#2 says religion has become a “symbolic form of resistance” to Chinese rule in a region where other resistance is impossible. Usual PC disclaimer verbiage. It's not "religion" but Islam. Not "Islam" as it was practiced in the region up until very recently, but it looks to be going Salafi which is a hallmark of the Jihad. Strong hints in the article itself that the long beards & face covering are a new phenomenon.
Left out of the article are the relative numbers: How many Islamic Chinese, how many non-Islamic, ratio of Han Chinese to Uighurs, all quite relevant to understanding this story, all left out.
China has an extremely long institutional memory. Anything that has happened in any civilization in the world has, pretty much, already happened in China, not once but several times: highly developed culture, the envy of the world, richest place on earth for a long time, barbarian invasions, barbarians melting partly into the dominant society, barbarians promoted to positions of authority, barbarians then revolting, massive unrest, people selling their children for food, people selling their children AS food, etc. The Han Chinese have been through this before and are (probably) not willing to put up with crap from restive minorities with bad attitudes. |