China’s war against Xinjiang has touched a new law as reports claim that Chinese authorities have built a public toilet on the site of a demolished mosque.
The incident took place in the Atush region of Xinjiang. The mosque in the Suntagh village was demolished in 2018. Two years later, a public toilet stands in its place. The people of Suntagh have toilets at home and the village barely receives tourists, so locals say there is no need for the public toilet.
Chinese authorities know it as well that’s why the new stalls have not even been opened to the public. The bitter truth is China wants to target the Uighur Muslims of Xinjiang. China has destroyed 70 per cent of the mosques in Xinjiang and with this toilet, it is only adding insult to injury.
However, it is not the first such incident. In 2019, China destroyed the Azna mosque and now a store that sells alcohol and cigarettes has come up in its place.
In the Hotan city, authorities have been trying to build an underwear factory in the place of a demolished mosque. Beijing has destroyed between 10,000 to 15,000 mosques in Xinjiang in the last three years, according to the Uighur human rights project.
A Guardian report published last year had satellite images of the Imam Asim shrine. The shrine is located in Taklamakan desert. It used to attract Muslims from across the Hotan oasis. China recently tore down the buildings around the shrine. It also demolished the mosque and the place is deserted now.
There are similar images from Xinjiang’s Kargilik town too, the mosque was razed in 2018. China wants to erase the unique identity of Uighurs. It wants to “sinicise” Islam meaning make Islam Chinese and it is not shy of saying it out loud.
In 2019, China passed a 5-year plan to “guide Islam to be compatible with socialism”. The government of China also launched a mosque rectification campaign. There are 22 million Muslims in China including 11 million Uighurs.
China wants to blend them into the Han society which is the majority race and Beijing is ready to go to any lengths to achieve it. It has unleashed genocide in Xinjiang. Chinese authorities have jailed 1.8 million Uighurs. China has killed many and harvested their organs. Women are being raped, men are being sterilised and children have been taken away from their parents.
China has waged a war on its Muslims targeting their culture, history and their religion, those in Xinjiang cannot do much about it. However, people outside can but they aren’t. China’s actions should provoke the Muslim world but they remain silent.
Saudi Arabia the self-appointed leader of the Muslim world won’t say a word against China. Turkey which wants to dethrone the Saudis and project itself as the rightful leader of the Muslim world has been rounding up those who escaped from China and handing them over to Beijing.
Pakistan pretends it doesn’t even know what’s going on in Xinjiang. Malaysia says it won’t criticise China because it does not respond well to criticism and Iran has actually justified China’s action saying Beijing is serving Islam by suppressing the Uighurs.
The rest of the world that claims to uphold human rights has watched China’s Muslims being killed by the Chinese state and not lifted a finger. China has built a toilet as the world has flushed its conscience.
