VB, who I suppose is offline for Shabbos, posted a tweet about this photo a couple of days ago.

The attached story was that the Chinese authorities had coerced these men into dancing, and to sign a statement all but renouncing their beliefs in Islam.

I went on a search for the origin of the photo, and finally located it yesterday.

xj.xinhuanet.com

The Chinese story here is the local government in Shule County, near Kashgar, put on a “Little Apple (Xiao Pingguo)” dance contest, and “invited” groups to compete. My Uyghur friends tell me that pious men and women would not normally participate in such an event, so the internet rumor that these men were forced to dance, etc., has some truth to it.

If you look at this photo, from the Chinese site, you can tell the dancers are not altogether happy.

The Internet story says Uyghur dancers were forced to wave Chinese flags, which this photo certainly supports.

When I get more details, I’ll page it.