Source: Syracuse.com
Wire Service: AP
More than 100 Chinese riot police with shields and wooden sticks lined up directly across the street from a popular mosque during Friday prayers, warning worshippers not to protest again in this western city rocked by the region's worst rioting in decades.
About 1,000 faithful prayed without incident at the White Mosque in Urumqi, capital of China's oil-rich Xinjiang region. As the prayers began, a loudspeaker police truck cruised past the mosque, blasting government slogans that drowned out the imam's voice for those worshipping outside the crowded building topped by a green dome flanked by blue-trimmed minarets.
Urumqi has been tense since rioting erupted on July 5 after police stopped a protest by Muslim minority Uighur residents. The Uighurs went on a rampage, smashing windows, burning cars and beating Han Chinese-the nation's dominant ethnic group. Two days later, the Han took to the streets and attacked Uighurs.
The government has said the rioting killed 192 people and injured 1,721. State media has reported that more than 1,400 people have been detained.