riot would each receive 200,000 yuan (about $30,000) for each fatality.
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Millions of innocent people belonging to all religions have been killed in history in the name of religions but there is absolutely no evidence to point out that the true teachings of religions and their scriptures have taught them to do that. It was not Christianity that made the Church going Hitler to get his country involved in an unjust war causing the death of several millions of Christians and non-Christians through out the world. Religions do allow just wars in self defence, this is done by all religions, all modern philosophies and all liberation movements through out the world, if that has not been the case many countries such as India, Libya, Algeria, Indonesia, Philippines, Morocco and many others may not have obtained self-rule and independence.
Any God conscious and Satya (truth) based individual should be ready to condemn, criticise and if brave enough to take up arms to protect the innocent regardless of their religious affiliations, whether it is the Tamil minorities of Sri lanka or Uighur minorities of China or Indian minorities of Malaysia/Fiji/Australia/the UK, or Jewish minorities of Iran or the Palestinian victims of Israeli occupation. Political borders are man made creations, at the higher level of God Conscious Thinking, political borders disappear, what is true is the unity of God and the unity of humanity and in the sight of God, no one is the chosen people( it is a wrong Jewish concept), repeat, in the sight of God, those who are righteous, those who are just and those who are charitable and those who desire for other human beings what they desire for themselves are closer to God, not just because you belong to a particular religion
Mr.Abdul Rawoof Ashfaq you are a colored Paki and thats the reason why you are talking shit. Your long time friend and ally China is pointing the fingers at your country Pakistan ,Turky and others and not India.This is the conspiracy of crazy fellow like you the Al-Qaida elements in ISI and militants(All the real enemies of Isalm )your country nurtured for long now trying to destabilize China.This is an eye opener for China. Such idiotic comments should not be entertained by a reputed newpaper like Indian Express and it deserves its rightful place in the garbage.
Taliban can only target and attack soft countries like USA and India where there is democracy and freedom is given to everyone to preach and practise any religion as one desires. I dare Taliban to take on China where they will be simply crushed like a mosquito. Taking on democracies is one thing and taking on strong and powerful dictatorships is another.
Once again it is Indian Hindus (BJP) conspiracy which ignite communal riots in china to spread propoganda against Muslims. End of the day they could not achieve. The bold and brave efforts of both the Govt and the minority bring the situation in control which is direct slap on the destructive mentality of the instigators. Not all Hindus are communal there are some gems in this group. WE ALL WISH PEACE AND HARMONY GLOBALY.
For those Muslim haters, you should not cry when the same Chinese massacre Tibetian Hindus and also Arunachal Pradesh Hindus, which Chinese are claiming to be their state. Good Luck!
What about Tibet then? Those were not Muslims. What about our Arunachal Pradesh, China is claiming that too. Arunachal Pradesh is not consists of Muslims. The problem is that some of us hate Muslims no matter what. Then they tell stupidly, oh, we don't think all the Muslims are bad. China is also claiming on Taiwan. This has nothing to do with Muslim or anybody. China is wrong to relocate many Chinese into Muslim areas. That is the problem. Don't deviate the subject by throwing some anti-Muslim comments. Shame on these people.
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are defenders of Islam and Pakistan has opened its doors to train and support hundreds of thousands of muslim fighters from all over the world to fight for Islam in their home countries. Saudi has provided the money needed for this purpose. Xinjian is just north of Pakistan and is in easy striking distance for PAF and for air dropping troops. Pakistan must help our poor brothers in Xinjian and Saudi must finance this mission before it is too late. Xinajian can then become a part of Greater Pakistan.
An enemy of enemy is my friend. You can not suppress these ones like poor helpless students of Tienanmen, you yellow punks.
Did you just mention powerful and rich country and pakistan in the same sentence ? HAHAHAHAHA .... pakistan since its independence has never been a self-sufficient country. its has been a beggar asking for money from the US. the only sector of growth they have is their army and terrorism. The revenue they generate is because of handouts given to them by the US. Instead of using these funds to grow their economy, invest in jobs and infrastructure, they buy arms, nuclear weapons to destabilize India. What do they get out of it ? Does arms and nuclaer weapons feed the poor man on the streets of lahore or karachi ? While pak might be powerful in terms of its army and defence forces, it is a beggar nation with no economy and no self-development.
I personally think religion should be a personal matter and should be practised within the four walls of the home only. If such a thing were enforced in India for ALL religions and public processions banned, it would go a long way to ensure public peace and deny an opportunity to selfish politicians to exploit the emotions of the people at large.After all, what does an individual gain by wearing his/her religion on their sleeve? If implemented,riots, I am sure would be a thing of the past! More strength to the Chinese on that one!
Such a easy solution!The reward:Economic dominance.Are countries like India completely missing the point? I wonder.Western style democracies work best only when a certain socio-economic threshold has been attained.
Sooner or later this was to happen.This Islamic epidemy of sepratism is spreading fast globaly.The way China is supperessing/controlling is an eye-opner,a lesson,to all other countries effected with this menace.I don't mean all muslims are responsible for such destructive attitude but they have spread almost every where carrying message of Jihad from the fanatics centred in Pak and few Gulf countries.Had this kind of action taken by Indian Govt there would have been world wide propaganda/condemnations/protests and what not but apart from so many killings in few days there is no protest and all muslims are mum,their lips are sewed.Beyond any doubt most mosques are used as conventicles from where grows fanaticism and people are injected with this ignis-fatuus ideology but banning prayers on Fridays is not the solution.My point,that I wanted to say is where are those muslim radical mouths shouting against Hindus and condemn every purposed social reform purportedly anti islam?
Our muslim brothers and sisters in China are being massacred and wiped out. Why are powerful and rich Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran and Pakisatn quiet? What is the ulema doing to save Islam?