Playing Up the Religious Element

Perhaps the most significant long-term effect of the violence in Xinjiang will be to raise the profile of the Uighur cause in other Muslim countries. 

Whereas in the West we tend to view this as another manifestation of Chinese imperialism, along with southern neighbour Tibet, where the indigenous culture is suppressed by an influx of Han Chinese - Jonathan Fenby talks of the "empire that dare not speak its name" - for Muslims this is an assault on the Ummah, the community of believers. As such, for a certain kind of Islamic thinking, it's a call to arms.

So we see Rebiye Kadeer, the exiled Uighur spokeswoman, playing up the religious element of the conflict, and appealing for support to Muslims worldwide:

In a recent interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, Rebiye Kadeer was keen to make an appeal to the Islamic world through the newspaper. “I urge you to make our voice heard and to urge Muslims to support our cause,” she said. Speaking through an interpreter, Kadeer added, “We are persecuted simply because we are Muslims; eminent religious scholars are in Chinese jails, and no one has mentioned their case in the past.” She, however, expressed satisfaction over the statements recently issued by some Islamic states, and by the Organization of the Islamic Conference, saying: “We thank the states that have issued statements, as well as the Organization of the Islamic Conference, and we hope that they will do more.” Kadeer expressed that “international pressure is the only solution available to us, because we have no other means of protecting ourselves.” She added, “The rulers of Islamic states should put pressure on China to stop using terrorism as an excuse to persecute our people. The world should be aware that about 90 per cent of the Uyghur students who have studied Islam in Saudi Arabia and in Egypt are detained in Chinese jails at present.”

And the Turkish Prime Minister, of all people, describes events in Xinjiang as "a kind of genocide":

"There is no other way of commenting on this event," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

Unlike, of course, the killing of over a million Armenians, which was emphatically not a genocide. 

But although it's tempting to wish bad news on the Chinese, the growth of a Taliban-style movement in Xinjiang, armed and financed by jihadists from outside coming to the aid of their fellow Muslims, would not be a happy development. It's the story the Chinese have been putting out to justify their brutal clampdown - that they're battling terrorists. It just may come back to bite them.

Comments

[DaninVan]

Won't gain much traction in the ME; the Uighur aren't Arabic.
Can you see the Sudanese getting excited? With China being their new friend?
Hell, I can't even see the West getting excited; here's the big chance to get the Chinese onside vis-a-vis Islamic terrorisism.