Bulldozing mosques: the latest tactic in China’s war against Uighur culture | Rachel Harris

The levelling of ancient sites in Xinjiang, alongside mass detention, is part of an attempt to destroy an entire society

Ten years ago, I started researching Islam among the Uighurs. I spent my summers travelling around the Xinjiang region in western China. I took long bus journeys through the desert to Kashgar, Yarkand and Kucha, slept on brick beds in family homes in remote villages, stopped off at Sufi shrines, and visited many, many mosques. My husband was working with me, and we dragged our kids along for the ride. The kids were quite small and not at all interested in our boring interviews with imams, and I bribed them with treats. I have a lot of photos of them sitting in the dust outside mosques, faces smeared with ice-cream, playing on their iPads.

Related: Xinjiang crackdown must continue, top China leader says

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from Islam | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2G4QR5o

‘It’s dangerous to go out now’: young, gay and scared in Brunei

Draconian new laws have spread unease rather than outright panic in a population that is used to finding ways around legislation

A day after it became legally possible to be stoned to death for having gay sex in Brunei, 21-year-old Zain* got a bitter taste of the new reality.

Walking down the street in skinny jeans and high-heeled boots, a flamboyant anomaly in the conservative sultanate, the university student became a target.

The laws might give them a reason to crack down on people who are not loyal to the throne

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from Islam | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2UAz4Lt

As the credits roll on Algeria’s dictator, a timely reminder of why history must not be repeated

The screening of a 1966 film about their country’s bitter colonial conflict has seen Algerians unite in peaceful protest

More than half a century since it was released – and promptly banned by French authorities – The Battle of Algiers, depicting the bloody struggle for Algeria’s independence from France in 1962, still has the power to shock.

On Friday night, the black-and-white, 1966 film relating Algerian anti-colonial guerrilla warfare and its brutal repression by the French military was screened in Paris. London-based musical activists Asian Dub Foundation (ADF) performed a live soundtrack.

People don't want Islamists. We have turned the page on that

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from Islam | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2KeuQ8F

'We would never put that image on page 1': how we covered Christchurch

From first whispers to horrified aftermath, this was a story which required a fast, careful response. Here our editors and writers explain how we covered the Christchurch shootings

On Friday 15 March, 50 people were shot dead and 48 injured in attacks targeting Muslims at two mosques during Friday prayers in Christchurch. It was the worst mass shooting in New Zealand’s history. Across the Guardian’s three main offices – in London, Sydney and New York – we ensured our coverage of the shooting, its aftermath and the global reaction continued around the clock. Here, some of the Guardian’s key journalists and editors remember how they reported on the unfolding atrocity.

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from Islam | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2VpRYlJ