Uyghur Muslim Identity Issues in China: Nationalism and Islam

• In Event: 474 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 20. Social Movements in Turkey

Abstract

Political unrest in the Muslim community has become the hallmark of the Twenty First century, just as revolutionary movements and nationalistic conflict dominated Europe and the West in the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries. As we analyze the set of disturbances associated with the 'Arab Spring' this essay turns to a community for study not usually associated with movements in the Middle East, the Uyghur Muslim community of Xinjiang, a North West province in China. The Uyghur Turkic people had their own uprising in 2009, and the tension continues to this day. A questionnaire was developed concerning the issues raised in the Muslim world: ethnic identity, the difficulties involved in the maintenance of customary Muslim community practices, and the gender differences that appear in the course of social change. A sample was drawn from Uyghur students and professionals in Istanbul and Ankara, Turkey in the spring of 2015. In addition to the questionnaire there were extensive follow up interviews with respondents. All the respondents were born in Xinjiang, and most of them visiting exchange students from China. The approach based on tensions in Muslim identity is compared to an analysis based on political economy, which emphasize economic variables such as employment.
Keywords: Uyghurs, nationality, Muslim, gender differences, Islam, political economy

Author

• David Makofsky