Especially since 9/11, the Chinese government is linking its crackdown on Uighurs to a crackdown on international terrorism. Usually Uighurs are not that kind of radical person. We don't like that. We are [Inaudible—Editor] or this kind of thing.
The Chinese government, to talk about religious oppression, doesn't allow people to fast freely. They don't allow people to pray or exercise their religious freedom freely. They don't allow people to go to the mosque or to fast or to use any kind of religious ceremony in their daily lives. All of these things are restricted.
Anyone who is conducting a normal daily religious practice is regarded by the Chinese government as engaged in illegal religious activity, which is regarded as a punishable crime. Not only that, but the Chinese government uses the mosque as an arena for political propaganda, hanging their Chinese flags in the mosques and educating the Uighur Muslims.
As I said a little earlier, last year alone, 37 bloody incidents took place in the region, most of them house-to-house searches for religious books—the Koran or some other religious books—and searches to see who is sending their kids to religious schools and these kinds of things.
Most of the bloody incidents that resulted in the deaths of nearly 300 people are related to this kind of Chinese policy.