China | Xinjiang Province | Urumqi

Urumqi, in Xinjiang Province, China, has long been one of my favorite cities. Thus it is sad to read this news on the first day of Olympics in Beijing:

Xinjiang's capital, Urumqi, appeared to be on high alert today. Security guards were checking bags at the entrances of hotels, department stores and discos in the busy city, where office towers and apartments buildings have been shooting up in recent years. Guards with red arm bands rode on most public buses, watchful for attackers. Small groups of police patrolled the sidewalks of the bustling Muslim quarter, where merchants cooked lamb kebabs and sliced up watermelons at fruit stands.

Downtown Urumqi

Hong Shan (Red Mountain) in downtown Urumqi

Uighur Quarter in Urumqi

The famous Erdaoqiao Market in the Uighur Quarter

Uighur Restaurant

Performers in Uighur Restaurant

Uighur Carpet Store

Sample carpets

Pomegranates

Mongolia | Islam | Hulegu

“Like kids the world over, Middle Eastern children have long fantasized about superheroes battling injustice in American cities or fighting beasts in Japan. Five years ago they got some champions of their own to cheer on, when Kuwait-born businessman Naif Al-Mutawa created a new breed of superheroes endowed with Muslim traits and virtues. Now Mutawa is on an even greater mission: taking those same Islamic characters around the world.”

So reads the article Islamic Superheroes Going Global about a comic book series entitled “99”.

“The 99 is based on a pivotal moment in Islamic history: the Mongol invasion of Baghdad in 1258. In Mutawa's series, 99 gemstones, encrypted with Baghdad's wisdom and power, were scattered around the world, left for superheroes such as "Jabbar the Powerful" or "Noora the Light" to find them before their arch-nemesis Rughal does.”

The sack of Baghdad by Chingis Khan’s grandson Hulegu in 1258 was a pivotal moment in history, the effects of which we are still experiencing today. Saddam Hussein was well aware of this, as he noted in a speech given just before the American invasion of Iraq. See Saddam Sounds Off: The Hulegu Speech.