Xinjiang youths urge fellows to fight extremism

An online letter written by 13 Xinjiang-born youths who are studying abroad has been well received after it was posted on social media.

The letter urges young people to oppose ignorance and religious extremism and to join hands to achieve the Chinese dream.

The authors, from the Uygur, Han, Hui, Tatar and Xibo ethnic groups, are studying or working in seven different countries, including the United States, Malaysia and Japan.

The letter, published on June 2, says China, especially their hometown, Xinjiang, has witnessed great changes over recent years. The strategy for Xinjiang's development confirmed at the second Xinjiang work conference convened by the central government on May 28 will certainly spur the region's vitality, the letter says. However, terrorists are not willing to see this and organized attacks on April 30 and May 22, targeting innocent people.

The letter urges young people to be aware of the terrorists' conspiracy and to unite to fight against them.

"We are shocked that they are trying to take society backward by publishing religious extremism and poisoning the masses! We are even more shocked that they are followed by some people!" it reads.

The letter says students from Xinjiang always wear festive costumes when celebrating their traditional festivals and the writers cannot imagine why some people in their hometown want to mask their faces and wear black gowns. "I can hear the Atles silk weeping. I am afraid this traditional Uygur costume may disappear if the situation continues," the letter states.

Earlier, after a terror attack at a railway station in Urumqi, the capital city of the region, on April 30, 11 young Uygurs jointly published a similar letter on a social media site, calling for their peers to stand against terrorism and religious extremism.

That letter said terrorist attacks did not benefit Uygurs, but made people prone to be on guard against the ethnic group, and isolate Xinjiang. It urged young people to stay away from religious extremism, which it said aims to build up forces against the government and create social chaos through terrorist attacks in the hope of causing a split in the country.