The Muslim Uighurs’ have recently wreaked havoc in the Xin Jiang Province . The incident had escalated very quickly into a violent racial dispute with the province demography make up estimated at 50% Uighurs and 50% other races dominated by the Han.
Uproar , discussions and criticism in the cyberspaces are as usual, not helping the situation. Many reports were being blown out of proportion.
On the 5th of July, the Muslim Uighur race in Xin Jiang Province ( or known as Xingjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region) staged mass protests actions which quickly deteriorated into violence and social unrest. Among others, there were lootings , robberies , violence and fightings , even killings . It is believed the Uighur's hatred had accumulated over the years through dissatisfaction towards the Han majority. Many Muslim Uighur perceived they had been treated inferior compared to the majority Han in the country. According to them, many Uighurs are poorly educated, could not find good job and are under paid. This gap or disparity had increasingly become more apparant as China progressed economically ; opened its door to the Western world and enriching many residing in the major cities.
Embedded with this jealosy and bitter feelings towards the Han majority, the 'Guang Dong Incident' happened, which had acted as the main catalyst of the resulting unrest, so critical that the President had to leave the G8 summit meeting in Italy to handle the case personally.
The Guangdong incident: A woman was said to be raped by some Uighurs when they were actually believed to be just making fun of her. She had screamed after the Uighurs made some strange noises at her. Upon hearing the screams, many Han people went into the room and started hitting the Uighurs, and killed two of them!
Many believed this incident had not been handled well by the China Authorities and with the exaggerations from the media, caused an uproar among the Uighurs and with an slanted version of the incident, provoked them to rebel, causing the havoc we see today.
The China authorities insisted the Uighur's action are the result of political manupulations from Uighurs influence outside the country and viewed this as an act of terrorism.
First of all, we must understand that abject contempt had been put on the Uighurs for a long time. This has caused their anger and hatred towards the Han majority accumulated over the years. The Guang Dong Incident is like a last straw on the camel's back. This was like the spark that set off the fire amidst the sea of oil.
Not all Uighurs wanted to join the rebellion against the Han initally. Many were being forced unknowingly into the action. When one is in a mob effect, where everyone is doing the same thing, you will be automatically influenced to do the same , without thinking deeply about the consequences. This lead to the havoc created today.
Who is in the right and who is in the wrong? What is the truth of this matter? Frankly I do not have the answer. I guess this is very complicated with emotions, media influences ,perceptions , even historical enthenic feuds and so on at play.
Some even asked why did China even want to control and 'manage' the Uighur, an Eastern Turkic enthnic race, with so vast a difference in culture, language, religion etc
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