Five Fingers Crush the Land (2021)

Throughline

NPR

Society & Culture, History, Documentary

4.7 • 15K Ratings

🗓️ 22 September 2022

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Over one million Uyghur people have been detained in camps in China, according to estimates, subjected to torture, forced labor, religious restrictions, and even forced sterilization. Last month, the United Nations released a report saying that China's treatment of Uyghurs could be considered "crimes against humanity." The vast majority of this minority ethnic group is Muslim, living for centuries at a crossroads of culture and empire along what was once the Silk Road. This week, we explore who the Uyghur people are, their land, their customs, their music and why they've become the target of what many are calling a genocide.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Today, it is widely reported that over a million weaker and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang
0:06.4	have been, quote-unquote, reeducated at internment camps.
0:10.6	The United Nations recently released a report saying China's treatment of Uyghurs could
0:15.0	be considered, quote, crimes against humanity.
0:19.0	So how did it come to this?
0:21.2	Today we're going back to our archives to understand who the Uyghurs are and why they're
0:26.2	being persecuted.
0:28.0	We originally published this episode in 2021.
0:35.0	This is a song called Four Fathers by a musician named Habdir Rahim Hayd.
0:49.0	The song is based on a poem calling the Weeger Youth to respect the sacrifices of their
0:54.5	ancestors.
0:56.3	In 2017, Habdir Rahim was arrested after performing this song, which includes lyrics about martyrs
1:03.4	of war.
1:05.0	In a video released by Chinese state media, Habdir Rahim said he was being investigated
1:10.2	for, quote, violating national laws by singing this song.
1:16.1	Habdir Rahim is one of around 12 million people belonging to the ethnic group called Weegurs.
1:40.2	The Weeger people are a Turkic-speaking, mostly Muslim minority within the People's Republic
1:46.8	of China.
1:48.0	This is Sean Roberts.
1:49.7	He's a professor at George Washington University in author of the book The War on the Weegurs.
1:56.0	And they live in a region that they consider their homeland that the Chinese state calls
2:00.5	the Xinjiang Weeger Autonomous Region.
	...

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