The ABC News investigative team looks at the rise of militant groups among the Uighur minority in Xinjiang:
After years of harsh treatment at the hands of Chinese rulers, some members of the mainly Muslim Uighur minority in western China are turning to the global Islamist movement.
Among the recent developments is the presence of Hizb-ut-Tahrir, which means the Party of Liberation, a group that advocates for a single Islamic state and preaches non-violent methods. Abdul Wahid, a leading member of Hizb-ut-Tahrir in London, told ABC News that his group has active members in western China’s Xinjiang region.
The adherence of some of China’s Muslims to a global Islamist philosophy represents a departure for a population that has traditionally subscribed to a moderate form of Islam, and whose protests have been mainly directed against Chinese rule, said Nicholas Bequelin, a Human Rights Watch researcher.
Read also “China’s Forgotten People” from the New Statesman, via CDT, and “China says controls tightened on Muslims in remote west,” from AFP.