[R]esentment still simmers among Muslims...This belongs in the "not really News" department.
For the entire history of The Religion of Peace, it seems, resentment has been simmering.
It's nothing new.
It is their raison d'etre.
Posted on 04/05/2008 11:38:09 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Tibet isn't China's only problem, resentment still simmers among Muslims in Xinjiang
By WILLIAM FOREMAN,Associated Press Writer
AP - Sunday, April 6
HOTAN, China - The chirpy Chinese coffee shop waitress smiled Saturday as she rattled off sites travelers should see in this jade-trading Silk Road town in Xinjiang _ a vast western region of China that like Tibet has a long history of unrest.
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But the woman frowned and her brow furrowed with worry when she mentioned Hotan's main tourist draw: a sprawling bazaar popular among the Muslim minority Uighurs (pronounced WEE-GURS).
"Oh, don't go to the bazaar on the weekend. It gets too crowded and things can get chaotic. A couple weeks ago, there was a protest. Some Muslim separatists caused some trouble. It's terrible," said the waitress, who would only give her surname, Zheng, because she was afraid she would run afoul of officials for discussing the sensitive subject.
The fear and distrust she felt about the Uighurs is common among many Chinese, even though the situation seemed calm in Hotan since the brief March 23 protest. Animosity against the Chinese runs deep among the Uighurs as well, and the recent trouble was a new reminder that Tibet isn't China's only problem. Resentment still simmers in its traditionally Muslim Central Asian frontier.
Chinese authorities blamed the demonstration on Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami, a radical group that wants to create a worldwide Islamic state, the China News Agency reported late Friday. The group, which has claimed to disavow violence, has been banned in Russia and Central Asia, where it reportedly has a large following among the predominantly Muslim former Soviet republics.
Xinjiang leaders have accused the group of handing out "reactionary" leaflets and calling for people to demonstrate in Hotan as well as Xinjiang's capital of Urumqi, the state-run China News Agency reported on its Web site.
The protest came at a bad time for China. The Communist government was already grappling with Tibetan unrest that has spread to neighboring provinces. Pictures of police and troops cracking down on the Tibetan protests have turned into a public relations nightmare for the government, which is trying to paint a peaceful and prosperous image of the country ahead of the Beijing Olympics.
But in Hotan on Saturday, the situation seemed to have cooled off. Only a small number of uniformed police were patrolling the massive bazaar, where the air was thick with smoke from charcoal ovens and grills cooking sizzling lamb kebabs and wheels of flat bread that looked like large pizza crusts.
Hawkers selling mangos yelled over the din of honking taxis and the clip-clopping of donkey carts hauling mountains of vegetables and eggs from the countryside. Women wearing spectacularly colorful head scarves watched over stands piled high with walnuts, almonds, dates and raisins for mostly Uighur customers. Men wove through the crowds on motorcycles with the bloody carcasses of freshly butchered sheep draped over the passenger's seat.
Although things seemed calm, animosity between Muslims and Chinese was almost palpable. People on both sides were quick to criticize each other.
"The Chinese are too bad, really bad," said a Uighur fabric merchant who would only provide his given name, Hama.
"The protesters two weeks ago wanted the Chinese to get out of here. There were a couple hundred. Then the Communists came in and broke it all up. I can't say more or I'll get arrested," he said, putting his wrists together as if they were handcuffed.
"We aren't free to talk," he said, pinching his lips together with his fingers.
China has often used harsh repression to control the Uighurs, who speak a Turkic language and whose customs and religion are distinct from the ethnic majority Han Chinese. The government has also flooded Xinjiang, which means "New Frontier," with military personnel and migrants who control much of the economy.
The Chinese are also quick to voice their fears, disdain or distrust of the Uighurs. They often say the Uighurs are ungrateful for all the government investment that has modernized the region _ bigger than Alaska and one-sixth of China's territory.
"They have no culture and they don't try to study and improve themselves," said a Chinese delivery driver who would only give his surname, Wang, because he said the government didn't want him to speak ill of the Uighurs. "Most businesses don't want to hire them. That's why they hire Han Chinese. Their religion, Islam, it's no good. It fills their heads with nonsense."
Often, it seems the two groups are content to live in their own worlds and make little effort to bridge differences. During the two-hour China Southern Airlines flight from Urumqi to Hotan, none of the young Chinese flight attendants spoke Uighur to the passengers. Even basic phrases like "Please sit down" or "Fasten your seat belts" were spoken in Mandarin to the Uighurs, who often asked the attendants to repeat themselves.
A Uighur university student who would only give his English name, Steve, said he didn't have to go to class last Friday because it was a national holiday _ Ching Ming, a day when Chinese clean their ancestors' graves.
"I don't know what the holiday is called or what it's about," the 20-year-old student said. "It's a Chinese holiday. It has nothing to do with me."
Ping!
And their oil and gas from Kazakhstan runs through Uigher territory. Great. It’s starting to look like a Tom Clancy novel, over there.
What a classy move by a Western ink-stained wretch. Putting her surname up in lights will surely get her a visit from the Chicom secret police. Same deal for "Steve", the Uighur student d!ckweed talked to -- only "Steve" will probably have a distinctly less pleasant visit.
What is it about American journalists? I mean, I can understand falling into a cesspit and getting dirty. But these guys jump right in and dive for the bottom.
How does it make this guy's story better, if a Chinese waitress and a Uighur student get the official thumbscrews put to them?
Wow, and liberals try to give conservatives crap calling them racist.
LLS
sounds like they have a good grasp about the muslims, sady us and our politicans do not have.
“They have no culture and they don’t try to study and improve themselves,” said a Chinese delivery driver who would only give his surname, Wang, because he said the government didn’t want him to speak ill of the Uighurs. “Most businesses don’t want to hire them. That’s why they hire Han Chinese. Their religion, Islam, it’s no good. It fills their heads with nonsense.”
“Wow, and liberals try to give conservatives crap calling them racist.”
Yeah, but if you check this link;
you will see that the Uighurs are part white — that means it is okay to be racist to them.
Xinjiang
Pronounced: shing-jee-ahng
Too bad the western world refuses to see islam as it really is ...
I have heard stories about a guy named General Wang from my Chinese class. Many years ago when the Uygars beheaded a small group of low level Chinese soldiers he took charge. He found the village that the murderers lived. He sent in helicopters that flattened their tent village and to disperse the livestock. He then had the helicopters kill every man woman and child. My teacher follows up that as long as he remained alive, anytime there was trouble with the Uygars they would send in Gen Wang. The mere mention of his name would quell the trouble.
I don’t know how accurate that story is but I liked it.
There are reports of widespread small scale fighting between Han forces and separatists in Uighurland in recent years.
Lots of interesting tidbits of info publicly available. The Tarim Basin in Uigerland is supposed to contain about 8 billion barrels of recoverable oil and 20 billion therms of recoverable natural gas. Beijing has moved some millions of Han settlers into Uighurland in recent years. Beijing security forces work hand in hand with Han business interests to control economic power and excluded Uiger interests. The People’s Liberation Army practices high altitude mountain warfare continuously in the area using wireless broadband C3I and automated artillery targeting, etc. New law in the PRC makes it a criminal offense to support or enable in any way “separatist” thinking. The burden of proof is less than to have “advocated separatism”, more like “not convincingly overjoyed to cooperate with Security Forces”.
China’s supplying nuclear weapons capability to Pakistan and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization are primarily to control the Uighur population in China, can’t let those folks have safe havens, eh?
Should be interesting.
I did not know that. Thanks for your info.:-)
Sounds like the Chi coms got islam figured out
Those ingrates did appreciate being conquered. Ha, ha!
Global jihad ping.
According to recent interpretations of the Hadith, Ya'juj and Ma'juj (Gog and Magog) represent the two forces of Western Marxism and Western Capitalism, which have both spread their influence throughout the world.
The End-Time jihad against the Western Dajjal will encompass the forces of the Mahdi triumphing over both Capitalism and Communism, as he spreads Shari'ah law throughout the world.
Little news leaks out about the jihadist efforts inside Red China, but as the Olympics draw near, a few bits like this one are becoming known.
For more information on Muslim End-Time beliefs, see my FR Homepage and Links page.
[R]esentment still simmers among Muslims...This belongs in the "not really News" department.
For the entire history of The Religion of Peace, it seems, resentment has been simmering.
It's nothing new.
It is their raison d'etre.
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