Amazon's audiobook service "Audibel" and applications for listening and reading the Qur'an and the Bible have disappeared from the Apple App Store in China, at the request of the Chinese authorities.
Audible said in a statement on Friday that it removed its app from the Apple Store in China last month, "due to licensing requirements."
Developers of Quran and Bible reading and listening apps say their apps have also been removed from the Apple Store in China at the request of the government. Apple did not respond to requests for comment to the Associated Press.
Pakistan Data Management Services, which makes the Quran Majeed app, said it was waiting for more information from China's Internet Authority on how its app could come back.
The Karachi-based company said the app has nearly one million users in China and about 40 million users worldwide.
Those who previously downloaded the app can still use it, said Hassan Shafiq Ahmed, head of growth and relations at the company.
"We look forward to knowing the documents needed to obtain approval from the Chinese authorities so that the application can be restored," he said in an email.
The developer of the Bible app said it also removed its app from the Apple Store in China after learning from the Apple App Store review process that it needed special permission to distribute an app containing "book or magazine content".
Olive Tree Angel Software, based in Spokane, Washington, said it is now reviewing the permit requirements "with the hope that we can get our app back on the App Store in China and continue to distribute the Bible worldwide."
The Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned Apple's move, saying the company was enabling China to persecute Muslims and others.
"This decision must be rescinded," said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, the council's deputy national director. "If US companies do not stand up to China now, they risk spending the next century subject to the whims of a fascist superpower," he added.
The disappearance of the apps was first reported this week by AppleCensorship, which monitors app bans in China and other "authoritarian" countries.
Beijing is accused of "genocide" against Uighurs and other mostly Turkic-speaking and Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, where experts estimate that more than a million people are held in camps.
Beijing denies genocide and has described the camps as centers for vocational training, something that has been refuted by the Uighurs, who say they are being forced to abandon their religious traditions.
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