Paramilitary police officers patrol on the main street in Urumqi, western China's Xinjiang province, Monday.
(Eugene Hoshiko/AP)Photos (1 of 1)
Unrest in Xinjiang: Where’s the Muslim outrage?
Muslims around the world have largely remained silent about last week's deadly riots between Han Chinese and Uighurs. What makes this case of 'oppression' of Muslims different than others?
By Matthew Clark | 07.13.09
Shhhh! I think I just heard a pin drop.
Nope. It’s just more deafening silence from the Muslim Street in the wake of last week’s ethnic riot that killed more than 184 in China’s restive Xinjiang Province, home to the Uighurs, a Muslim minority group.
According to the Chinese government, the majority of the victims in the riot were Han Chinese, attacked by Uighurs who’ve complained for decades about being marginalized, abused, neglected, and oppressed ever since former Communist leader Mao Zedong launched a campaign to flood Xinjiang with Han Chinese in 1960s. But many of the victims were Uighurs, too, and thousands of Uighurs were arrested as a result of the melee. Many could face execution.
China also closed mosques last week – just one of many strict limits on freedom of expression in Xinjiang.
It’s the kind of stuff that would arouse passionate protests if a Western country were the one cracking down. (Remember the apoplectic protests over the Danish cartoon of Prophet Muhammad?)
But there were no Chinese flags burned in Karachi. No effigies of Hu Jintao smoldered in Cairo. No “Death to China” chants echoed through the streets of Tehran.
Not that the Monitor would ever be in favor of such protests against any country. But why does it seem as though there such a different reponse for China?
The Uighurs’ “spiritual mother,” Rebiya Kadeer (profiled here by the Monitor’s Beijing Bureau Chief Peter Ford), has some ideas.
“So far the Islamic world is silent about the Uighurs’ suffering because the Chinese authorities have been very successful in [their] propaganda to the Muslim world … that the Uighurs are extremely pro-west Muslims - that they are modern Muslims, not genuine Muslims,” she said at a press conference Monday in Washington.
Ms. Kadeer contrasted a lack of action from Muslim countries with the support Uighurs get from Western democracies and called on Muslim nations to do more.
Turkey drops the G-word
Days later, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan called the situation “genocide” and thousands of Turks protested China’s treatment of Uighurs on Sunday. Turks share ethnic and cultural bonds with the Turkic-speaking Uighurs, so the support in Turkey goes beyond sympathy for fellow Muslims allegedly being oppressed by non-believers.
Iran’s clerics speak out
Iranian critics are starting to get into the act, too.
Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi, a high-level cleric, demanded that Iran’s foreign ministry quickly condemn what he described as the Chinese government’s “horrible” backing of “racist Han Chinese.”
The news website Tabnak, backed by, Mohsen Rezai, conservative challenger of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, accused the government of hypocrisy in ignoring violence against fellow Muslims: “When Israel was striking Gaza, state radio and television aired round-the-clock reports and analyses about the massacre of Muslims, but now only short reports are heard. . . . During the Israeli invasion of Gaza, nearly 1,000 died in 20 days – or 50 per day. In China’s riots, nearly 100 Muslims were killed in a day. Our government is silent regarding clear carnage.”
But, by and large, the Muslim Street has been just as silent.
A plea from the Palestinian territories
“Muslims around the world have an absolute religious, moral, and human duty to identify with their oppressed brothers and sisters in [Xinjiang],” journalist Khalid Amayreh in an opinion piece on Islam Online, comparing the Uighurs’ plight to that of the Palestinians. “Muslims, as the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said, must never betray or abandon other Muslims, especially in time of distress. Unfortunately, however, Muslim states and Muslim peoples alike have been largely silent in the face of these atrocities in [Xinjiang].”
Will this change? We’ll see.
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Comments
2. Brenda Huang | 07.13.09
What outrage? Outrage over the Chinese government sending troops to prevent the Uighurs and Hans from killing each other? Keep your fact straight!
3. biparis | 07.13.09
What a good question. I’ve spent the better part of my life in the Middle East and Islamic Africa. There could be a couple of reasons for the quiescence, in addition to the usual level of hypocrisy one encounters in that region: China won’t put up with any nonsense, the Muslim world is highly dependent upon cheap Chinese goods and labor and the Chinese wouldn’t hesitate to punish the dickens out of anyone who steps up to the plate and seriously criticizes them.
Not to mention that the Chinese aren’t on anyone’s official “crusader” or “Great Satan” list - hypocrisy as I said above.
4. Adams | 07.13.09
Obviously, it is the terrorist massacre that the Muslim Uighurs’ rioters kill so many innocent people.
5. Ali Soomro | 07.13.09
The reason why there is so little protest in the “Muslim” world which is visible to the west is simple and two fold.
1. Most of those “visible Muslim countries” have people who are not even aware of that plight of the Uyghur people as the Uyghurs have very little cultural ties with any of them. South Asia and Middle East have very little to do with them which means frankly almost no one there knows about this on a mass/populist level. You can expect politicians and the like to know but it really needs a thorough grounding in the people for there to be any protest that you demand Mr. Clark. Politicians remain quiet for political reasons. For a similar reason the protest against the Chechen massacres were limited as well except in the Altaic Muslim nations.
2. In those Muslim nations which do have ties with them, well, asking for protests is simply absurd as the Uyghur separatists are well entrenched with the central Asian and Taliban militias as it is. In Turkey, there is an outrage because they share a limited but common heritage.
Additionally a final point, the article is nothing more than a diatribe against the Muslim faith in its usual form. Muslims are hypocritical and so on. This serves no purpose and there can be a simple counter to this:
Where are the mass protests and the torch snatchings for these suppressions as opposed to the Tibet ones in the west? Why is there pin drop silence in the “West Street”?
See how simple it is.
6. Harry McAllister | 07.13.09
Mr. Matthew Clark,
You called youself a journalist? This piece of crappy writing sounds a lot more like CIA propaganda. You are so afraid that there is no enough chaos going on and have to throw in more gasoline to the fire.
Harry McAllister
Columbus, Ohio
7. Brian Fraiser | 07.13.09
Of course there is no muslim outrage,
It doesnt include any hate for the USA or Israel, and unless so, there is no care in the muslim world about muslims being slaughtered.
It didnt matter when Jordon killed thousands in Palestinian directly in a cleansing campaign. And I do mean specifically aimed at an ethnic group with intent to include woman and children.
8. Q | 07.13.09
The riot started with Uyghur separatists killing Han Chinese, and injuring thousands. All western media did was show images of Uyghur being arrested and Chinese army marching, thus creating a facade that the Chinese government is suppressing its ethnic minority, while the Chinese government is actually too busy to solve its own economic development problem. It’s obvious that certain powers don’t want to see china developing its economic and political power in the world, thus creating all sort of barriers and painting China to be a monster trying to take over the world. The majority of the muslim world is not even getting both sides of the story as it is..
9. hans schmidt | 07.13.09
Great article, matthew clark. Try also doing a piece on the killing of civilians in IRAQ , Afghanistan and IRAQ at the hands of US forces, or the slaughter of captive taliban soldiers by a US ally in Afghanistan. They were conveniently referred to as collateral damage.
Try explaining why Turkey to this day continues to deny the genocide of 1.5 Million Armenians in the last century. Try explaining why WUC is not a terrrorist organisation. Rebiya Kadeer, in her own words admitted she knew something big was going down in Urumqi but did nothing to stop it by way of contacting the US authorities. If you had known 911 was going down and did nothing about it, you are as culpable as the terrorists. How about all the bogus evidence produced by Rebiya to champion her claims of what happened in Urumqi, including photo evidence ?
10. yot | 07.13.09
I am more surprised by the British media with the BBC at the forefront who have either completely ignored the plight of the Chinese muslims or swallowed the Chinese government line along with the hook and sinker. These are the same people who have never shied from accusing the US of waging war against Islam. I don’t usually agree with Khamenei in Iran but he was spot on when he singled out the British as “most evil”.
11. SLC_Raider | 07.13.09
Funny how everyone is asking why there is no outrage by Muslim countries over the crackdown on the Uighur terrorist in western China. I don’t recall anyone asking about the lack of Muslim outrage after the US cracked down on Al Qaida and the Taliban after 9/11. Think about it, several thousand Uighur’s ran through the streets of Xinjiang with knives and clubs killing over 130 Han Chinese (sure there were some Uighur casualties, but if I saw a someone murdering innocent civilians, and the only way I could stop them was to use deadly force, I would not hesitate to take them out). It’s time that the anti-China propagandist are exposed for what they are, a bunch of lying terrorist sympathizers.
12. John | 07.13.09
Mr. Clark, Please do not call for conflicts between ethnic groups and between religions. As a decent human being, let’s all pray for peace and prosperity in Xinjian. Any innocent life lost in the ethnic violence is a loss to our whole human beings. Please leave those people alone who have suffered enough during the ethnic violence. They need support each other, not against each other. They need peacefully live together, not committing violence to each other.
13. gary | 07.13.09
Mr. Clark, what is the purpose of your article if not for inciting and inflaming moslems to take up arms ? For a minute, i thought you were writing for Moslem Science Monitor.
15. btw | 07.13.09
Please note that despite their western sounding names, posters such as “hans schmidt” and “gary” are almost certainly Chinese, acting either as private citizens or perhaps as part of their jobs in the Chinese government. Disregarding the somewhat awkward grammar, please note the idiosyncratic spacing of punctuation marks such as commas or question marks - signs that these are being typed using Chinese language input software.
16. Matt | 07.13.09
My fellow namesake, When is terrorism Not terrorism? Passersby were pulled from busses, cars, taxis and streets to have their skulls bashed in , along with throats slit. Many were women and children. Some were locked up in their shops and burnt alive. WUC headed by Rebiya Kadeer knew something big was going to happen. That makes her a conspirator. Just how do you expect the Hans to react in the face of such terror attacks ? For whatever grievances the Uighurs, they have no right to use terror and murder. If you agree with their tactics, you are also saying native indians, hispanics and blacks have the right to employ the Uighur’s tactics against all white americans.
17. m w | 07.13.09
I have to agree that this article needs some SERIOUS looking over and that the editors need to sit on their hands before submitting opinions like this. Oh and an FYI, there are no true innocents except those who were killed who were peaceloving without an inkling of what went on. Whether or not the government is hiding anything doesn’t make what happened RIGHT. So if you’re looking for the muslim community to “join together” against oppression I think you and those who support it, aren’t looking at the BIG picture. We can’t segregate based on ONE incident, and we’ve got to join together as a unified WHOLE against violence.
19. Dan Clark | 07.13.09
Mr. Clark was definitely disappointed to see the chaos did not spread to the entire world.
20. Peter | 07.13.09
It is funny that Turkish Prime Minister called the incident in race riot “a genocide”, meaning Han Chinese was killing Uighurs. The accusation was completely false. It was Uighurs terrorists who killed Han civilians — young kids and women of Han Chinese. One could not help thinking Turks are bunch of hypocrites. Like Uighur kins, Turks are morally challenged to admit that they killed millions of Armenians.
21. Hawa | 07.13.09
If Uyghurs wants to kill Chinese, they should have done it in different city where populated by Uyghurs, instead, they went to demo in the city of Urumqi, where more than 90% of the population are Chinese. They were peaceful and holding Chinese flag while protesting and they went violent after police fire at them and kill them. Do you think the numbers from Chinese propaganda is correct? Do you think these many Chinese killed by Uyghurs while there are so many Chinese police with guns? Another 50 cent army………
22. John | 07.13.09
A more pressing question: “Where’s the facts?”
Facts without context are a kind of lie, but so is context without facts. We don’t have all the facts, but the facts we do have hardly exonerate either side. We’ll never know the whole story. We do know that on July 5, 2009, Ugyhur gangs rampaged through Urumqi indiscriminately bludgeoning and stabbing men/women/children to their deaths, and that in the days after Han mobs took part in equally indiscrimnate revenge attacks/killings, including some against children. Neither side can claim any moral high ground here. There should be outrage, but not “Muslim” outrage — just human outrage over the fact that human beings are a species capable of such inhuman brutality.
23. JOel | 07.13.09
Let’s look at those who’ve broken the silence,
Turkey–hey, here’s my turn to call genocide on another country! By genocide, they mean Uighur thugs ethnically cleansing Han people?
Iran–while busy crushing its own real protesters for real democracy.
Khalid Amayreh in Palestinian territories–the guy arrested by the Palestinian Authority on suspicion of affiliation with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, who wrote this?
“Why I hate America?”
http://www.ptimes.org/Main/default.aspx?_ContentType=ART&_ContentID=11037910-8168-43bd-9478-75185b7956ff
Oh, one more missed by the author, Indonesia hardline muslim organizations. Well, you know what they did in Bali and elsewhere.
It’s not Muslim for Muslim. Rather, it’s terrorists for terrorists.
Next time you may want to check who you’re siding with.
24. Justin L | 07.13.09
Wow the Chinese government is so adept at posting responses to these types of articles. It’s so transparent it’s hilarious! If you all post using the same terms, massacre, terrorists, etc it’s pretty easy to spot. How about you hire me as an advisor and I’ll help your propaganda machine run a little smoother.
25. Jude Fu | 07.13.09
Mr. Mark.
I understand that your country is going through a war with a (or a bunch of ?) Muslim country, and you felt the necessary to bring China into your side. Sorry, we won’t. As long as we can keep our country a single piece, keep our people safe, we are happy where we are. We have no interest in spreading our confucious value to other parts of the world by force, and we have no interst in invading any other country - no matter how oil rich they are.
So please stop the nonsense and leave us alone.
26. Carl | 07.13.09
Mr. Clark. Why should Muslims be outraged at a government sending troops to stop more terrorists attacks on innocent people? More importantly, what’s the point of your article?
I think your hope point is: you hate Chinese government so much that you sincerely hope more people joining terrorism organizations against Chinese government. That’s filthy and pathetic for a journalist, if you are not on CIA’s payroll.
27. Lena | 07.13.09
Mr. Clark, attempting to fan the flames of ethnic and religious hatred is an ugly thing. A terrorist attack is a terrorist attack.
And to yot: What “plight of the Chinese muslims” are you talking about, exactly? Are you talking about the claims spouted–without a shred of real evidence–by the WUC? And as for the BBC, frankly all I’ve seen from them have been the usual distortions twisting events into their usual set story of “protesters” vs “evil Chinese goverment”. But then again, I suppose the old standard rhetoric about “the Chinese government line” does get to be the easiest resort when the evidence starts to pile up up against you.
28. bs | 07.13.09
The journalist Khalid Amayreh think china treat Uyghurs as bad as isreal treat palestaines, think about this, did palestaine high school graduate can go to isreal college with lower scores than jews. wait, they can go nowhere, the gaza and westbank are biggest prisons in world
29. HarryS | 07.13.09
Quote: “Please note that despite their western sounding names, posters such as “hans schmidt” and “gary” are almost certainly Chinese”
Get a grip on reality…you don’t need to be Chinese to get the facts straight. And no, I’m not Chinese.
30. LT | 07.13.09
to Hawa
First, 75.3% of the population in Urumqi is Han Chinese.
Second, in this case, the sources from the Chinese government are more reliable than the sources from the World Uighur Congress who used incorrect pictures in interviews and protests. Why did WUC do that? Because they don’t have real pictures. Similarly, they, and western media, don’t have reliable pictures to prove what you said.
Lastly, do you think those ‘many’ Chinese police went into the Urumqi donwtown while the killings were just happening? Come on, even American army can’t react so quickly. They entered into Urumqi only after the killings.
31. donotlie | 07.13.09
Western medias are far more from being fair and objective. A matter of fact is that western medias always release twisted information, sometime pure lies. Many reports on the terrorist attack on Xinjiang of China was and are portraited as peaceful protesting. Oh, my god, these peaceful protesters killed around 180 innocent people and injured more than 1000. Would any western countries allow such kind of peaceful protesting? Please, do not let politics hide your eyes and encourage brutal terrorism.
32. HarryS | 07.13.09
Quote: “Wow the Chinese government is so adept at posting responses to these types of articles. It’s so transparent it’s hilarious!”
If you don’t think most of the Chinese abroad don’t side with China, then you obviously don’t know Chinese. They are fiercely nationalistic and believe the media here is extremely biased, which it has been
Just look at the headlines today when two Uighur criminals with knives who were chasing another Uighur were shot and killed by police after resisting arrest (a third was wounded). For all we know, this could have been a simple mugging; but news media here blared out that “unrest flared out again” in Xinjiang. Give me a break. If you go around chasing other people with knives, you deserve to be shot by the police.
33. mohammed | 07.13.09
many muslims are not even aware that theres so many muslims in china and esp in Xinjiang
34. Reigh | 07.13.09
For Hawa:
Yeah, yeah, if terrorists had wanted to kill American, they should have done it in a different city, where populated by terrorists. Instead, they went to New York, where more than 90% of the population are American. Obviously you are a very logic person.
If most killed persons were Han Chinese, for which I’ve seen enough pictures as evidence, is a fact that you just can’t face, how about just keep silent for now and try not to make up your story about what happened? BTW, I would be very grateful if you can fix you broken grammar before post your nonsense.
36. Julia | 07.13.09
do you call rioters or mobs killing innocent pedestrians with clubs and swords,and iron bars “peaceful protesters”??? Why do you quote only the exile woman Rebiya’s word—-who is now ten thousand miles away from the crime site? Go there, and see the truth. If media only distorts truth and make up stories, it will one day get emmeshed in its own spinning.
37. donny | 07.13.09
If it weren’t for the tragedy, Matt’s reporting would have been funny. What the reporter failed to mention is, there are 56 ethnic groups in CHINA , most living in content and co-exist peacefully among each other save for a minority of Tibetans and Uighurs. What other nation can make this claim?
The author also failed miserably to report there were some 10,000 civil unrest/riots in china in the last year, and most were Han civilians against local goverment at the provincial level. So in perspective, the author singled out 1 incident [although the most tragic] out of 10,000 to incite if nothing else.
38. James Tedd | 07.13.09
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-297435#postComment
The Chinese Military and Police are in full gear to genocide Uyghurs. Look at the pictures the ones that dead are all Uyghurs and so far thousands of them got killed and being killed everyday… Tens of thousands of them(mostly Uyghur College kids that are barely in their teens) are in Prison and stoned to death like the above video!!! America must do something to stop them as your money enabling Chinese to genocide Uyghurs, Tibetans and other ethnic minorities and terrorizing its neighbors!!! Stand up Americans, boycutt all the Chinese goods!!! Ask Obama/UN/NATO to demand to release all the Uyghur innocent kids and stop their being stoned to death in the prison like above!!! Ask UN/NATO intervention for Uyghurs in East Turkistan!!! Only we can stop the genocide that is going on toward the Uyghurs!!!! China out of East Turkistan where you don’t belong and stop genociding Uyghurs!!!! The Chinese media is in full gear and spicdoctoring here in the west to cover up the genocide that is going on toward the Uyghurs!!! Stop the Chinese genocide toward the Uyghurs!!! China has all the weapons, army and everything and Uyghurs has nothing…
39. Mi Wa, San Francisco, USA | 07.13.09
“Hui” in Chinese means “Muslim”. “Hui” is also one of the 56 ethnic groups in China. There are about 1 million Hui, and they are integrated into the Chinese society while maintaining their religious belief. Zheng He (1371–1433), the famous mariner, was a Hui Chinese. He even had an Arabic name Hajji Mahmud Shams. Hui Liangyu, a sitting Vice Premier of China, is a Hui Chinese. The Chinese considers Hui as one of our own and Muslim everywhere as our brothers. Those rioters who cut innocent people’s throats, shattered their skulls and burned their bodies are not true Muslim but are terrorists.
41. JG | 07.13.09
It is so ironic that Turkey jumped out and slamed a ‘genocide’ tag on a mass melee, forgetting its own denial of the 1.5-2 million slaughtered Armenians and the plights of Kurds on its own hands.
42. Woofus | 07.13.09
“The Uighurs’ spiritual leader, Rebiya Kadeer…”
Um, she’s a businesswoman, and a human rights activist. Not a religious figure like the Dalai Lama. But perhaps you intend a more figurative meaning of “spiritual”…?
Also, unlike the Tibetans, the Uighurs do not have a single exile organization purporting to speak for them–more like 20 or 30. I suppose she is popular among Uighurs, but…well, who would you say is *America’s* spiritual leader?
Unfortunately, Muslims are fairly used to being repressed, often by their own governments. They protest in Western countries mainly because they have the opportunity to do so at little cost to themselves. In (former Soviet) Central Asia, where the main exile populations are, several governments clamp down on Uighur activism either because (a) they clamp down on everybody, and/or (b)they get money from China by virtue of their participation in the Shanghai Pact.
It is a fact that China pays a bunch of people to post pro-PRC messages on boards like this. God knows why–propaganda that looks like propaganda, is bad propaganda.
43. George Snyder | 07.13.09
Most Muslims know fully well, in spite of the antipathy many Muslims feel toward democracy, that in a non-democratic country, the protesting voice of the world is not heeded, and China is one such country. Muslims are not going to find any sympathy for their grievance in China like they normally would in the West, as there is no Han Chinese apologist for Muslims in China.
Another reason for Muslim reluctance to criticized China is that many Muslims naively believe that the enemy (China) of their enemy (the West) is their friend, not realizing that as far as the Chinese are concerned, both Islam and the West are in China’s way to become the premier world power.
Essentially what is happening in Xinjiang and Tibetan Provinces of China is the repeat of what happened in the American West in the 19th century. The US government under virtually all administrations during that time deliberately pushed immigration policies to populate the American West with white immigrants by taking the land that belonged to American Indians through the “legitimacy” of national law that was enforced by the might of the US Army troops.
The Chinese government fully intends to do the same by deliberately ignoring the moral consensus that had developed in the West (and the rest of the world that adopted Western democracy) during the past century that no longer considers such usurpation justifiable under any law. As far as Chinese government officials are concerned, such consensus is a Western one, not Chinese, and they feel fully entitled and free to do as they please in regard to dealing with cultural minorities, just as did the Americans and Europeans over a century ago.
As it stands, without the Western moral outrage, Muslims have no leverage against the narrow Chinese cultural propensity; after all, much of Islamic world is gripped with the same type of anti-democratic, anti-cultural minority mentality that grips Chinese officialdom today. If Muslims wants freedom of religion and just political representation for their Uighurs coreligionists, they must be able to take the moral high ground, which largely does not exist in Islamic world because of its own narrow cultural view.
In other words, when Muslims are confronted with Chinese cultural policies and behavior that marginalize minority groups, as seen in Xinjiang, they are essentially confronted with their own doppelganger, and they know it; thus, the obligatory silence.
44. D. Henry | 07.13.09
Why should any peace-loving Muslims in the world speak in defense of the violent Uighurs who started and committed atrocities against innocent people? Instead of facing the government or soldiers directly, these violent Uighurs picked on innocent civilians on the streets, butchered women and children viciously, and beheaded many of the men. Why on earth should anyone with any moral standards defend such despicable acts?
Clearly, there are also many innocent Uighurs who didn’t take part in such atrocities, but it seems that many reporters and commentators simply ignore the sufferings and losses of those Han victims and think all Uighurs are holy, innocent people.
45. Andreth | 07.13.09
To btw: And what is your point, may I ask? Why should the ethnicity of commenters on this page matter, anyway?
To Justin L: It helps to make you feel better about yourself to slap a label of “propaganda machine” on everyone who disagrees with you, doesn’t it? Has it occurred to you that perhaps people are using the words “massacre” and “terrorists” because no others will serve to describe the events so precisely? And by the way, those two words happen to be ones the Chinese government itself has carefully avoided using so far, so if everyone using those words are Chinese government propagandists, then they’d all be going against their own “official line”, wouldn’t they?
46. wsbmylove | 07.13.09
stuipd Americans,you just forgot 911?the Uygurs have killed the huis too,see the huis kill too,not only kill Hans.Hui is a real Moslem ,the Uygurs are not friends of the Islamic country of the Middle East,it is their enemy.Turkey has regarded anti-terriorism as tomorrow and killed a lot of Kurdish people ,why China purnish and become messy linking clansmans not all rightly.I am chinese.
47. slk | 07.13.09
I was so entertained by Turkish PM calling this even as a genocide. how did he reconcile his labeling this even as “racist Han killing Uighurs” and the fact that most of the victims are Hans? does the fact matter to him at all?
48. global soul | 07.13.09
The simple fact is that since 1949 the Han Chinese Communists occupied a lot of territory that historically was never theirs and have embarked on systematic ethnic cleansing. From Tibet to Sinkiang or East Turkestan, the Han Chinese chauvanists have suppressed minorities, restricted religious practices and even tried to stifle cultural practices like speaking local languages or wearing ethnic attire. The Sinkiang region is also very rich in minerals and natural resources like OIL and GAS. The world has largely ignored the plight of the Uyghurs mostly due to post 911 Islamophobia and the so-called “western” world’s obesession with importing cheap Chinese consumer goods.
This hypocritical acquiesence to China’s appaling human rights record is is strategic blunder and only emboldends the Chinese to commit even graver abuses. The Islamic world is in total disarray and with corrupt leadership or the lack of it negates any expression of concern from the 60 odd Muslim nations, with the expection of Turkey and Iran which have historical ethnic, linguistic and cultural bonds with the Uyghurs.
The Han Chinese communists have changed the demography of the region along with Tibet by flooding in millions of uncouth Han labor and economic migrants who has no understanding or tolerance of local customs or civilizations. The Ugyhurs are civilized historical people who were instrumental in opening the Silk Road and promoting trade links with Europe and the Middle-East. It is indeed a shame that economic interests trump human rights.
49. Philip | 07.13.09
To JunstinL:
LOL
Putting “communist lovers” hats to the opposing oppions is not an effective way to debate. You can list your facts, if you had any.
50. Adam D | 07.13.09
Wheres the outrage period?
Anyone who follows world politics and history knows the Chinese government is terrible. They’ve lied about atrocities in Tibet,censor the internet, and have no problem killing innocents, “for the greater good”. I bet for every Uighur that is reported dead China murders 20 others. China must be unified! But for what and at what cost?
51. hay | 07.13.09
Who started the violence?. No question about that. It was the uyghers. I would not say Uyghers were not smart people. But certainly those who started the riots are not very smart. Creating hatred between Han Chinese and Uyghers serve these people no good. After all, you are minority. If you do not like it , then move to maybe turkey. They may welcome you with warm arm. You have no claim to Xingjiang. Xingjian belongs to China
52. sam | 07.13.09
Justin, it seems to me that you’re totally brain washed by the biased western media. You read so much of these type of articles, and you automatically think the chinese gov’t is bad. You actually believe the chinese gov’t will actually hire people writing posts to blogs for an biased english article? Do you know what the gov’t have done for the chinese people in china for the last 30 years? Do you what kind of incentives that the gov’t give to the Uighurs to encourage them to succeed? Sort of like the affirmative action in the U.S. for African Americans. Of course the Chinese gov’t still have so much to improve to help out the minorities in China, but you got to remember that China has 1.3 bln people, and it’s still a relatively poor country, it’ll take time.
Mr Clark, you should feel pretty shameful to write a piece of article like this. It seems to me that you want the world to have more chaos so that you as a journalist has more to write about it. Let’s promote peace between difference races, religions, let’s promote stability. After all, we are all just human, god’s children. We all just want to have a peaceful and enjoyable life
53. Joe in CA | 07.13.09
Shhh!!! Maybe Muslims aren’t as boisterous because unlike America, China’s minding its own business? I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t be so reluctant to chant “Death to China” if China had actually gone out and bombed their country, or killed their presidents. Uh, did I say that out loud?
54. John | 07.13.09
Oops… Did Turkey really drop the G-word?
They seem to be quite liberal with the word “genocide” when discussing another country’s affairs (Israel in the Palestinian territories, and now Xinjiang), whereas there is a ban on the word “genocide” inside Turkey.
Mentioning the Armenian Genocide in Turkey will land you in jail under Article 301. Hrant Dink, an ethnic Armenian champion of free speech in Turkey, was gunned down in 2007 in broad daylight for openly discussing the Armenian Genocide. The killer was a radical youth who had connections to the Turkish Deep State.
While the event in China are lamentable and outright tragic, Turkey is playing a dangerous game with the “g” word.
55. Urabi | 07.13.09
Dear Han Chinese/CCP posters, please stop using western sounding names in this board. As btw said your awkward grammar give away to your identities along with your typical rants.
@Brenda Huang, you’re an exception in this case.
56. Jimmy Laz | 07.13.09
Poorly written article making rash racists generalizations with an even less coherent readership — comments look like a 10 year old wrote them. Point #1, Just because a “Muslim” or “Muslims” do something does not mean other “Muslims” need to do anything (this is basic common sense, only a racist would thing “Muslims” share one brain). Point #2, not every “Muslim country” protested the Danish cartoons and the media sure covered it more than it was happening. To think because something happened 5 years ago, you should expect the same result is astoundingly stupid of you - to than go ahead and write that “Muslims” should do this or that while you espouse nothing but hatred for Islam is even more confounding. Point #3, the Uyghurs first of all have been living in a segregated highly controlled police-state in their own land since around 1940. If anyone that reads this paper understood the story more than “Evil Uyghurs beatdown poor Chinese” you would understand that Uyghurs are being systemically killed and imprisoned since 2001. This is a fact.
One of the worst, childish article on the subject I’ve ever seen. If anyone has any real interest in this beyond this trite piece of editorial garbage go to http://www.uyghuramerican.org
57. Yang Zhong | 07.13.09
As an oversea Chinese, I mourned the loss of the 184 citizens in my country. The separatists and mobs should pay for what they did. I fully support anything that my country will do to protect her land and people.
So far I have been angered by many western media’s objective reporting such as ‘peaceful protest’, ‘invoked Tiananmen’s spirit’, ‘government supression’… This article made me furious because the author is just pouring oil to the fire. Let us alone when we are dealing our internal affair!
58. Hanren | 07.13.09
This is more a racial problem, rather than a problem on muslim religion. Within China there are about 100 millin muslims (called hui). Actually, there was one death of Hui, which was treated as a Han by Uighurs mobs. The muslims around the world can make their own judgement based on facts. The riot was well organized in advance. Women and children were sent to major streets for peacful demonstration to attract the attention of all police, while young male Uigjurs went to small streets and corner spots to ambush individual Han Chinese. Shame on author to make the title claims. China is the friend of muslims around the world.
59. Yang Zhong | 07.13.09
For those who think the Chinese government posts the responses, you’re as hilarious as you think it is.
60. Wai L. Chui | 07.13.09
Why should Muslims be outraged? There was a riot and a lot of people of different ethnic or religious background were killed. The Uighurs no doubt has complains, just like so many other minorities around the world. I remember long time ago I read on the newspaper the comment of a Serbian soldier. He said: “If you have the kind of propaganda in our newspaper and TV, you will have ethnic cleansing in the United States as well.” It seems to me that this newspaper should NOT go out of the way to stir up outrage.
61. truth prevails | 07.13.09
This CSM article serves nothing but to incite the muslims of other countries to commit violence against the peace loving hard working chinese. It is clear the author has ulterior motive to demonize the chinese by spreading biased opinions. The chinese govt actually has preferential treatment to the minorities, even better to the Hans. This articles distorts truth and stirs hatred among muslims and chinese. It is unbelievable that CSM publish this type of garbage.
62. walterhu | 07.13.09
“In China’s riots, nearly 100 Muslims were killed in a day.”
I have been baffled in recent days by the media definition of the riots in China’s Xinjiang region. Emphasis has been put on the fact of the 150 plus deaths and more than 2,000 injured but not on the fact that the victims were almost all Han Chinese. I have wondered why the media, especially the international media, has not used the term, “race riot” or some other means of describing the one-sided violence.
63. John | 07.13.09
Why should Muslims be outraged? Simply because the Uighur terrorists killed by the police were Muslims? If that is true, should all Buddhists around the world have been outraged when some Tibetan terrorists were killed by the police? The constant outrage when something happens to any of the 1 billion Muslims around the world is a problem for the world, and is the basis of terrorism. It shows that among regions, only Islam seeks hegemony.
64. Dither | 07.13.09
In the Asian countries I have travelled to , hating and oppressing minority ethnic groups is the traditional practice. The concept of multicultural richness is only very slowly becoming recognized. Even where many cultures are living side by side, in apparent public harmony, privately many still hold their traditional prejudices. Even in Hawaii, there are many agitating for their lands and rights back, and some cannot speak peaceably even in their meetings.
Power grabs such as the Chinese taking of Tibet,( the same in the Uighur’s areas), the Israeli land grabs, and aggressions in Palestine, our deep south! The repercussions are generational, passed down.
65. Kungfu Panda | 07.13.09
I’m glad to see that there are people do speak of their human conscious. The author of this article is no better than the communist propaganda machine. Why not link the Uyghurs to the foiled attempt to suicide bomb a China passenger airplane, bus bombs, and other killing of civilian in China early last year?
I don’t care if you are a Chinese or American, as long as you speak from the bottom of your heart. For those who do care, its called racism.
66. wenrixin | 07.13.09
It seems the writer is scolding Chinese government of mishandling the incident and mistreatment of its Uighur minority. Such feeling and belief rarely finds the market on today’s Mainland.
For a long period, Han Chinese are convinced they have been over-milked by Tibetans and Uighur who actually share unfairly large piece of the country’s economic pie, which, more or less, could be justified. Uighur think acceptance of Beijing Time great inconvenience to their everyday life and more arrivals of Han Chinese visible perturbrance and effectual dilution of their religious life and cultural integrity. Likewise, Han Chinese are more inclined to regard their emigration to the western part as vital contribution to Xinjiang’s regional development and prosperity. Han Chinese constantly complains its kindness is not well echoed or simply gets forgot.
Accumulation of this mutual miscomprehension of each other finally eventuates in the tragic happenings that shocked China as well as the outside. Though it took place at sensitive moment, precisely when Chinese president was attending G-8 summit, days after Jun 4, over one year following massive unrest in Tibet and months prior to the celebration of 60th anniversary of PRC’s founding, it should not be excessively linked to Chinese political system which is vulnerable to western attack and, too, truly responsible to large number of societal problems in China. Politically motivated or not, foreign journalists, after all, were greeted with a more open Chinese government and its more cooperative officials right this time.
67. yvonne | 07.13.09
i have some muslim students,kind, easy-going,nice to others.but i also see more uighur mobs stealing,trafficking,molesting aound our community,which mkes me really annoyed.but i have to put up with it as my government says that we have to tolorate them and try to build a harmonious society.
68. Justin L. Clone | 07.13.09
It’s funny when some comments posters have no reponse to the other posters’ comments, they accuse the posters of these comments as working for the Chinese Government. LOL!
69. wenrixin | 07.13.09
xinjiang was originally east turkestan which china forcibly invaded and occupied - two years prior to doing the same with tibet.
no people can/should rule other people. even when ruled by the same people there is so much exploitation and manipulation. so one can only imagine the plight of the tibeteans and the uighurs ruled by communist chinese - who to consolidate their rule have taken every effort to culturally subvert these occupied peoples - including effecting demographic change by mass migrating han chinese into these areas.
70. abascus lim | 07.13.09
You do not publish comments that incite violence. Is it a joke?
The article itself (if I can call it an article) incite violence.
You people sure likes to create problems not solve them. What is your agenda?
71. cn | 07.13.09
Why are some of the posters so afraid of comments from so called “fake westerners” (Chinese private citizen or government employee). Cann’t you guys take the content of the comments instead of identities of its posters or grammar or character set issues? Get off the high horse, Shame on you!
72. liumeng | 07.13.09
although i dissent from chinese government for many aspects,as a chinese i hate any riot toward innocent people,government must take some measures to protect it’s civilians
73. Steve | 07.13.09
A good article making a good point– as the denunciations from both Chinese and Muslims in the comments show.
I suspect that deep down the Arab Muslims who react with such fury to slights– real and perceived– from the West know deep down that the Western countries (and Israel) actually do care about popular reaction and opinion. By contrast, no one will ever accuse the Chinese government of paying attention to protests, having any regard for international opinion, or of having any goal at all beyond the advancement of Han Chinese.
74. stonewu | 07.13.09
The reason there is no Muslim outrage is because Muslims are not as stupid as you would like them to be. Every sane people know you are trying to channel Muslim outrage from the Western to China.
Funny Rules:
Finally, we will not publish any comments that we regard as obscene, defamatory, or intended to incite violence.
75. Andrew | 07.14.09
Mr Clark, I implore you to look past the ‘Muslim’ in your analysis of this issue. Uighurs did not protest because they were Muslims and Hans were not; they protested for the same reason the Tibetans did. The Chinese government’s flagrant disregard for the rights of its citizens, especially minorities, is hardly unknown. Which other government, that so carefully regulates internal movement of people, floods a minority province with so many outsiders? How many civilized countries are there where rights are so few and where protests are followed by thousands of arrests, executions and closures of places of worship?
That the ethnic makeup of Xinjiang, not unlike that of Tibet, has drastically changed from about 6% Han Chinese in 1949 to over 40% today should not make any surprising the feeling of being seized that many Uighurs harbor. Painting the whole issue as ‘Muslim vs. Non Muslim’ is reductionist-and exactly what the Chinese propaganda pundits would like us to believe.
As for the ‘Muslim outrage’, or lack thereof, a cursory glance of history books can reveal that the modern world, baring a few exceptions, is divided into 200 or so countries, including Muslim majority ones, along ethnic lines. As has been mentioned, Islam is neither a race nor an ethnicity. Consequently, solidarity amongst Muslims is not really as strong as is often mistaken. No wonder then, the Turks that took to the street in the wake of the crackdown in Xinjiang did so because of their cultural, and not religious, ties with the Uighurs.
I doubt if it is just me who think that no ‘Muslim outrage’ is warranted- just grief at the unfortunate loss of life and the depravation of basic rights that continue to plague the minorities of China.
76. KTorgen | 07.14.09
I am a Chinese American and it is refreshing to see so many level-headed comments, especially the observation that the silence is deafening when compared to the noise from the Tibet riot. The association of the two riots may be too scary for the Lama-worshippers to contemplate.
I question the sanity of those who use the usual attack line that whoever puts forward an unbiased and closer-to-the-reality position that seems to exonerate the “guilt” fabricated and ascribed to the Chinese or the Chinese government by the neocon, simplistic or simply lazy and behind-the-time “jornalists” and their equally handicapped news organization, be it Washington Post or AF (I am actually surprised that CSM made the list this time) must be backed by the Chinese government. Under normal circumstances, these people would be called delusional and, at a minimum, reeks of hatred. Does the CSM comment monitor seriously consider these types of comments as “comments”?
77. Carroll Moreton | 07.14.09
The Chinese government has been pouring Han Chinese into Western China for years. The Han get preferential treatment in jobs and the Uighurs are marginalized. The Uighurs are fighting for their livelihood and their freedom of religion.
78. Massacre of Han Chinese | 07.14.09
Here are the facts from the New York Times and Times of London.
Why should Muslims be outraged? 1. Turkic Muslims murdered Han and Hui (Muslim) Chinese people in mass. 2. The police deployed and protected Turkic Muslims from retalitory attack. No systematic violence against Turkic Muslims took place because the police protected them. Again, why should Muslims be outraged? I dare anybody to try to answer and somehow maintain your anti-Chiense distortions.
The Times of London:
“We saw hundreds of Uighurs running down the street on the afternoon of July 5. About ten suddenly rushed into the store. They began to hit the people inside, even the old mother, with bricks and stones. They tried to run outside. Then they were dragged back inside.
“There were terrible screams. Just wordless screams. But then very quickly they fell silent.”
She said that the son tried to hide in a chicken coop but was dragged out and his head was cut off. All the victims were left to burn inside the building. The corpses of the boy and his father were found beheaded. Mr Yu said: “Even the 84-year-old mother was stoned and then burnt. It was terrible, terrible. So cruel.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6677379.ece
New York Times:
“The government, apparently hoping to tamp down racial violence, has not released a breakdown of the ethnicities of the 156 dead. But Mr. Lu’s father said that of more than 100 photographs of bodies that he looked through at a police station to identify his son, the vast majority were Han Chinese, most with their heads cut or smashed.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/09/world/asia/09han.html?_r=1
79. Tianshan | 07.14.09
I was born and grew up in Urumqi.
For people with real life experience in that land, what happened on July 5 echoes what they already know. Regardless which perspective they are from, Han or Uighur, they will admit there are many violent Uighur individuals who resent Han and look for opportunities to attack Han, and random violence targeting Han individuals is common sight in local street. Deep in their heart what happened in itself is clear: Uighur mobs beating and slaying Han civilians in many places in a coordinated way.
Still, the scale of the tragedy inflicts pain and anger to all Han people from the region is unparalleled and comparable only to that of Americans after 911 if not more. If butchering hundreds of civilians, many of them women and children, is not terrorist attack, then let us remove this phrase from our vocabulary. For those who look down from their moral high ground, please pause for a moment: murder is murder, matters not in the name of protest or machine guns. Murder at such scale is crime perpetuated by one ethnic group against another group against humanity. If government fails its responsibility to protect civilians from such crime, then civilians have to rise to protect themselves or perish in bloodshed.
Innocent Uighurs, nevertheless, share the same fear by Muslim Americans right after 911 as the deeply wounded Han seeking self defense and revenge. This fear can only be eased by resolute pursuit of the perpetuators of the crime and swiftly distinguishing them from innocent Uighur civilians. Conversely, the only chance to not fermenting this fear into hatred is to show the full extent of the atrocities rather than cover-up. To both ends the Chinese government has much to learn from the United States. Without prosecution of the criminals to the full extent of law, the Uighur community may soon be engulfed by local Han people who for the first time are determined to counter violence with violence.
In the long run, ethnic chasm can only be abridged by establishing rule of law and true equality under law, and by abolishing the minority pampering policies institutionalized by the Chinese government since the early 1980’s. Most representative of these policies is to allow ethnic minorities to have multiple children while imposing one child policy over Han – likely the only case study in world history where a dominant ethnic group invoking self obliteration. A full spectrum of favoritism policies was practiced with the intention to remedy the socio-economical equality among different groups of the society, however, only have had the consequence of politicizing and polarizing ethnic consciousness. Another unintended consequence is that these policies actually increased, not decreased, socio-economical inequality among different groups of the Chinese society. Privileges encourage reliance on privileges and demanding of further privileges, yet discourage pursuit of true economical and intellectual competitiveness fundamental to any modern community. As the vicious circle feeds between the underprivileged and the privileged, between the can’s and the cannot’s, between mistrust and resentment, and between tolerance and violence, eruption of grave ethnic conflict is all but certain.
Time is now to break this circle. Time is now to bring the healing. Stirring up ethnic hatred is not a solution to a region of 13 ethnic groups. Politicians, please stop advancing personal or single ethnic group causes at the cost of other groups and civilian lives. People, wake up – at the end of the day what matters to you is your individual welfare, and your welfare depends not on your ethnic symbol but on your hard work, and on the equality and opportunities of the whole society. The healing process will be long, but it is one that you must take.
80. aasiyah | 07.14.09
i agree with brother Ali Soomro…and as it is in some countries these kind of news hardly reach the ears of the public it is thanks to the internet that information flows
81. john | 07.14.09
Mr. Clark, if you did not know, now you should now: Al-Qaeda is going to behead the Chinese in Africa, as reported by many news papers today. Extreme muslim organtizations in Indonicia also called for Jihad against the Chinese. Instead of asking why the Muslim world is muted, we should ask what is the difference between Al-Qaeda and those rioter in Xinjiang.
82. cnheying | 07.14.09
to btw
—————
not all pro chinese word is paste by “Chinese government”.
i can tell you, i am chinese—not goverment offical(believe or not).
i read western newspaper almost every day–although, my poor write english.
the annoyest thing i read from western newspaper is you western are so bias.
i konw, the bias stem from ideology.
i am dislike commu..ism dictator too!—especially when i am find youtube was blocked again!(find proxy/vpn is annoying)
but if some one let me choose only from the two.
i would rather choose commu..ism dictator.
83. DA | 07.14.09
Iran’s government ignores China’s violence against the Uighurs for the same reason that it ignores Russia’s violence against the Chechens–it needs the economic and diplomatic support of China and Russia to counter the efforts of the West to improve its behavior. They support the Palestinians because they lose nothing by antagonizing Israel. The Iranian government is more anti-West than it is pro-Islam, and supporting their co-religionists in Xinjiang or the Chechnya, in their view, would be pointless.
84. John Chen | 07.14.09
I think the aother want Muslim hate Chinese,then a war between them broke out.
hostility,hostility,hostility!!
I believe you love peace,so please protect peace between Uighur and Han Chinese!
85. R. Saunders | 07.14.09
Excellent article, thank you Mr. Clark, journalism and commentary clearly defined. You clearly do not wish for conflict, just one of the few to point out the brutality of the Han Chinese, hypocrisy of the Islamic world and the tough situation the Uighurs are in (no angels either).
The premise of most articles on the Islamic world should recall that it is culturally pre-medieval to marginally monarchist-theocracies. In the last 20 years Islam acts not unlike an impulsive child, with maniacal fits to get attention and knocking over others buildings.
However, the West has acted like an over-indulgent mother, coddling and apologizing.
86. Will, Philadelphia PA | 07.14.09
From the article: “It’s the kind of stuff that would arouse passionate protests if a Western country were the one cracking down. (Remember the apoplectic protests over the Danish cartoon of Prophet Muhammad?)”
Right now, Cairo is reeling over another scandal, namely the death of an Egyptian woman at the hands of a European racist. In a court of law, no less.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8144154.stm
This is, of course, going to hit home far harder for those in Cairo (I have lived there, so I believe I can make that judgment).
87. Meg | 07.14.09
Biparis: interesting how you talk about the “usual level of hypocrisy one encounters in that region” (Middle East and Islamic Africa). I wonder if you would consider the United States hypocritical for spouting rhetoric about freedom and democracy while actively supporting through military and financial means, all kinds of despots, autocrats and genocidal maniacs in the Middle East and other parts of the world (remember Saddam Hussein?).
Probably not. Sounds like hypocrisy and double standards to me. But of course, the West is just “too enlightened and advanced” to be hypocritical. Sigh.
88. jthk | 07.14.09
When there are more hans who died than the Uyghurs, when it was the Uyghurs who did the killing, I do not see why Muslims can confuse the right and the wrong. This means that religious cannot over-dominate reasoning. I just cannot understand how can the Turkish president can blindly claim that it was a genocide. A genocide of what? The Hans? It is a disgrace of the Turkish people to have a president of this intelligence. In fact, we do not want to put oil on the fire. The Uyghurs are only under influence of misleading political propaganda.
As for the rumour that the Al Qaeda is seeking to take revenge by killing hans labours. I do not think that the Al Qaeda leaders would stand on the same side with the US as the US government by lending support to Xijiang separatism. What is the purpose o push the Chinese government towards the US side particularly when in this moment the US is fighting hard its war on terrorism.
89. Will, Philadelphia PA | 07.14.09
Also, the Kuwaiti pro-government newspaper al-Watan ran an article on 6/9 about the Uighur conflict titled: “The crisis of the Muslim Chinese and the Islamic Conference”
You should really sign up for a translation service like Mideastwire if you are going to report on perceived reactions in the Middle East. I don’t feel like there was a lot of thought put into this article.
90. Dan | 07.14.09
btw is absolutely correct. It seems like every article remotely critical of the Chinese government is immediately swarmed by dozens of Han Chinese agents, or Han Chinese who are so willfully ignorant of their own nation’s history/actions that they might as well be agents. I recently saw a program on PBS where several young Han Chinese were shown a picture of the famous Tiananman Square incident with the young man standing in front of the column of tanks and not a single one either knew what it represented or they were too afraid to admit that they did.
In 1989, the oppressive government of China made a deal– it told 200 million Han Chinese that they could either have political rights, or they could get rich. They chose getting rich. Now, 800 million other Chinese work at slave wages in the most oppressive working conditions in the most degraded industrial environment in the world. The increasingly wealthy middle class looks the other way as ethnic minorities like the Tibetans and Uighers are crushed underfoot to fatten their own wallets. But who should be surprised? This is the way all empires/peoples have behaved in the past. The Han Chinese are no different, for all their vaunted Mandarins, Buddhism, and Confucianism. They’re as greedy and bloodthirsty as any of us have ever been.
The really interesting thing about the Uigher region, and what the government of China fears the most, is that thousands of archaeological sites have been unearthed in the region dating to 2000 BC and before, long before any Chinese lived there, containing the graves of blond/red haired, blue-eyed people called the Tocharians. These Indo-European people migrated into the region with their horses, chariots, and iron tools and weapons long before the Chin dynasty united China’s warring lords under one banner, and are historical proof that China’s claims to large chunks of central Asia are without any kind of justifialble foundation, but that rather, China is an imperialist interloper which arrived on the scene only recently. Imperialist running dogs, as Mao might have said. This is why the Uighers must be crushed, and why the Tibetans have been ground underfoot for so many decades. Han China wants to rule the world, and they must be stopped. One billion Europeans, one billion Indians, and one billion Muslims should be able to do the job.
In the meantime, the Han will follow a strategy of divide and conquer, to gain access to the resources, markets, and slave labor they require to feed their economic charnel house. So read all news (and comments on sites such as this) coming from China or speaking favorably of Chinese policy as beign what it is– nothing more than Communist (state capitalist) propaganda.
91. MaryAugusta | 07.14.09
Mr. Clark makes a point, but the answer lies more in the isolation of the Uigher people than in a silence from “Muslim Street”.
In Chinese popular culture they are mysterious, impulsive, violent. In their own eyes they are Godfearing, tenacious, fun-loving, and rebellious. They have an Islam full of music, laughter, and emotion.
The Uigher unrest began generations ago. As Tianshan said, it has been going on at some level for a long time.
George Snyder’s comments rang so true……on so many levels…..In the United States we celebrate our western conquest, but it came at a price. By repopulating the western regions, China can logically keep a legitimate control over that area. But the government should not be surprised that there continues to be deep seated resentment simmering under the surface.
92. Moses Liu | 07.14.09
Mr Matthew Clark is simply seeking cheap publicity by purposefully publishing article that was obviously meant to provoke reactions. He has totally abandoned the ethics and responsibility of a nobel profession of that of a selfless journalist.
Instead, he chose to be an opportunist acquiring fame and attention at the expense of other peaceable mankinds like the Muslims and the Chinese. Likened to an old Chinese saying, “He stands on the Ivory tower and loves to watch how the horses below are kicking one another”.
Dont take his CIA’s baits.
93. Yang Zhong | 07.14.09
For those who think the Han Chinese ‘took’ Uyghur’s land: The Han Dynasty established The Protectorate of the Western Regions to manage and control the Western Regions, roughly today’s Xingjiang (excluding Dzungaria) in 60 BC. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protectorate_of_the_Western_Regions) Xinjiang has since been territory of China. While Turkic Uighurs only started to migrate into the region at about 600AD.
94. David | 07.14.09
It seems that US readers have a preconceived notion about how to view the world:
1) Majority=bad; minority=good
2) Chinese authorities bad; rebels/insurgents=good
I concur with poster no.78’s comments. The Uighurs were reported in The Times and the BBC as having set out to kill Han people. The Uighurs didn’t confine themselves to shouting or even roughing people up. The Times reported that they slashed one woman’s face from her mouth to her ear. Han shops were intentionally targeted and the shopowners (including elderly women) were killed and, as No 78 reports, beheaded.
Now this DOES sound like meeting the definition of genocide, but it is the Uighurs who were perpetrating it. And beheading…this seems to be popular amongst Muslim groups.
I think that your American audience would benefit from shaking their preconceptions out of their heads. BTW: I do hope my English has been good enough to convince the paranoid posters that I am not Chinese. I am an American citizen (not of Oriental descent) living in London.
95. deusXmchna | 07.14.09
It’s interesting to see how fearful the Chinese Propaganda Machine is. I can’t quite fish out how many different posters here are Chinese, but there are obviously some. I can’t tell if it’s one or two guys making the same grammatical/spelling/contextual errors- or if it’s a bunch of people making the same errors. Either way it’s intriguing to see the fear.
The Chinese Propagandists are so paranoid that they don’t realize that the US Govt is shoving PRO China propaganda down our throats (our, meaning US Citizens- seeing how there’s a large enough group here that some might get confused.. teehee!). You see, the US Gov’t depends on China. The cheap goods to keep our growing lower-class in some form of acceptable lifestyle. If the US Citizens finally got fed up with the poison toys & pet foods, the Chinese’ treatment of our Naval fleet, the constant Chinese cyber-terrorism, and the ENORMOUS theft of intellectual property by the Chinese- if the US citizens ever got tired of all that BS and REALLY pushed for a change, ALL of Gov’t officials and their friends in big business (that have sold out manufacturing to the chinese to increse profits), would be in the poor house.
The US Govt spends billions on PRO-Chinese propaganda- if they didn’t, they’d have to face stark realities. So- your paranoia reveals yourselves. (my favorite was “This piece of crappy writing sounds a lot more like CIA propaganda”…. sorry Harry, CIA propaganda sounds much more like “Trust the Chinese, they are our friends. The lead based toys decreasing our childrens IQ’s is just an accident!” Thats PROPAGANDA)
96. syed salamah ali mahdi | 07.14.09
It so happened that the Chinese, Han or otherwise, have for centuries been fighting the Turkic, Mongol and Tartar tribes for access to water and arable land by defending themselves behind WALLS or fighting invading these tribes domains and forcing them farther away West from their homeland. Just study the History of the Mongols (Genghiz Khan) and the Tartars (Timurlane) in relation to China to find out more. Every few Centuries the cycle repeats itself and the Turkic population are revolting against their Chinese “Occupiers”. This time round the Turkic population happen to be Muslims. That is why the the Turks in Turkey are supporting the Uighur Turks. Now Western M$M is spuriously introducing Islam against Han Chinese. How can Islam be against Han Chinese? Islam could be against Communist atheists but Islam against an ethnic race? Never! With an African and a Persian apostle very close and dear to the Prophet and with the Turks becoming Caliphs for 800 years, Islam is not ‘racial’ like Judaism and Hinduism are! And to call this lady freedom fighter/leader a Muslim cleric is a LIE and for a PURPOSE. There are no FEMALE clerics in Islam!
97. David Smith | 07.14.09
Of course there’s no response. The Chinese do not have an occupying force in the Middle East. Let’s get straight what the commotion has been about going back to before 9/11. 9/11 happened primarily because the US left it’s troops in Saudi Arabia after the first Gulf War and this angered Osama Bin Laden (a member of the Saudi Royal Family). Everything has simply escalated the more troups we have there. Once the decision was made to invade Iraq we have inherited a no win situation. We will never be able to war ourselves to peace. The Chinese are much smarter and operate on the prinicples espoused in “The Three Kingdoms”.
That and the Chinese Propaganda machine is getting smarter by the minute.
98. Taiyo | 07.14.09
Just another textbook example of how religion is used to control people. Its sad. The Uighurs have it coming now for some brutal displays of ruthlessness and violence. There is no place in this world for over zelous religious nuts. they come from every religion because they are a by product of control thru religion And they just stirred up the wrong hornets nest.
I wish christians would do something this stupid . . .
99. JuzThink | 07.14.09
Less outrage because this is an American financed terrorist group (WUC) that seeks violence so brutal to ensure a Han reprisal. More Muslims are becoming aware of the US plot to divide China and Muslim nations. Xinjiang serves as a distraction so that their killings in Israel, Iraq and Afghanistan can go on with impunity. This articel is very Unchristian Unscientific and monitors nothing.
100. JOel | 07.14.09
What turned most overseas Chinese from against the Chinese government in 1989 to against the Western media in 2008-2009 is lies and stereotypes.
Just as Bush Jr. owned his second term to al Qaeda, the Chinese government has the Western media to thank for consolidating public support based on nationalism.
Credibility is too precious to risk. China is still suffering from its image decades after 1989. What the Western media have inflicted on itself will last a long time among one fifth of the world population.
101. Mohnd Tukmanbai | 07.14.09
Only a matter of time before the Chinese Government and people will face a Holy War. People can only face so much oppression of culture, religion and language before they strike back.
102. Shane | 07.14.09
Turkey officials (not just politicians), PM and CM, jumped out attacking China in gunslinger style, even before facts were known to them.
This Turkey country and its people should be worried.
103. Shexmus Amed | 07.14.09
“Unrest in Xinjiang: Where’s the Muslim outrage?”, is the question. It is the wrong one to ask. The question implies that islamic religious motivations in itself is sufficient to galvanise muslim outrage over what happened in Xinjiang.
The reality is that for a ‘muslim’ expression of outrage, there must also be some element of ethnicity, nationality or national interest at play. For example, Arabs are the lords of the muslim world. Only the actions directed against Arab interests or against the Arab sphere of influence is guaranteed to draw universal condemnation from all muslims.
Although Uighurs are muslims they do not share any territorial, political or cultural ties with the Arab world, hence the muted muslim solidarity with them. Turkey and to a much, much lesser extent Iran do share some cultural and historical affinity with Uighurs. Turkey even considers Xinjiang to be within its zone of influence. That’s why the most powerful ‘muslim’ condemnation came from Turkey. But Turks are no lords of the muslim world; alone, they can never carry the muslim public opinion with them.
Also, one ought to never forget that the fate of 20 million Uighurs struggling against China is not as important as the fate of 2 million Palestinian Arabs fighting against Israel. Arabs are not about to jeopardise their relations with a permanent member of the UN security council. They need China for sake of fellow Arabs in Palestine. So the lords of the muslim world stay mute and the rest of the muslim world nod in silence.
To repeat, ethnic-political-cultural-historic dimensions should never be neglected when discussing solidarity among co-religionists.
Well, that was easy to explain. Could someone now please explain to the rest of us how on frigging earth Turkey is going to get away with its charges of genocide against China? Is it not time to help rub Turkey’s nose into the gutter now that they have sunk to an all time low, morally speaking? Turkey usually has a few hard-core loyalists that will swim in any septic tank for the glory of the Turkish nation, etc, etc. It is worthy of note that Turcophiles are conspiciously absent from the barricades after the G word was deployed against China. One can only suffer so much indignity for Turkey.
104. Dennis | 07.14.09
poster 98 - Taiyo is correct the world has too many religious nuts.
China is proof that Communism is a bad religion.
105. Liaqat | 07.14.09
Wow! all of a sudden it is Muslims this and Muslims that and so it is alright for the Russians to brutally and systematically massacre the Chechens, the Zionists are given freedom to do the same to the Palestinians, the rest of the West (notably the US and Britain) are allowed to do unto the Arabs and Afghans/Pathans and so now the Han Chinese can do to the Uighurs when what they really want are the resources. Filthy lucre is at the root cause of all of these actions whether it be the need for water for Israel or the need for oil and gas for the West and China. The narrative of demonizing Muslims is just a cheap replay of when the West was demonizing the Communists. It worked then so why not use it again to get corporate and government agendas past the public. Its like watching a slow-motion train wreck; mesmerizingly tragic with the innocent paying for it with their lives.
106. Tom | 07.14.09
Unfortunately, in China, 100% media control by the Chinese government ensures that the vast majority of its citizens not only are MISINFORMED but are indeed fully uninformed about the true facts of this incident, as well as any other incident that could be embarrassing for Hu Jintao et al. When a story threatens the government’s image, the CPC elite simply issue an order to Xinhua News Agency: “Kill the story.” And, like an obedient son, Xinhua complies (filial piety at its best!). Not to mention the blocking of non-CPC-friendly news sites and blogs by the Great Firewall of China.
107. Mary | 07.14.09
Question to #9 Hans Schmidt: Why do you think that Rebiya Kadeer should have contacted the American government? What could Washington have done?
108. Katherine Kool | 07.14.09
I sure miss my old Monitor. Dignity, reserve, studied wisdom, fair, level-headed. Polite, but speaking the truth. Integrity. Injure no man, Bless all mankind. Level headed, Peacemakers. Where did they all go? This is more like the Globe or Enquirer, or the race track news. There are plenty of unemployed reporters, some of them have sound credentials no doubt.
109. Davis Brant | 07.14.09
Once more we think that there should be fairness in the world. Humans are ignorant about what does not interest them. Expecting others to feel like oneself is the grand illusion. China will always serve itself first and will assure that no one or thing stands in its way,
Davis
(A frequent visitor to China)
110. Roshi | 07.14.09
The Chinese propaganda machine shows not the slightest empathy for the Uighur suffering both up to and through the riots - the Hans Chinese are completely self centered , and self justifying and their ethnic cleansing of the Muslims and their culture from their own land is explicit and merciless. The Muslim world remains utterly prostrate before their inhumane to Muslim Han Chinese masters because of the Muslim political and economic addiction to Chinese appeasement and enriching of their regimes and societies which are committed to human rights abuses - Muslims are hypocrites in this case - but of course they are hypocrites in terms of their selective “anger” often - if a white Danish mob were to have killed dozens of Muslims , no matter what the Muslims had done to the Danes , even if they had killed dozens of Danes earlier, Muslims would protest wildly in the streets world wide and would boycott Danish goods and the Hans Chinese would claim the Danish violence as racist - Hans Chinese are concerned with one people in the world , themselves
111. Harry Wang | 07.14.09
Check this out- now the WSJ, part of the Murdoch empire that exclusively serves the wealthy & political- is now stumping for the Chinese Propaganda Machine.
Check this out for some nausea:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124762185860842743.html
112. utekargautam76 | 07.15.09
The lack of protest from Islamic quarters all over the world is really because it is well known that the Chinese are extremely ruthless in tackling any kind of opposition to their policies and dangers to their country’s integrity, which is what every country should be doing. Spineless Indian politicians bow down before every voice of discontent and ‘outrage’ when they attempt to deal with secessionist tendencies and this, in turn, emboldens the Muslims more. China has made it very clear, over the last few decades, that insults to its national unity would not be tolerated and would be dealt with severely.
113. Shadi Alkasim | 07.15.09
46 of the 184 who died were Uighurs, one was Hui that leaves 137 non-muslim dead. So why is this being marketed as a muslim massacre? When it’s very probably just another example of muslim violence against non-muslims, resulting in Chinese security forces using force to stop the murders. of course there’s press agency bias+ if it happens in any other country around the world ( specially Arabs and Muslims countries ) police will do the same .
TURKISH PM CALLED IT GENOCIDE, WHAT HE IS CALLING WHAT HAPPENING IN TURKEY AGAINST KURDS? HE CALLED IT GENOCIDE BECAUSE THEY SPEAKING TURKISH
Also I wish someone would explain to Turkish people the meaning of the word “genocide”?! Maybe then they would admit their responsibility for murdering millions of innocent Armenians and hundreds of thousands of Kurds!
Shadi Alkasim
Jordanian Radio Producer & Journalist
114. Urumqi Native | 07.15.09
Thanks Shadi for your comments! I just know there are still good journalists who have conscious and integrity.
I was born and raised in Urumqi Xinjiang, a Han. Upon learning the Urumqi riots, I started calling my friends and family. My friend’s sister happen to live in a building right next to one of the ‘killing grounds’. People there saw stores were robbed, set on fire, owners and customers were beaten and dragged back inside the stores to be burned to death, including an old Han women in her 80’s and her son and 7 years old grandson. Young women were stoned to death. When I started watching news here from the States, most of them were totally saying a different thing, they acted as if they finally find an opportunity to slash the Chinese and Chinese government for the ‘discrimination’ of minority Uighur. It’s heart breaking. I’m not saying the Chinese government has been right all alone, I sided with the students on 6.4 incident. Let’s face it, here, at a place where almost all the media labeling themselves to be the moralists of ‘freedom of speech’ and ‘justice’, guess what? They tell lies and painting black white and they didn’t even care to post my comments.
This time, as said by a renowned Maulvi (I’m not a muslin) that this is not about religion and ethnic groups, these people are just criminals killing innocent people, I could not agree with him more. There are actually Uighur being beaten if they tried to stop the violence and there are Uighur helped save Han’s lives.
115. Nayyar Hashmey | 07.16.09
Mr. Clarke,
Muslims are not reacting over what happened in Xinjiang province of China because of the games played by respective US administrations to make Muslims fight their wars and then leave them in lurch as it happened in Afghanistan, as it happened in Palestine, as it happened in Chechnya and as it is happening in Pakistan now.
The Muslim populations worldwide have seen how the Pentagoners used the sentiments of Muslims to grind their own axe, all the time, by all Us administrations and at all times it were the Muslims who suffered in the long run. Your article on the plight of Uyghur Muslims is not based on any sympathy for Muslims, it is just an effort to bleed China as you bled Soviet Russia and then made the same Afghans who laid their lives for your war, (which you made for them a war of Islam vs. Infidels) and now too, you are indirectly playing the same game under the garb of Muslim brethren vs. the Infidel Chinese.
And this Rebia Kadeer of WUC is running an NGO which is funded by the Pentagon, how can then Muslims stand up to side with the Uyghur’s when they know ultimately it is the same Uyghur’s who will fight the US war against China and ultimately will be punished being Muslims, as the clash of civilizations is still in progress, the Neocons who want an NWO be introduced are still in their place, how can you expect Muslims to be fooled again and again. Muslim governments may be a stooge of the US presidents but the Muslims in general, the common Muslims on the street now very well understands how are these games being played where Muslims are a pawn in the game and nothing else???
Nayyar Hashmey
http://wondersofpakistan.wordpress.com/
116. Harry Wang | 07.17.09
Huh? The muslims on the street are aware of this vast US conspiracy, but the muslim governments (either put in power, or supported in power by the muslims on the street) didn’t get the phone call from their supporters about the US?
It’s funny how much power the conspiracy theorists give to the US. We are the great puppetmasters of the world! We have everyone fooled, except the uneducated muslims- most of them living in abject poverty. Maybe that’s why they’re immune. Hard for the USA mind control to get through shanty towns & tents- much like tinfoil hats.
117. zhouzhixia | 07.22.09
Tianshan Mountain divides Xinjiang into Northen Xinjiang and Southern Xinjiang. Almost all of ethnic Uyghrs settle in Southern Xinjiang. Northen Xinjiang is homeland to Kazakh or Mongolian and other races.Urmuqi was established by Qing dynasty in 18 century, where all of the residents were Han Chinese and Manchurians as early as that ancient time. Even by the time 1949, most of the residents there were Han Chinese. So it turns out who are the outsiders of Urumqi? Han Chinese immigrants after 1949 settle down in large cities, and rarely interrupt the life of minorities.
118. jthk | 08.01.09
Why there are more black/ethnic minorities imprisoned in and outside (Guantanamo Bay) the American territory? What problem between the majority hans and other minorities are similar the White American and the black/other ethnic minority and all ethnic issues in other Western democracies in Europe. China has been a nation of multiethnicity for thousand of years. We have never use genocide as the Western people used in America and Australia. What the Chinese government has been trying to do is to maintain the territorial integrity and preventing the recurrence of the American history of civil war between the Northern and Southern states. It is better for you guys to stop fueling ethnic hostility inside a big country like China. What you have to do should be appreciate its effort to maintain itself as a state of diversity, peace and progressive opening and rapid development with reasonable force. This is the basic duty and responsibility of the government that should be supported and expected by all Chinese nationals. In view of the actuality that China was the economy sustaining the economy of the whole region preventing the collapse of all other smaller economies during the Asia Financial Crisis in 1997. China is still the main economy sustaining the economy of the whole world in the current global financial crisis. You guys ought to appreciate the effort of the Chinese government. In this global era, a peaceful and prosperous China would benefit the whole world. So, it is wiser to abandon old politics and perspectives popularized during the two Great Wars and the Cold War. We are in a global era of the 21st century, the peace and prosperity of China is essentially required for global peace and prosperity.
119. james bond | 08.05.09
I think the author of this article is trying to picture the muslims as a group of no-brainers. They will not use heir head to react to any events that Muslims are involved and backup their Muslim brothers. Actually Muslims are people who can see what is wrong and what is right. Protesting against China for a bunch of murders and terrorists is not something Muslima are proud of. In this case, Rebiya Kadeer’s supporters have shown how barbaric they are just like she has shown she is such idiotic liar.
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1. Ryan | 07.13.09
Why does muslims around the globe need to react? Muslim is a religion not a race. If a catholic person gets killed somewhere in this world should all bible reading people react too?