Red China vs Islamists: When Totalitarianism collides

Personally, I feel for both sides.

Washington Post

Radical Islam stirs in China’s remote west

KASHGAR, China (Reuters) – In a backstreet of the old Silk Road city of Kashgar, the Chinese government has been spray-painting signs on dusty mud brick walls to warn against what it says is a new enemy — the Islamic Liberation Party.

Better known as Hizb ut-Tahrir, the group says its goal is to establish a pan-national Muslim state, or Caliphate.

China says Hizb ut-Tahrir are terrorists, and claim they operate in the far western region of Xinjiang, home to some 8 million Muslim, Turkic-speaking Uighurs, many of whom chafe under Chinese rule.

But the group, and some observers, say they do not espouse violence, and they accuse China of playing up the threat as an excuse to further crack down in restive Xinjiang, especially ahead of this summer’s Beijing Olympics.

“Strike hard against the Islamic Liberation Party” and “The Islamic Liberation Party is a violent terrorist organization” read the signs in Kashgar, written in red in both Chinese and Uighur’s Arabic-based script.

Read the rest

Related posts:

1. Al Qaeda threatens China over muslim Uighurs killed in riots
2. China executes Uighurs for terrorist links
3. More jihad in China, nine fatalities reported in explosion
4. China: 156 killed after Muslim Uigurs revolt against Chinese Government
5. Jihad comes to China, 16 policemen dead
6. China fires the first volley against islamic jihadists
7. Islamic extremist group given £113,000 Government grant to “teach five-year-olds their ideology”
8. Islamists launch PR “war” against Western Values
9. As Radical Islamists hold a conference in Chicago, American Muslim community is silent
10. Chinese Muslim inmates at Gitmo to be freed in U.S; China won’t take them