Xinjiang and its periphery are home to China’s largest Muslim population, known as the Uyghur. As with Indonesia, they have been influenced mostly by the moderate strand of Islam, one that espouses religious tolerance and communal peace.

Xinjiang was made an autonomous region in 1955 out of respect for its unique ethnic mix. Islam has been respected and practiced, as evidenced by the high concentration of mosques, higher than in most Muslim countries. Yet the growth of moderate Islam was challenged by an uptick in Islamic extremism in the early 1980s, culminating in several thousand terrorist attacks in Xinjiang that claimed hundreds of innocent lives, many of whom were Uyghurs.

Among the victims was Dilqemer Tursan, a young woman of Uyghur ethnicity. At the age of 21, she lost her legs to a terrorist explosion in Luntai County in 2014 and, with them, her dream of dancing. Aspiring to become a therapist to help other victims like herself, she still lives with memories of the blast.

The culprit behind most of the deadliest attacks is the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), also known as the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP). With ties to al-Qaeda and Islamic State (IS), it has been listed as a terrorist organization by the United Nations.

For decades, the ETIM/TIP has sought to radicalize potential recruits through malicious preaching that twists the true meaning of the Koran, as well as through online audio and video recordings on bomb making and detonation. Having carried out heartless attacks in and outside Xinjiang, the group presented the gravest security threat to the region until 2016.

A combination of measures helped to neutralize the threat. Drawing on hard lessons, the government came to realize that the fight against terrorism must be complemented by preventative efforts. Borrowing experiences from Muslim nations in Southeast Asia as well as Europe, it adopted the twin strategy of deradicalization and poverty alleviation.

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