© Associated Press
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Jiaman Mosque in the city of Chira, in the far western Chinese region of Xinjiang, is hidden behind high walls and propaganda posters of the Communist Party, and passers-by cannot understand that there is a religious site. In late April, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, two ethnic Uighur women were sitting behind a small mesh grille, under a surveillance camera, inside the complex, which has long been the largest place of worship in the city.
A Reuters correspondent could not determine whether the site currently served as a mosque. Minutes after the reporters arrived, four men in civilian clothes appeared and took up positions around the site, locking the doors to nearby apartment buildings. They told reporters that it was illegal to take pictures and they had to leave.
“There is no mosque here. There has never been a mosque in this place,” said one man when asked if there was a mosque inside, declining to introduce himself. The minarets in the four corners of the building, which can be seen in publicly available satellite images from 2019, have disappeared. A large blue metal box stands where the central dome of the mosque used to be. It is not clear if this was a place of worship at the time the satellite images were taken.
In recent months, China has stepped up its campaign in the state media and the government is arranging media tours to counter criticism from researchers, human rights groups and former residents of the Xinjiang Uyghur region who claim thousands of mosques have been repressed by Uighurs, most of them who are Muslims. In Beijing, officials from Xinjiang and the capital told reporters that
there was no forcible destruction or restriction of access to religious sites
and invited them to visit the area and write reviews. “Instead, we have taken a series of measures to protect them,” Elijah Anayat, a spokesman for the Xinjiang government, said at the end of last year on the issue of mosques.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunin said yesterday that some mosques had been destroyed and others had been upgraded or expanded as part of a rural revitalization program, but Muslims could practice their religion openly at home and in mosques.
Asked about restrictions imposed by authorities on journalists visiting the area, Hua said reporters should try harder to “gain the trust of the Chinese people” and write objective articles.
Reuters reporters visited at least 25 mosques in seven districts in the southwestern and central Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region on a 12-day tour during Ramadan yesterday.
There is a stark contrast between the central government’s campaign to protect mosques and religious freedoms and the reality on the ground. Most of the mosques visited by a Reuters correspondent were partially or completely destroyed.
“Life is wonderful”
China has repeatedly said that the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region faces a serious threat from separatists and religious extremists who plan attacks and inflame tensions between Uighurs, who consider the region home, and the Han, China’s largest ethnic group. Mass repression, including a campaign to curb religious practices and what human rights groups describe as the violent political indoctrination of more than a million Uighurs and other Muslims, began in full force in 2017.
China initially denied keeping people in camps, but later said they were vocational training centers and people had “graduated” them. The government says there are more than 20,000 mosques in the Xinjiang Uyghur region, but no details are available.
Some working mosques have signs informing that those who gather in them must register, and the access of citizens from other areas, foreigners and persons under 18 years of age is prohibited. The functioning mosques have surveillance cameras, Chinese flags and propaganda materials declaring loyalty to the ruling Communist Party. Visiting reporters were almost always followed by plainclothes officers and warned not to take pictures.
A Khan woman who says she moved to the city of Hotan six years ago from central China says Muslims who want to pray can do so in their homes. “There are no more such Muslims here,” the woman said, referring to those who had previously prayed in the mosque. She added: “Life in Xinjiang is wonderful.”
“Ethnic unity”
Some state-approved mosques are shown to visiting journalists and diplomats, such as the Jiaman Mosque in Hotan. “Everything is paid for by the party,” a Hotan government official at the mosque said during a visit to Reuters by the city’s propaganda department.
The official, who used the nickname “Ade” but declined to give his full name, said men were free to pray at the mosque five times a day, according to Islamic tradition. While the reporters were there, as dusk fell, several dozen men came to pray, most of them old men. They then ended their post with food provided by the local government.
The mosque, more than 170 years old, is one of four in the region identified as cultural relics that receive funds for renovation from the central government, authorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur region said. While the imam was undressing, Ade demonstrated a machine provided by the government that wrapped the shoes in nylon. “Now you don’t even have to take off your shoes in the mosque, it’s very convenient,” he said.
Collapsed minarets
In the city of Changji, about 40 km west of the capital of the Urumqi region, the green and red minarets of the city’s Sinku Mosque lie in ruins under a Chinese flag waving over the courtyard of the abandoned building. Reuters analyzed satellite images of 10 mosques in Changji and visited six of them. A total of 31 minarets and 12 green or gold domes were removed within two months of April 2018, according to dated photos.
In several mosques, Islamic architecture has been replaced by Chinese-style roofs. Authorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur region did not respond to a request for comment on the state of mosques in the region. Researchers from the Australian Institute for Strategic Policy estimated in 2020, after studying 900 locations in Xinjiang, that 16,000 mosques had been partially or completely destroyed in the previous three years.
Signs in front of the Sinku Mosque, with crumbling minarets, say housing construction will begin soon. “For ethnic unity, build beautiful Xinjiang,” the sign read. / BTA
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