China Melarang Shalat Jumat di Masjid Xinjiang

Chinese paramilitary police patrol near a mosque closed to Friday prayers in Urumqi, western China's Xinjiang province, Friday, July 10, 2009. Boisterous crowds in this riot-hit western China city turned up at mosques despite announcements that Friday prayers were canceled due to the recent ethnic violence, forcing officials to let them in.

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China bans Friday prayers at mosques in Xinjiang

Chinese authorities banned prayer gatherings at mosques here on Friday, the principal day of prayer for Muslims, as security officials tried to prevent further ethnic violence in Xinjiang.

But officials appeared to partially relax the ban on Friday afternoon, allowing shortened prayer services after hundreds of Uighur worshippers gathered outside at least two of Urumqi’s main mosques, news agencies reported.

A small group of about 40 Uighur men and women began a protest march after prayers ended Friday, but they were quickly blocked by police forces, the Associated Press reported. Officials announced a curfew would be reimposed on the city Friday evening.

Meanwhile, in another Xinjiang city, the ancient Silk Road oasis town of Kashgar, foreign journalists and other visitors were instructed to leave.

Strictly enforced security was clearly high on the Government’s agenda, and the Communist Party’s official news paper People’s Daily said in an editorial on Friday that “to maintain social stability, we need to isolate and crack down hard on a handful of people”. The paper said those who “masterminded, organised and committed serious violence during the riot” should be targeted.

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Chinese riot policemen march pass near a mosque just before Friday prayers in Urumqi, China's farwest Xinjiang region on July 10, 2009. Mosques in the regional capital Urumqi were closed after ethnic violence in Urumqi between China's predominant Han ethnic group and Uighurs, a Muslim minority that has called Xinjiang home for thousands of years.

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Uighur men pray on their own at the patio of the White Mosque despite the city wide closure of the mosques in Urumqi, western China's Xinjiang province, Friday, July 10, 2009. Boisterous crowds in this riot-hit western China city turned up at mosques despite announcements that Friday prayers were canceled due to the recent ethnic violence, forcing officials to let them in.

Photo from AP Photo

An ethnic Uighur girl point her toy pistol at another boy in a Muslim Uighur neighbourhood of Urumqi in. China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region July 10, 2009. Security forces have imposed control over Urumqi, but the afternoon prayers on Friday were testing the government's ability to contain Uighur anger after Han Chinese, China's predominant ethnic group, attacked Uighur neighbourhoods on Tuesday.

Photo from Reuters Pictures

A photograph published on the social networking website Twitter on July 6, 2009 shows what is purported to be clashes in Urumqi, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on July 5, 2009. China said a riot that shook the capital of the western Xinjiang region on Sunday killed 140 people and the government called the ethnic unrest a plot against its power, signalling a security crackdown. Picture taken July 5, 2009.

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Chinese soldiers in riot gear stand and sit at the main city square in the centre of Urumqi in China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region July 9, 2009. Chinese President Hu Jintao, forced to abandon a G8 summit in Italy by ethnic violence in restive Xinjiang, said that maintaining social stability in the energy-rich region was the "most urgent task", state television reported on Thursday. Hu described Sunday's riots in the regional capital Urumqi, where 156 people were killed and 1,080 wounded when minority Muslim Uighurs attacked majority Han Chinese, as a "serious violent crime elaborately planned and organised by 'three forces' at home and abroad", an apparent reference to religious extremists, separatists and terrorists.

Photo from Reuters Pictures

A Muslim man reads a sign attached to the entrance of a mosque telling worshippers to "go home and pray there" in the city of Urumqi in China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region July 9, 2009. Chinese President Hu Jintao, forced to abandon a G8 summit in Italy by ethnic violence in restive Xinjiang, said that maintaining social stability in the energy-rich region was the "most urgent task", state television reported on Thursday. Hu described Sunday's riots in the regional capital Urumqi, where 156 people were killed and 1,080 wounded when minority Muslim Uighurs attacked majority Han Chinese, as a "serious violent crime elaborately planned and organised by 'three forces' at home and abroad", an apparent reference to religious extremists, separatists and terrorists.

Photo from Reuters Pictures