APPLE REMOVES THE QURAN APP IN CHINA AFTER OFFICIALS REQUEST

Sat 16 October 2021:

Apple has removed one of the most popular Quran apps in China from its store at the request of regulators.

The app, called Quran Majeed, is available on the App Store all across the world. Millions of Muslims use it, and it has approximately 150,000 reviews.

It seems to have been removed for hosting illegal religious texts, as per a BBC report.

The app’s deletion was first noticed by Apple Censorship, a website, which monitors the apps available on Apple’s App Store globally.

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In a statement, the app’s maker, PDMS, said, “According to Apple, our app Quran Majeed has been removed from the China App store because it includes content that requires additional documentation from Chinese authorities.”

“We are trying to get in touch with the Cyberspace Administration of China and relevant Chinese authorities to get this issue resolved,” added the company.

As per the app’s maker, it had around one million users in China.

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Bible app also removed

Another popular religious app, Olive Tree’s Bible app, was also taken down this week in China. The company told the BBC they had removed the app themselves.

“Olive Tree Bible Software was informed during the App Store review process that we are required to provide a permit demonstrating our authorization to distribute an app with book or magazine content in mainland China,” said a spokesperson.

“Since we did not have the permit and needed to get our app update approved and out to customers, we removed our Bible app from China’s App Store.”

China has been accused of persecuting its Muslim Uighur population, a 12 million-strong minority living in Xinjiang, a territory in northwest China.

Some rights groups have accused China of mounting a “genocide” against the Uighurs by detaining one million of them in so-called “re-education camps”, which China claims to have closed in 2019.

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