Mosque demolished for not supporting Olympics
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Tuesday, June 24, 2008 - Web posted at 10:55:22 GMT
Mosque demolished for not supporting Olympics
BEIJING - Chinese authorities in the restive far western region of
Xinjiang have demolished a mosque for refusing to put up signs in support of
the Beijing Olympics to held next month, an exiled group said yesterday.
The mosque was in Kalpin county near Aksu city in Xinjiang's rugged
southwest, the World Uyghur Congress said.
The office of the spokesman of the Xinjiang government said it had no
immediate comment, while telephone calls to the county government went
unanswered.
"China is forcing mosques in East Turkistan to publicise the Beijing
Olympics to get the Uyghur people to support the Games, but this has been
resisted by the Uighurs," World Uyghur Congress spokesman Dilxat Raxit said in
an e-mailed statement.
Beijing says al Qaeda is working with militants in Xinjiang to use terror
to establish an independent state called East Turkistan.
Oil-rich Xinjiang is home to eight million Turkic-speaking Uyghurs, many
of whom resent the growing economic and cultural influence of the Han Chinese.
Dilxat Raxit added that the Uyghurs who renovated the mosque in 1998,
were accused of illegally renovating the structure, carrying out illegal
religious activities and illegally storing copies of the Muslim holy book the
Koran.
"All the Korans in the mosque have been seized by the government and
dozens of people detained and tortured", he said.
The Olympic torch relay passed through Xinjiang last week under tight
security, with all but carefully vetted residents banned from watching on the
streets and tight controls over foreign media covering the event.
Nampa-Reuters
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