dogu-turkistan-sempozyumu

FREEEAST TURKISTAN SYMPOSIUMpeople and injuries to 440 others. The report, titled “East Turkestan TerroristForces Cannot Get Away with Impunity”, also dismissed allegations that Beijinghad used the U.S.-led war on terror as a pretext to crack down on Uighurs. Thereport condemned numerous Uighur groups, including Hazret’s ETLO, theETIM, the Islamic Reformist Party “Shock Brigade”, the East Turkestan IslamicParty, the East Turkestan Opposition Party, the East Turkestan Islamic Party ofAllah, the Uighur Liberation Organization, the Islamic Holy Warriors, and theEast Turkestan International Committee.It is important to note that an internet search of many of these organizations andtheir backgrounds reveals little information if any. In addition, these organizationsand many of the internet news and information organizations discussed abovehave rarely if ever claimed responsibility for any specific action, though manyare sympathetic to isolated incidents that are regarded as challenging to Chineserule in the region. Interestingly, there seems to be very little support for radicalIslam, and a search for the term “jihad” (holy war) among the various websitesand news postings related to these groups turns up almost no use of the term orcall for a religious war against the Chinese. It is important to note that many ofthe Uighur nationalists are quite secular in their orientation, and an overthrowof Chinese rule is related to issues of sovereignty and human rights, rather thanthose of religion. By contrast, Uighur expatriots with whom I have spent timein the U.S., Canada, Turkey and Europe, however, tend to be quite religious, yetI have rarely heard them call for a holy war against the Chinese. Again, theirconcerns are more related to historic claims upon their ancestral lands, Chinesemistreatment of the Uighur population, and a desire to return home to a “freeEast Turkestan”. A Uighur family with whom I spent the Ramadan feast inToronto in 2000 maintained a deeply religious life in Canada that they claimedwas not possible in China. Although disavowing violence, their daily prayer wasfor a free “Uighuristan” where their relatives could be free to practice religion. InIstanbul, the Uighur community is quite active in the mosques in Zeytinburnuand Tuzla, and strongly advocate a “liberated East Turkestan,” but since 1993 onseveral visits to these communities I have never once heard them call for a jihadagainst the Chinese government, even in its most mild sense, which John Espositohas described as “defensive jihad”, or protecting Islam from persecution. 56 If one490