CHINA TOPIX

03/28/2024 07:59:55 am

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300 Uighurs from China’s Xinjiang Province Join ISIS

Uighurs

(Photo : dailysabah.com) Members of militant groups of Uighur communities wearing orange vests.

It is not just British female teens who are fleeing their homeland to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Three hundred Uighurs from China's Xinjiang Province likewise made the same journey to the Middle East to become a part of the caliphate known for its extreme terrorist views.

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According to Bloomberg, China has no one else to blame for the mass exodus of Muslims, the Uighurs, to join the ISIS.

It cited the decline in population of the Uighurs from 82 percent in 1949 to 46 percent in 2010.

With the decline in their headcount came the more favorable policy of the provincial government to the migrant Hans in the area of business.

The Hans are said to receive higher priority in securing licenses to begin an enterprise or use the region's natural resources.

This led to resentment and translated into violence, resulting to 180 deaths in July 2009.

The government response was a crackdown on Uighur practice of their Islam faith, seen by some as a potential threat to the government similar to how the ISIS members are viewed as troublemakers.

Muslim Uighurs were forced to eat during Ramadan, while beards, mustaches, veils and head covers were banned in public.

But observers say the use of the veil could be their way of expressing their political disobedience since 10 years ago. Female Islam followers in the area didn't wear face covers.

Authorities, though, could cite the increase in terroristic actions as proof of the need for tighter regulations.

These include knife-wielding Uighurs slaying 31 people and injuring 140 people at a train depot in Kunning in March 2014 and the eight people killed on Monday by a suicide bomber.

Not all Uighurs who leave Xinjiang end up with ISIS. Some opt for Kazakhstan where there are currently 260,000 Uighur migrants, while another 6,000 prefer poor living conditions in Turkey than persecution in China.

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