*BEIJING – In a rare such act h*undreds of ethnic Hui Muslims are staging asit-in protest in China’s western region of Ningxia against governmentplans.

Government has planned to demolish a huge new mosque, amid tightening curbson Islam to pull its practice in line with the Chinese mainstream.

China officially guarantees freedom of religion, but in recent yearsofficials nervous about the possibility of radicalisation and violence havetightened controls in heavily Muslim areas.

The Weizhou grand mosque, with numerous domes and minarets

in a Middle Eastern style, had not received proper permits beforeconstruction, officials in the town of Weizhou said in a notice on August3. The mosque would be forcibly demolished on Friday, they added in thenotice, widely circulated among Chinese Muslims on social media.

The order provoked anger among villagers, but talks between mosquerepresentatives and officials have failed to reach agreement, asworshippers rejected a government plan to spare the mosque if its domeswere replaced with pagodas more in keeping with Chinese style.

Hundreds of villagers were gathering at the mosque on Friday morning, andthe town’s mayor was expected to hold discussions in the afternoon, addedthe source, who requested anonymity.