I was completely unaware of this topic, but suddenly I come across a headline and an article about the massive demolition of mosques in China. The article mentioned that at least 31 mosques and at least two Muslim shrines in Xinjiang, China, have been closed from 2016 to the present. At the same time, 15 mosques were destroyed "completely or almost completely", in the rest of the mosques domes and minarets were removed. So, in March 2018, the place of worship of Jafari Sadiq, a holy warrior, whose spirit, according to legend, went to Xinjiang to bring Islam there, was demolished. In addition to the shrine itself, all buildings for pilgrims on the 70-kilometer journey to the site were demolished.
What is the reason for this?
The Sufi mosque with the tomb of Imam Asim is located in the Taklamakan Desert in western China, in the Xinjiang province. Three years ago, this place was a center of attraction for Islamic pilgrims, but now it is desolate. Although the tomb itself is in place, everything around it was demolished, according to satellite images provided by the British newspaper The Guardian.
A similar fate befell the Kargilik Mosque, which was located in the center of the city of the same name. It was considered the largest in Xinjiang. According to local residents, the mosque has been demolished over the past six months. Nothing was left even of the garden that surrounded the building.
In Khotan, the Yutyan-Aitik mosque, built in the 13th century, was demolished. Owners of nearby small shops and cafes told reporters that news of the mosque demolition is coming from all over Xinjiang. In some places, prayer houses are preserved, but the domes are removed and the minarets are dismantled. According to the words, the demolished mosques are much more than 30 - thousands of religious buildings in small villages were destroyed. Each of the remaining mosques is equipped with video surveillance systems, and a number of Western publications wrote that for too zealous prayers one could end up in "re-education camps" for Muslims.
Here is what Vasily Kashin, senior researcher at the Higher School of Economics, says. “In recent years, we have seen in China a sharp increase in state control over religious policy. There are officially confirmed examples of the destruction of shrines - those that Beijing considered illegal or harmful to the state. First of all, this concerns Muslim shrines, but there were examples of dismantling and Christian churches, the expert says. For example, in 2018, a church built with donations from the local Christian community was demolished in Linfeng. The building was declared illegal. A few months earlier, a Catholic church in Shaanxi province had been demolished.
According to Kashin, the pressure of the Chinese authorities on religious communities specifically in Xinjiang is associated with the surge in terrorist activity that happened there 10 years ago. Most of the region's population is made up of Uyghur Muslims, who have been fighting against the central authorities since the 90s. For example, in 2009, riots in Urumqi (the largest city in the province) killed about 200 people. In the tenth years of the XXI century. there has been a trend towards the spread of terrorist activity outside Xinjiang. Uyghur terrorists staged terrorist attacks in Beijing (5 dead, 40 injured), in Kunming (29 dead, 149 injured).
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In response, the KNI authorities began to pursue a policy of Sinification of Xinjiang. In 2014, the province was banned from conducting religious activities anywhere other than special institutions. It was forbidden to pray outside the home and the mosque, to hold wedding and funeral rites according to religious customs. Even the appearance was regulated. In particular, the wearing of hijabs and an "abnormally large beard" was prohibited. Foreign media began to report on the emergence of "re-education camps" for Muslims in Xinjiang, through which up to 1.5 million people allegedly have already passed.
Nevertheless, given the difficult relations between China and the United States and the accusations against Bellingcat regarding its cooperation with Western intelligence services, the extent of Chinese pressure on the population of Xinjiang can be questioned, says Vasily Kashin: that are represented in the investigation by The Guardian, nor the number of people who went through the re-education camps."