King Mohammed visits Niujie Mosque in Beijing
Regional-China, Religion, 2/7/2002

Morocco's King Mohammed VI who is currently on a state visit to china visited Thursday the Niujie Mosque in Beijing, where he was greeted by the mosque imam and director, Imam Brahim.

The sovereign performed the Tahiyya prayer (a mosque salute prayer) in the presence of several Chinese worshippers before he visited the mosque's facilities and signed the visitors book.

The sovereign donated the mosque Imam a batch of copies of the holy Koran.

The Niujie mosque, covering a surface area of 6,000 m2, is the largest one among Beijing's 68 mosques. It was built by an Arab scholar in 996 and was formally named Niujie mosque in 1474. The mosque, combining Chinese and Arab architecture, was refurbished and enlarged under the Mongol dynasties. It was rehabilitated again in 1979 and its walls were coated with a gold paint. In 1988, the Chinese government listed the mosque among outstanding historic monuments to be protected by the state.

Islam was introduced in China in the 7th century and Muslims in the country currently number about 20 million. They are mostly settled in the regions of Xinjiang, Ningxia, Gansu and Qinghai.

Chinese Muslims set up an association, the Islamic Association of China, in 1953. The association is active in implementing governmental measures in matters of freedom of worship, spreads Islamic culture and issues its own publication "Muslims in China."

China hosts 34,928 mosques, and 45,051 imams, Muslim teachers and managers. Some 23,480 disciples are attending Islamic theology institutes in various parts of the country.

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