Two of Three Mosques in Xinjiang Village Razed Amid Campaign Targeting Muslim Holy Sites

2020-08-11

Authorities in Atush (in Chinese, Atushi) city, in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), have razed two of three mosques in the village of Suntagh, according to a local security officer, amid a campaign that has seen thousands of Muslim holy sites destroyed in recent years.

The razing of the Azna and Bastaggam mosques in Suntagh is the latest to be confirmed since authorities began demolishing mosques in the XUAR en masse in late 2016, as part of a campaign known as “Mosque Rectification.”

The Mosque Rectification drive, part of a series of hardline policies under top leader Xi Jinping, predates the mass incarceration of as many as 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in a vast network of internment camps in the XUAR that began in April 2017.

Read the full article at Radio Free Asia.