My day as an Uighur Muslim in China

Joe Mackertich was able to pass for a day as a Xinjiang migrant in Shanghai. His appalling treatment goes to show why Uighurs rioted over the weekend

FIRST POSTED JULY 6, 2009

China's Xinjiang province was rocked by riots over the weekend which resulted in the deaths of more than 140 people - the country's worst violence since the Tiananmen Square incident 20 years ago. The tragedy comes as no surprise to anybody familiar with Chinese society. The only surprise should be that it does not happen more often.

Enormous, landlocked Xinjiang has only been part of China for 115 years, and it is one of the most volatile regions in Asia. As far as most Chinese are concerned, the northwest region is at the end of the civilised world - the place where the dilapidated tail of the Great Wall disappears into the sand. It is also a place of barbarism, un-Chinese values and danger.

Wen Ding is a Chinese national living in the UK who spent years of her childhood travelling back and forth to Xinjiang with her father, a Beijing newspaper editor. "It was so scary walking in the street," she says of Urumqi, Xinjiang's capital. "Me and my dad both felt really unwelcome. The people seemed dangerous."

As I had dark hair and a full beard, I could briefly pass myself off as Uighur Such views on Xinjiang abound in mainland China. Ask a random Han Chinese about the Uighurs (Xinjiang's Muslim ethnic majority) and you will almost certainly learn that: (one) they sell drugs, (two) they carry concealed weapons and (three) they find it easy - even enjoyable - to kill people.

I experienced this blatant, ugly racism at first hand while living in Shanghai, after I made friends with two bakers who had recently arrived from Xinjiang to flog hot Uighur bread outside a restaurant. One of them spoke Chinese and he insisted that, as I had full dark hair and a full beard, I could briefly pass myself off as Uighur and find out how badly they were treated by Han Chinese.

Dutifully I put on a traditional Xinjiang hat, called a doppa, and got to work selling bread. Most of the customers didn't seem to notice my Western features - evidently a beard and an ethnic hat is enough to go undercover as a minority in China. People were certainly brisker with me than when I introduced myself as British. At one point a man on a bicycle stopped and pointed at me. "That is a Muslim," he said proudly to his girlfriend, sat on the back.

Worse was to come. The next day I went to an open-air bazaar next to the Xinjiang bakery to buy presents for my family. One of the stalls was run by a woman who had evidently seen me during my stint as a Xinjiang baker. When I tried to buy one of her worthless trinkets she looked away and said: "We don't sell to you people here."

These attitudes and the racist stereotypes that inspire them have been conjured up - not

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A bit like Tibet, then?

Posted by Bill Fraser at 10:16am on July 7, 2009

Yes, the Chinese leadership can be brutal. These little men have such huge complexes about their positions of power. If the clashes taking place now grow, so will the death toll.

Posted by don roberts at 10:35am on July 7, 2009

What would you expect, when since the 7th century, every tribe and country that were overrun by Muslims lost its identity. heritage and nationality. Think of Egypt. Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Iran etc etc .. While I do advocate freedom for people, i have to pause when it comes to Islam. They are never satisfied with one slice, they want the whole pie. The Quran says and I quote: 2.39. But those who reject Faith and belie Our Signs, they shall be companions of the Fire; they shall abide therein. 2.190. Fight in the cause of Allah those who fight you, but do not transgress limits; for Allah loveth not transgressors. 2.191. And slay them wherever ye catch them, and turn them out from where they have Turned you out; for tumult and oppression are worse than slaughter; but fight them not at the Sacred Mosque, unless they (first) fight you there; but if they fight you, slay them. Such is the reward of those who suppress faith.

Posted by Georges Samara at 12:03pm on July 7, 2009

The Uighurs are a Turkic Caucasian group. They have a rich history, with a golden period of empire from 744 to 840AD. Contrary to what the 3rd comment poster is asserting, the ancestors of these people actually conquered, defeated and destroyed the Islamic powers of that time. However, like many other cultures, they converted to Islam, and adopted what they saw as the very sophisticated Persian / Muslim culture that dominated most of Central Asia. Under the Chagatay Khanate's rule in East Turkestan/Uighurstan, the modern Uighur nation acquired its current demographic composition and its current cultural identity. Hence as a Turkic folk share a sense of ethnic kinship between other Turkic folk e.g. Uzbeks etc. It is no suprise then, that as an aspiring sovereign republic they chose the name East Turkistan in 1912. The 1st republic of East Turkistan was delcared in 1933, and the 2nd in 1943, before being occupied and annexed by China. They have suffered oppression and cultural repression, ever since. Hence I agree with the writer and first comment poster, that this is like Tibet. Unfortunately they do not have a star like the Dalai Lama to promote their cause, and of course the Chinese have been ruthless at exploiting the fact that they are muslim. Thus for Islamophobes like Georges Samara (3rd comment poster), this should automatically disqualify them from human sympathy. Like other fools, he desperately resorts to quoting the Quran, (out of context yet again) - what a yawn!!! This is becoming tiresome and silly. Here we go then: THE BIBLE: 1) In Deuteronomy 13:6-16, the Lord instructs Israel to kill anyone who worships a different god or who worships the Lord differently. 2) In Mark 7:9, Jesus is critical of the Jews for not killing their disobedient children as prescribed by Old Testament law. 3) In Luke 19:22-27, Jesus orders killed anyone who refuses to be ruled by him. 4) In Leviticus 25:44-46, the Lord tells the Israelites it's OK to own slaves, provided they are strangers or heathens. Woaaa!! Looks like Christianity is now inherently violent, (and we know that these passages inspired many a Christian zealot). Context is everything, this cheap way of attacking Islam, can so easily be used on the Bible and Torah. As I said before - boring and tedious. Lets leave religion out of it. The Uighurs are oppressed in the same way as the Tibetans, and its time that their cause did receive some deserved attention.

Posted by Luigi Sasso at 2:26pm on July 7, 2009

I concur strongly by the courageous comments of Luigi Sasso. I consider myself to be an admirer and supporter of China, but I also feel that many of its minorities are indeed treated badly, with the history of persecution of the Muslim Uigurs and Buddhist Tibetans being a true disgrace, the underbelly of China's amazing transformation. Mr Samara, I do not know if you even bothered to read the above article before sprouting your stale anti Muslim nonsense. Please read the above article, and bear in mind the Chinese are controlling the Uigurs, not the other way around. Also, please note the denizens of the countries in the Middle East you mentioned are Muslims for the most part by their own choice, nobody is forcing anyone to be any religion they do not want to be part of. Of course China, where Communism can be forced down people's throats is an exception.

Posted by SAS at 3:19am on July 13, 2009