• Uighurs are an Asian Muslim minority that predominantly live today in the Xinjiang region of northwestern China, a Western Turkic region where, the U.S. State Department says, Muslim religious expression and education is tightly restricted. Xinjiang is China's largest province and about one-sixth of its land mass.

• The Encyclopaedia Britannica estimated there were more than 7.7 million Uighurs in China in the late 20th century and about 300,000 in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

• China blames Uighur separatists fighting a low-level insurgency for a series of violent incidents, including bombings beginning in 1997 -- and says the violence is why the government strictly controls Muslim religious activity and places of worship.

• An estimated 1,000 Uighurs live in the United States, mostly concentrated around Washington, D.C.