Linguistic identity Religious identity Ever since the 10th century CE, the Uyghurs have been gradually Islamized, the religion of Islam having originated from the Arabian Peninsula (Saudi Arabia) and now being dominant across many regions of Western Asia, Central Asia, North Africa, East Africa, maritime Southeast Asia and Southeast Europe. Prior to this, the Uyghurs practiced Buddhism, a religion which originated from South Asia (India and Nepal) and which still remains the dominant religion of the neighboring Tibetan and Mongolian peoples in Western China and Mongolia as well as much of mainland Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka. Geographic identity The Uyghur people have formed a strong national identity largely due to their very strong geographic identity. Uyghur identity is closely tied to life in the Taklamakan Desert and the Tarim Basin. The Uyghurs as a people or a nation are held together largely by their distinct lifestyle as sedentary farmers living in several oases scattered across the Taklamakan Desert. Pan-Turkic nationalism Pan-Turkic Jadidists and East Turkestan independence activists Muhammad Amin Bughra and Masud Sabri rejected the imposition of the name "Uyghur people" upon the Turkic people of Xinjiang by the Soviets and Chinese warlord Shen Shicai. They wanted instead the name "Turkic ethnicity" () to be applied to their people. Masud Sabri also viewed the Hui people as Muslim Han Chinese, distinct from his own people. The names "Türk" or "Türki" in particular were demanded by Bughra as the real name for his people. He slammed Sheng Shicai for his designation of Turkic Muslims into different ethnicities, which could sow disunion among Turkic Muslims. During the First East Turkestan Republic, the Turkic nationalist ideology of the Republic led to hostility between different Muslim ethnic groups. The Uyghurs and Kirghiz, who were both Turkic Muslim peoples, fought against the Chinese Muslims of southern Xinjiang and sought to expel them with the Han Chinese. This led several Chinese Muslim Generals like Ma Zhancang, Ma Fuyuan, and Ma Hushan to fight against the Uyghur attempts towards independence. East Turkestan independence movement The East Turkestan independence movement, also known as the Xinjiang separatist movement or the Uyghur independence movement, is a political movement that seeks independence for Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, a large and sparsely-populated national autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC/China) located in the country's northwest, as a homeland for the Uyghur people, who are primarily of Turkic rather than