Beyond The Great Wall

I was so excited about someone whom I met in a cyber chat few weeks ago. What made me surprise is that I met an Uyghur brother. I read a lot about the struggle of Muslims in china land, and there is a part called Xin Jiang which is inhabited by the Uyghur. Most of them are Muslims. I couldn’t get much information about people’s struggling for independence there. It seems that the problem is a very sensitive issue in China. I will not write about specific issue here, but I will start with general view of mine about this part of the world.

XinJiang or East Turkestan is an old city beyond the great wall. Everything seems Middle Eastern rather than Chinese. People in this part of the world are struggling to get free life and to get right to express their pious as Muslim. Some stories I read, Chinese government oppresses and forces their communist policies in XinJiang. Muslims can not do pray and other religious activities, even Islam can not be thought in school. I am not sure whether or not this land belongs to China, because some article says that the china’s border is the Great Wall and Xin Jiang is out of that border.

XinJiang is a very beautiful and interesting region, naturally and culturally. It is located between china and Afghanistan. Desert, hill, lake, and culture are a blending between two big cultures. I can see XinJiang in You tube video is like a middle east in china. The people also seem Middle Eastern rather than Chinese, or we can say they are like hazara in Afghanistan, the blend between Arabs and Chinese. That’s only my conclusion for an opening. The cities in XinJiang are blending too between uyghur’s culture and Chinese. Arabics, Uyghur, and Chinese letters spread in the buldings along the road there. The food also I can say again it’s blending. Ok, I conclude that XinJiang is a unique blending region between East and Middle East.

My friend told me that Chinese government calls the Uyghur is an artist, why? It’s because they like singing and dancing. Yeah, although most of them Muslims but some people still, they can not be separated by their old culture. According to a video made by Serene Fang, most Muslims, in Kashgar especially, are Sufi Muslims. Maybe that’s why they are called artist, because in Sufism it’s a common to sing and to dance.

Today XinJiang is in progress especially in the center of islam, Kashgar. The city is developing very much without leaving the old culture. I can still see an old cart between cars in the main road of Kashgar. I can see an old city there with their traditional bazaar where people sell vegetables, cattle, and handicrafts.

Soooooo interesting, it makes me wanna see that place with my own eyes. I always interested in Middle East culture that’s why I like this place, but in XinJiang, I can see something different, the cultural blending between two big cultures.

Inside the beauty of XinJiang, the silenced of the people are underground. People are afraid to speak about the oppression. My friend said that it is true that children do not get religious lesson (Islam) in school, since it is forbidden. Some parents who concern about this teach Islam in home, like my friend’s family. I don’t know the real condition of the people there actually, but every article I read talk about the oppression. Muslims are caught for terrorism, a woman caught just because thought Quran to the children, sterilizes forces for women, even abortion for those who pregnant after having 2 children. It’s horrible. It seems that the government doesn’t want this region to develop, they try to stop new Uyghur baby to born. XinJiang is not only beautifu, but also rich for mineral. The reason is logic to make the government want this land for Chinese not for the Uyghur.

That’s why Uyghurs are unique, I can spend my time to browse about it all day.

I’ll try to write more about Uyghur, InshaAllah. The place that make me in love and the suffering of my brothers and sisters there that make me feel so bad.