Since Being Closed For More Than 2 Months, Mosques In Beijing Have Started To Hold Friday

JAKARTA - A number of mosques in Beijing, China, have started holding Friday prayers in congregation after being closed for more than two months. This was due to the emergence of the second wave of COVID-19, which infected hundreds of residents in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province.

The Friday prayer activities took place as usual by implementing health protocols.

Every member of the congregation who enters the area of the mosque must pass a body temperature scanner and a digital health card scanner (jiankang bao) which is approved by the Beijing City Center for Prevention and Infectious Diseases (CDC).

"The Friday prayer and other activities at this mosque have started to normalize," said Yusuf Hu as the administrator of the Nandouya Mosque, Beijing, when met after Friday prayers reported by Antara, Friday, March 26.

The takmirs have also put up a saf distance sign according to applicable health protocols.

In Beijing, there are about 76 units of mosques that have been used for worship activities of 600 thousand Muslims who are dominated by the Hui Muslim ethnic minority.

The mosques in Beijing are mostly ancient buildings from the Ming and Qing dynasties or around 1368 to 1912 in the style of classical Chinese architecture.

Since the first COVID-19 cases were discovered in Wuhan, Hubei Province, at the end of 2019, Chinese government authorities have implemented an open and close system of mosques and other places of worship throughout mainland China.

Finally, houses of worship in China were closed as of January 1, 2021 after new cases were found in Shijiazhuang which then spread to other cities. The closure lasted more than two months.

The reopening of houses of worship came after local authorities assessed that the mass vaccination program, which has reached more than 90 million people since early January, was effective in preventing the pandemic.