Prince Abbas

How come we never hear what Chinese are doing to Uighur Muslims of Eastern Turkestan?
Pakistan can at least try using its friendship with China to get Uighurs more autonomy and rights.

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | China 'crushing Muslim Uighurs'

China has been accused by two US-based human rights groups of conducting a "crushing campaign of religious repression" against Muslim Uighurs.

It is being done in the name of anti-separatism and counter-terrorism, says a joint report by Human Rights Watch and Human Rights in China.

It is said to be taking place in the western Xinjiang region, where more than half the population is Uighur.

China has denied that it suppresses Islam in Xinjiang.

It says it only wants to stop the forces of separatism, terrorism and religious extremism in the region, which Uighur separatists call East Turkestan.

Detentions and executions

The report accuses China of "opportunistically using the post-11 September environment to make the outrageous claim that individuals disseminating peaceful religious and cultural messages in Xinjiang are terrorists who have simply changed tactics".

The authors of the report say it is based on previously undisclosed Communist Party and Chinese government documents, local regulations, press reports and local interviews.

The report says the systematic repression of religion in Xinjiang was continuing as "a matter of considered state policy".

Such repression ranges from vetting imams and closing mosques to executions and the detention of thousands of people every year, it claims.

"Religious regulation in Xinjiang is so pervasive that it creates a legal net that can catch just about anyone the authorities want to target," said Sharon Hom, Executive Director of Human Rights in China.

The report also reveals that almost half the detainees in Xinjiang's re-education camps are there for engaging in illegal religious activities.

Uighurs make up about eight million of the 19 million people in Xinjiang.

Many of them favour greater autonomy, and China views separatist sentiments as a threat to the state.

Tariq Akhtar

What do you want to hear? China is a repressive state and will not tolerate any religion, let alone a "comprehensive" one such as Islam shake things up(Comprehensive according to the Bin Laden types).

Pakistan obviously will find it impossible to criticise its only "friend" (Friend according to Musharaf types)

mAd_ScIeNtIsT

That's not a fair comment. The majority of Chinese Muslims are from the ethnic Hui group (an ethnically Chinese group), and they receive extensive state support for their practice of Islam. The Chinese government pays for the upkeep and maintainance of masjids for the Hui, published Qurans for the Hui, finances Islamic education for the Hui, and, since the 1990s, has been encouraging the Hui to go on hajj.

The Uighers though are ethnic Turks, not ethnic Chinese, and that's why China cracks down. The Uighers could become committed atheists and China would still find some reason to persecute them. China is insecure about the idea of a Turkish people wanting to separate from China.

Prince Abbas

China is not bad for their own people, the Han. They might be repressive to other ethnicities, like Tibetans and Uighurs. As mad_scientist said above, religion is not an issue here, rather it is the ethnicity.
This is similar to America, which is good for its own people, but repressive to others, especially Muslims.

It is more suitable to call Uighur land "East Turkestan" than Xinjiang. They are religiously, ethnically, culturally, and linguistically Turkic people. Even their alphabet is based on Arabic script.

Prince Abbas

Some information on Uighur Muslims.

UNPO - East Turkestan

Tatpurata

The point on their repression not being based on Islam is very valid. However of late the reaction to this repression seems to be coming from the Islamic part of their identity. And since they are part of the bigger Islamic brotherhood as the Kashmiris, Palestinians or the Chechens, regardless of their other identities, this also becomes an Islamic issue.

VetriVelan

^ How is Kashmir an islamic issue?

Tatpurata

[SIZE=3][FONT=Times New Roman]Partition of British India was based on a broadly religion-based criteria. Following this, Pakistan’s claim over Kashmir as it is a Muslim majority state can qualify it to become a religion-based issue at least from Pakistan’s point of view. The aforementioned statement was made only in this reference. The other issues also have strong regional and historical contexts as in case of Kashmir, but the population involved in them happens to be Muslim. Now the same thing applies to Xinjiang and the Uighur Muslims and hence the first post by Prince Abbas and whether and how Pakistan would react to it. [/FONT][/SIZE]