The sinicisation of Islam campaign

Last major Arabic-style mosque in China loses its domes

Exclusive: Experts say changes to Grand Mosque of Shadian mark
completion of five-year sinification campaign

The last major mosque in China to have retained Arabic-style features
has lost its domes and had its minarets radically modified, marking
what experts say is the completion of a government campaign to
sinicise the country's Muslim places of worship.

The Grand Mosque of Shadian, one of China's biggest and grandest
mosques, towers over the small town from which it takes its name in
south-western Yunnan province.

Until at last year, the 21,000 square metre complex featured a large
building topped with a tiled green dome, adorned with a crescent moon,
flanked by four smaller domes and soaring minarets. Satellite imagery
from 2022 shows the entrance pavilion decorated with a large crescent
moon and star made from vivid black tiles.

Photographs, satellite imagery and witness accounts from this year
show that the dome has been removed and replaced with a Han
Chinese-style pagoda rooftop, and the minarets have been shortened and
converted into pagoda towers. Only a faint trace of the crescent moon
and star tiles that once marked the mosque's front terrace is visible.
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The Grand Mosque of Shadian appears to have reopened in April, in time
for Eid. A video from inside the prayer hall shows that several
surveillance cameras have been installed. In 2020 the mosque
management committee refused a request from the authorities to install
surveillance cameras, said the former mosque employee.

Five sources with knowledge of the local environment in Shadian said
wireless speakers had been distributed to households to broadcast the
call to prayer, since public calls are generally banned, raising
concerns about surveillance.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/25/shadian-last-major-islamic-style-mosque-in-china-loses-its-domes