Are the Uighurs separatists?
Some of them are. Whenever blood is spilled in Xinjiang, the state-run media usually pins the blame on what it depicts as sinister forces bent on insurrection. Their favorite target is the World Uighur Congress, an umbrella group of expatriates. There’s also the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which wants to create an independent Islamic state of East Turkestan. The ETIM reportedly has links to al Qaida and has been labeled a terrorist group by both Beijing and Washington. Many Uighurs, though, simply want to be left alone, free to practice their religion and maintain their way of life in their own homeland. Is that likely? No. The Uighurs’ future appears grim. Unlike the Buddhist Tibetans, the Uighurs have yet to command the world’s sympathy, in part because they lack a charismatic, globe-trotting, multilingual leader like the Dalai Lama. Some Muslim nations are protesting China’s treatment of the Uighurs—Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has called it “a kind of genocide
