Debate surrounds Confucius Institutes, Uighurs accused in Xinjiang, and Iraqi American concerns

The American Association of University Professors is calling on universities to reconsider their Confucius Institutes, saying they are a barrier to academic freedom. Marshall Sahlins, a professor emeritus at the University of Chicago, says the use of institutes in schools raises questions about academic freedom and also makes U.S. universities complicit in cases of discriminatory hiring and censorship. Sahlins recently wrote an article in The Nation criticizing the institutes.
Then, over the weekend ISIS set up an Islamic 'Caliphate' that stretches across Iraq and Syria. The group says its flags are now flying in the large territory. Today will be the first meeting of the Shiite Iraqi government that was elected at the end of April. Fatima Hindi, a Shi’a Iraqi Amercian and refugee advocate in Chicago and Haval Latif, a Kurdish Iraqi American ESL Teacher, join us to share their concerns about the growing conflict in Iraq.
And, last week Chinese courts sentenced 113 people in the country’s majority Uighur Muslim province to prison terms from 10 years to life. Charges included terrorism and causing ethnic hatred. Reports show that the names of those sentenced appear to have Uighur surnames. Beijing promised to crackdown on separatist groups after a string of deadly attacks in the Xinjiang region. Last month, 39 people were killed from a suicide bombing in a market.
Sophie Richardson is China Director for Human Rights Watch. She’ll tell us about what she believes to be the long-time oppression of Uighurs in China.
Next, the Tunguska River valley is a remote, sparsely-settled region of Siberia. On this June 30th in 1908, the people in a village there thought the world was coming to an end. Shortly after 7 o’clock in the morning, a bluish-white fireball, bigger and brighter than the sun, streaked across the northern sky. When it touched the horizon there was a gigantic explosion. People were knocked to the ground. There was a searing blast of heat. Then silence. The villagers slowly regained their senses. To their relief, no one had been killed or seriously injured. But what had happened? Historian John Schmidt tells us.

(photo: Heavily armed Chinese paramilitary police men march past the site of the Wednesday explosion outside the Urumqi South Railway Station in Urumqi in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Thursday, May 1, 2014. Recent deadly attacks in China blamed on Islamic extremists are getting bolder and bloodier, targeting civilians rather than the authorities and further challenging Beijing’s ability to stop them. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan))