- Populated by ethnic-Turkic Uighurs, Xinjiang western region was known as independent East Turkestan up to the end of the II World War. On October 1, 1955, Chinese leader Mao Zedong designated Xinjiang an "Uighur Autonomous Region"
- Chinese Communist party's interference in the observance of Ramadan stokes grievances in recent weeks
- Ethnic-Han Chinese have been moving into Xinjiang since the 1950's and they now make up most of its population, mostly in the two largest cities, Kashgar and Urumqi
Kashgar, Aut. 18.─ Idh Kah mosque in Kashgar, said to be the biggest in China, boasts a noticeboard recalling the care lavished on its restoration by the central government. The monument is an emblem, it claims, of "the harmony among China's ethnic groups". However, many of the men idling in the shade of the mosque's leafy grounds on a Saturday in the holy month of Ramadan are in an unharmonious state of mind.
Xinjiang, the vast region in whose west lies the old Silk Road city of Kashgar, has a history of tension between the ethnic-Turkic, mostly Muslim, Uighurs who used to make up most of its population, and the authorities, dominated by ethnic-Han Chinese. During Ramadan, which comes to an end on August 19th, that tension has been exacerbated by the government's intervention in religious practice.
It has been discouraging, and in some places even banning, Communist Party cadres, government officials, students and schoolchildren from fasting and attending mosques during working hours. "Every year it's the same," says one man, sporting the four-cornered embroidered green hat worn by many Uighurs. "But my children are Muslims. We just ignore it."
Groups representing Uighur exiles say that this year the campaign has been more intense than usual. Xinjiang's government has denied forcing people to break the fast. Hou Hanmin, a spokeswoman, was quoted by Global Times, a party-owned newspaper, saying that the government did, however, "encourage residents to eat properly for study and work purposes."
This is resented by many Uighurs as yet another encroachment on their traditions. Kashgar is rapidly becoming a Chinese city like many others. A huge statue of Mao Zedong overlooks the central People's Square. The old town of mud-brick houses linked by labyrinthine alleys is disappearing, eaten up by broad avenues lined by high-rise buildings. In Xinjiang as a whole, Uighurs and other minorities are now outnumbered by Han Chinese.
Many Uighurs long for independence, which the region briefly enjoyed as East Turkestan in the 1930s and again in the 1940s. The emergence of independent Central Asian republics after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and then the toppling of Arab dictators in 2011 encouraged them to dream ...
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