China blurs the features of Uighur mosque in its ongoing campaign of religious repression

The beautiful painting, rich in calligraphy and decorations, seen by worshippers at the Hitikah Mosque for more than 100 years, was lost due to the ongoing crackdown by the Chinese government on Islam in Xinjiang.

The beautiful painting, rich in calligraphy and decorations, seen by worshippers at the Hitikah Mosque for more than 100 years, was lost due to the ongoing crackdown by the Chinese government on Islam in Xinjiang.

Members of the Diaspora Uighur community told Radio Free Asia, that the Chinese authorities removed the painting written in flowery script from above the mosque doors, along with Islamic features such as stars and crescent moon from the dome and minarets of the mosque in the city of Qashqar.

Henrik Sadzewski, of the Washington-based Uyghur Human Rights Project, told the same radio station, “The Hitikah Mosque has been stripped of its religious meaning into a place for undoubted visitors.”

The Hitikah Mosque, built in 1442, is one of the largest and oldest mosques in China, and the painting that was hung on the entrance dates back to 1908.

This action is part of the continuing religious repression of Chinese authorities to destroy the Uighurs and Islamic culture in Xinjiang.

Since April 2017, more than a million ethnic Uighurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and other Muslim minorities have been detained in detention camps in Xinjiang.