Mahmoud’s longing for truth led him to stumble onto a short video online of Abdullah Hashem Aba Al-Sadiq talking. What he heard captivated him, deeply compelling him to find out who this man was. After a while, in 2025, he managed to identify the speaker by finding The Mahdi Has Appeared YouTube channel. He noticed that what he saw in the videos on the channel was free from any errors or fallacies, and this was a rarity on his journey.

I spoke with Brother Nurxat, a Uyghur Muslim from Xinjiang and a new face in the Qaim's community, about China's crackdown on his people—and what it means to hold onto faith under pressure.