Ethnicity is a flashpoint within China, yet, might not be exclusive to China alone, as many states around the globe struggle to find ways to accommodate ethnic minority groups, and not in the least, with the way how to allocate space for religious and cultural practices. A poignant case in point is the way how states deal with Muslims and their places of worship. One might only need to think of NIMBY (Not-in-My-Backyard) protests and the conflict over mosques and Muslim cemeteries.

While recent international attention has turned to the Uyghur in China, much less is known about an equally populous Islamic minority, the Hui. In this context, the Ethnicity project examines the manner in which the Chinese state engages in the spatial planning and religious land use for mosques and cemeteries, and will also contrast this to other countries and regions in the world. Preliminary results from this research has yielded some unexpected findings.