(Newsweek) As millions of people worldwide prepared to observe Ramadan this year, one group of Muslims in western China were once again prevented from fully practicing the holy month’s traditions.
The Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking ethnic group indigenous to the Xinjiang region, were limited in their religious observance by bans on fasting for civil servants, students and teachers, and instructions to restaurateurs, including Muslims, to keep their businesses open.
However, experts quoted by Drennan seriously doubt the number of Chinese ISIS recruits is as high as the Global Times claims. Nicholas Bequelin, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch, called the reported number “implausibly high,” while Sean Roberts, a professor at George Washington University who studies Uighurs, took a less strident tone: “I assume there are Uighurs joining ISIS, but I also assume the numbers are quite small in comparison to other groups throughout the world. We’re probably talking about 20 to 30 people max.”
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