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China Demolishes Mosque In Xinjiang, Gives Contract To Hilton To Build Luxury Hotel On The Land
Uyghur men gather for a holiday meal during the Corban Festival in the far western Xinjiang province, China. Photo credit: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
China has initiated a plan to build a commercial centre on a plot of land which was freed up by demolishing a mosque in Xinjiang's Hotan region, with the centre also including a luxury Hilton Hotel, The Telegraph has reported.
The mosque was reportedly demolished in 2018 and the area is now seeing frantic construction activity, with one of the planned buildings being a Hampton by Hilton Hotel.
The report quotes data from ASPI, a Canberra based think tank to claim that 16,000 mosques have been damaged or destroyed in Xinjiang since 2016.
Chinese authorities have also been removing Arab style domes, Islamic decorations and Arabic scripts from mosques across the country as evident from the transformation of the main mosque in Yinchuan - the capital of Ningxia province.
In case of the Yinchuan mosque, the Chinese authorities had pulled down the characteristic dome, golden Islamic-style filigree, decorative arches, and Arabic script which adorned the structure. The mosque has been subsequently converted into a grey rectangular facility.
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