Beijing authorities have directed the administration of halal restaurants and food stalls to immediately take down the Islamic symbols from their shops. The workers of eleven restaurants and shops, which are vending halal products in the capital city, revealed that authorities bound them to remove the inscription related to Islam.
An owner of a noodle shop told that some officials from the government told him to cover the word ‘halal’ from shop’s sign. They consider Islamic symbols and Arabic script a foreign culture and further directed him to adopt Chinese culture. The campaign against Islam also emphasized on the elimination of Middle Eastern-style mosques domes to promote Chinese-style pagodas.
Around 20 million Muslims lived in China but the government wanted to run the country on Communist Party ideology. Like Muslims, Christians also came under scrutiny as their underground churches have closed while crosses also destroyed at some places.
Muslims get attention after the 2009 ethnic violence between Muslim Uighur and Han Chinese. This violence forced the government to initiate the movement of terrorism crackdown in Xinjiang. These moves stir a worldwide criticism, especially from Western nations and human rights groups. The Chinese government said that they wanted to end religious extremism in Xinjiang.
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