In harrowing statements by survivors and escapees, Uighur Muslims who have been held prisoner inside these Chinese internment camps have claimed that they were pressured to renounce Islam, to criticize basic Muslim practices, and to sing Chinese communist party propaganda songs. There were also widespread reports of Muslims being forced to eat pork and drink alcohol (both of which are forbidden to observant Muslims), as well as reports of much worse things—torture, rape, and murder at the hands of the Chinese captors. A September 2018 Human Rights Watch report36 found that the Chinese government was using brutal coercive practices against Uighur Muslims, which included murder, torture, arbitrary arrest/detention, extrajudicial executions, gang rapes, and systemic sexual assaults throughout these Muslim internment camps.

XREF: Connects to ongoing international reporting and Human Rights Watch documentation on Xinjiang detention camps.

XREF: Connects to broader coverage of Xinjiang detention camps, HRW reporting from 2018, and ongoing Uyghur genocide allegations.

Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Gl…, loc. 162