China is razing ancient mosques and Islamic shrines, investigation reveals

The Chinese government has stealthily surveilled, policed, and interned as many as 1.5 million Uighurs, an ethnic group in northwestern China that primarily practices Islam. But there is mounting evidence that Beijing is destroying the Uighurs' and other Chinese Muslims' cultural heritage, as well, The Guardian reports.

Using satellite images, open-source journalism site Bellingcat and The Guardian found that more than two dozen Islamic religious sites have been damaged throughout China's Xinjiang province, despite China's insistence that it does not target Muslims and allows for full freedom of religion.

The investigation, however, analyzed 91 sites and found that 31 mosques and two major shrines suffered "significant cultural damage" between 2016 and 2018. Of those, 15 were found to be completely razed. China has not reported the destruction of the sites. The Guardian writes the development is a "new form of assault" on Islamic culture in the country.

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"Nothing could say more clearly to the Uighurs that the Chinese state wants to uproot their culture and break their connection to the land than the desecration of their ancestors' graves, the sacred shrines that are the landmarks of Uighur history," said Rian Thum, a historian of Islam at the University of Nottingham.

Experts say China is attempting to assimilate the next generation of Uighurs — destroying their historic landmarks is one of way of creating cultural amnesia. "When they grow up, this will be foreign to them," said a former resident of Hotan, a city in the Xinjiang province. Read more about U.S. views on China's treatment of the Uighurs here at The Week.