To justify its repressive polices towards the Turkic-speaking Muslims of Xinjiang, Beijing taps into a global discourse of counterradicalisation that has developed in the context of the US-led War on Terror, a discourse that rests on the dichotomy of extremist vs. moderate Islam.Western commentary, while critical of China's policies in Xinjiang, often reflects this same way of thinking.A more effective critique will challenge the terms of this Islamophobic discourse, and the West's role in popularising it.
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David Brophy (2019) studied this question.