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Heart and Soul: Uighurs - Dreaming Of Vatan: Uighurs: Dreaming of Vatan

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Female Musicians of the Uighur Muslims of Kazakhstan

15/05/2015 GMT

Uighurs: Dreaming of Vatan

Uighurs - Dreaming Of Vatan

BBC World Service - Heart and Soul, Uighurs - Dreaming Of Vatan, Uighurs: Dreaming of Vatan

China and its relationship with the Uighur Muslims of Kazakhstan

Uighur Muslims of Kazakhstan and the growing influence of China.

Thousands of Uighur Muslims have been forced to flee their native Xinjiang province after the Chinese secret police began arresting religious Uighur men. They have fled to the nearest and safest country, Kazakhstan. Relation between the Uighurs and Beijing have reached a critical point in the last few years. Violent attacks by the Uighurs and the crackdown of Uighur dissent by the Chinese authorities is just making the situation unbearable for many. 
 
Rustam Qobil from the BBC’s Central Asian Service meets the Muslim Uighurs of Kazakhstan, living and worshipping miles from their Vatan, or homeland. He finds out about their mystical, musical, poetic, relatively liberal Islam and how as China's influence is growing rapidly in surrounding regions, the Uighurs now find themselves within China's clutches again. He joins them for their New Year celebrations, a nod to their Zoroastrian roots and how throughout their history they have been influenced by many of the world’s faiths. 

According to Human rights groups, the Chinese authorities have executed hundreds of Uighurs for demanding greater rights. China calls them terrorists and say that they are fighting against global terror. Rustam travels to the Chinese-Kazakh border to see for himself the huge scale of investment by Beijing in this oil rich country and assesses how this new influence will affect the Uighur-Muslim community in exile.

(Photo: Uighur women playing traditional instruments. BBC copyright)

Heart and Soul: Uighurs - Dreaming Of Vatan

BBC World Service

Rustam Qobil meets the Muslim Uighers living in hiding in Kazakhstan, miles from their Vatan, their homeland, in China.

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