Beijing is under fire internationally for its treatment of Uygur Muslims in Xinjiang
But that doesn’t appear to have dented its popularity with Muslim tourists
N abil Ismailiya first tasted Xinjiang food in New York City, at the Kashgar Cafe in Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach neighbourhood.
“The food was so good, it made me curious. I wanted to know more about Chinese Muslims,” recalls the British-born food enthusiast of his first encounter with a bowl of lagman – the hand-pulled noodles popular in China’s westernmost province, where Uygur Muslims account for nearly half the population.
Ismailiya, who is Muslim, says he is “100 per cent” still interested in travelling to Xinjiang despite the troubled political situation in the region, where rights groups estimate more than a million people – mostly Muslim Uygurs – are being detained for political indoctrination in what Beijing refers to as “re-education camps”.
Beijing is facing growing international pressure to close the camps, which it says are aimed at providing vocational training to stop militancy spreading following a string of attacks in recent years that it blames on the East Turkestan Islamic Movement. But some critics believe the camps are aimed at suppressing the Uygurs’ religion and way of life, with many residents complaining that even everyday activities like attending a mosque have become cause for suspicion and surveillance.
