Xinjiang's ongoing "troubles" and the presence of Salafist-Jihadists in the mix is an analytical "hobby" for me, primarily because it represents such a collection challenge. The rise of Chinese Islam -- and China's subsequent response to the inevitable radicalization of some of those Muslims -- has been an under-reported, poorly analyzed area, primarily because the Chinese have been excellent at repressing any independent information on the country's Muslim regions.
And so I was shocked to see the images of yesterday's rioting in Urumqi hosted at The New Dominion blog. This is the most information I have ever seen on any Xinjiang activity. The most interesting information to come out so far, came from a Guardian report earlier today that mentions the number of ethnic Chinese Muslims involved in the rioting. It makes me wonder whether we have any idea of the extent of cultural connections and dependencies between "Western" Uighurs and the Muslims central and Eastern China.
I have a simple question for my readers: Do we have any expertise on China's Muslims and Muslim regions -- Uighurs, Hui, Malay? Do we even known what we don't know?
