By Hans Petersen and Igor Rotar - Forum 18 News Service - Oslo, Norway
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Four official notices on display in a mosque in China's north-western Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region starkly reveal the impact on religious freedom of tensions in the region.
The documents, seen and translated by Forum 18 News Service, are displayed in a context of great tension between Uighur Muslims and Han Chinese migrants, and state attempts to control and repress religious activity. Over time, this has radicalised the demands of some Uighur Muslims Forum 18 has spoken to.
Islam in Xinjiang, with some exceptions, has been of a moderate variety. Many women go unveiled or just wearing a loose head-scarf, in contrast to the head-to-foot coverage common in nearby Afghanistan. Sufism is popular, as is folk Islam with worship of saints at shrines, which is quite alien to "fundamentalist" Islamic movements such as Wahhabism.
China, by its repression of the Islam traditional to the region, is in danger of encouraging radical Islam in the very people it wishes to win over.
(...)
Friday, November 24, 2006
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Friday, November 24, 2006
In Xinjiang, Sufism is popular
By Hans Petersen and Igor Rotar - Forum 18 News Service - Oslo, Norway
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Four official notices on display in a mosque in China's north-western Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region starkly reveal the impact on religious freedom of tensions in the region.
The documents, seen and translated by Forum 18 News Service, are displayed in a context of great tension between Uighur Muslims and Han Chinese migrants, and state attempts to control and repress religious activity. Over time, this has radicalised the demands of some Uighur Muslims Forum 18 has spoken to.
Islam in Xinjiang, with some exceptions, has been of a moderate variety. Many women go unveiled or just wearing a loose head-scarf, in contrast to the head-to-foot coverage common in nearby Afghanistan. Sufism is popular, as is folk Islam with worship of saints at shrines, which is quite alien to "fundamentalist" Islamic movements such as Wahhabism.
China, by its repression of the Islam traditional to the region, is in danger of encouraging radical Islam in the very people it wishes to win over.
(...)
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Four official notices on display in a mosque in China's north-western Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region starkly reveal the impact on religious freedom of tensions in the region.
The documents, seen and translated by Forum 18 News Service, are displayed in a context of great tension between Uighur Muslims and Han Chinese migrants, and state attempts to control and repress religious activity. Over time, this has radicalised the demands of some Uighur Muslims Forum 18 has spoken to.
Islam in Xinjiang, with some exceptions, has been of a moderate variety. Many women go unveiled or just wearing a loose head-scarf, in contrast to the head-to-foot coverage common in nearby Afghanistan. Sufism is popular, as is folk Islam with worship of saints at shrines, which is quite alien to "fundamentalist" Islamic movements such as Wahhabism.
China, by its repression of the Islam traditional to the region, is in danger of encouraging radical Islam in the very people it wishes to win over.
(...)
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