this post was submitted on 27 Apr 2025
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Yes, the source very much does matter because sources can distort the truth, lie by omission, and create a narrative that's completely at odds with reality. Contrast this with reporting from an actual Muslim country https://www.thejakartapost.com/academia/2018/09/25/xinjiang-what-a-wonderful-place.html
Even western media reports on occasion that Xinjiang imams defend China against U.S. criticism
https://web.archive.org/web/20210513115748/https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/on-eid-xinjiang-imams-defend-china-against-u-s-criticism-1.5425967
And of course, all the Muslim majority countries have been supporting China against western allegations
Here's another report from Italy of all places https://idi-international.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/New-Report.pdf
Here's what a reporter from Pakistan who actually visited Xinjiang had to say https://dailytimes.com.pk/723317/exposing-the-occidents-baseless-lies-about-xinjiang/
Here are some very different videos of Uyghurs for you https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkbOIKUddMBtp0_xEFqn4zey48kkgJq5w
The political angle around the narrative around Xinjiang is very transparent. For example, here's George Bush's chief of staff openly saying that US wants to destabilize the region. An ex-CIA operative details US operations radicalizing and training terrorists in the region in this book. Here's an excerpt:
US has been stoking terrorism in the region while they've been running a propaganda campaign against China in the west. In fact, US even classified Uyghur separatists as a terrorist group at one point https://www.mintpressnews.com/us-was-at-war-uyghur-terrorists-now-claims-etim-doesnt-exist/276916/
Here's an interview with a son of imam killed in Xinjiang https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-06-19/Son-of-imam-assassinated-in-Kashgar-s-2014-mosque-attack-speaks-out-RqNiyrcRuo/index.html
The west brainwashing people into extremism is an all time classic. ISIS is a Western creation primarily pushed through UAE and Saudi. Many Uyghurs are drawn into the sect. This is well known.
What China did however was a general Muslim crackdown. And this is not new. State Atheism is a CCP classic.
Your articles did not answer the simple question: why do all the Mosques suddenly look like Han temples? Please do not address any other point except the mosque exterior change.
Your evidence of a general Muslim crackdown is exterior cosmetic changes to some mosques which were cherry-picked by western media?
So atheist China is making religious temples look like other religious temples? Pick a lane.
I think that this theory comes from the West’s Han supremacy narrative (projection, much?). But again, even NATOpedia has counterexamples: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affirmative_action_in_China.
I can't read Chinese but is this translation not accurate?
https://www.chinalawtranslate.com/en/islamsinifcationplan/
I'm not familiar with a "Han" religion, i always though China was not an ethnoreligious state. Also it took you just once sentence to move from the "Han" religion being pushed by state to the "state atheism", can you stop for a second and reflect what prompted this nonsense after Yogthos dropped all the sources for you?
Han Buddhism has turned from religion to culture. Unless you believe that the dragon parades are done out of faith instead of culture. It is the main architectural style of Chinese history.
It is like Christmas in America. Most people celebrating it don't even believe in Christianity. It's just become a tradition
Read also the Chinese governments explanation:
https://www.chinalawtranslate.com/en/islamsinifcationplan/
So, not only you didn't reflected but also doubling down claiming... "cultural buddhism" from "state atheist" country? Maybe look at ancient Chinese architecture, it was already developing that style long before buddhism arrived in China. Not to mention architecture as a proof of cultural invasion is weak as hell, i guess i am not a Pole anymore because a lot of our churches are build in either Italian or Franco-German style. Oh, and you also show typical orientalism by conflating religion with entire culture. Also Uyghurs weren't even muslim for most of their history, they were buddhist longer than muslim, and before that they were manichean and before that shamanist.
Muslims living in China disagree with you as many testimonies in the videos I linked show. And all the Muslim countries disagree with you as well as do Muslims who have traveled to Xinjiang from these countries.
There are over 24,400 mosques in China, and pretty sure vast majority of them do not in fact look like Han temples. I don't know what the actual reason for change in the look of the mosques FT chose to parade is, but there isn't even a serious suggestion that it's representative of any sort of a general trend. It's incredibly disappointing that somebody would accept very obvious propaganda completely uncritically.
Even the Kaaba didn't look the same as it did when it was first constructed thousands of years ago:
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1895886/saudi-arabia
And yet, we don't see the U.S. running the same line on it as it does for China's mosques.. Wouldn't it already be weird that the West would care about one group of Muslims but terrorize, demonize and berate every other? I wonder if their strategic location to the Belt and Road Initiative has anything to do with it, wink wink.