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On Tibet, Xinjiang, and anti-Islamic bias
Could anybody explain why it's a huge controversy when the Chinese government puts down violent riots (there's a video of a little Han girl being tortured, so don't question the presence of violence) in Buddhist Tibet and it's a huge controversy, but it can put down a peaceful protest in Muslim Xinjiang without any complaint outside of the rare protester in a middle eastern country (hell, the Times even buried the news on the last page of the international section when it reported the event).
Now, you might say that the "splittists" in Xinjiang are terrorists, but that would be based upon information coming from the same people saying the Dalai Lama was planning to suicide bomb China himself.
Now, the only thing I can see that really differentiates the two is the fact that the Tibetans are Buddhists and the Uyghurs are Muslims, which definitely hurts our image among Muslims, who are probably thinking "what the hell?".
Comments (4)
I don't know if that's it exactly. We don't know quite as much about Uyghurs as we know about Tibet and the Dalai Lama. I doubt we'd even know about Tibet if Richard Gere didn't go visit every few years. Blame it on ignorance and the fact that the Uyghurs aren't as well connected as the Dalai Lama. Oh, and there's not a big Muslim Chinese presence in the US like there is a Tibetan community. Or at least a Tibetan group that comes around every year asking for support in my neighborhood.
May 3, 2008 9:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Could you try to get those people to start talking about Xinjiang too, at least? I've actually started disliking Tibet protester because of this issue, and that troubles me.
May 3, 2008 9:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sure. You made me curious about them so, I found a website called the Uyghur Human Rights Project http://www.uhrp.org/ . It looks like it has some good info on the Uyghurs if you want to direct people to their plight.
May 3, 2008 9:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think it's a very interesting question. There is a streak of romanticism about Tibet that Western China and its Muslim population just doesn't have. There is also this rather bizarre fascination, especially in the West, with Tibet's Buddhist culture as something that was "pure," "peaceful," "un-polluted" and so on until the Chinese. I find this rather interesting since pre-China Tibet under the monks was not in any way utopian.
The Dalai Lama has also been a very effective in drawing international attention. He's charismatic, speaks multiple languages, and is an amazing ambassador for Tibet. There is no one who is equivalent among the Uyghurs or any of the other Muslim ethnic groups in China. But it's probably not only due to religious--think about the brief international outcry against what happened in Burma recently and the subsequent silence. So the Muslim-Buddhist difference is definitely a factor but perhaps not the most important issue for the differences.
May 3, 2008 9:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
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