| Islam,Terrorism and Jihad | |
| 13 Aug 2008, NewAgeIslam.Com | |
| Bush raises issue of religious freedom in China as, as new violence kills 11 more people: An analysis of China's Xinjiang problem | |
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By Saibal Dasgupta,TNN 10 Aug 2008
BEIJING: US President George W Bush on Sunday said no country or government should fear the power of religious worship. The statement made after a church service in Beijing is seen as an oblique reference to the Chinese government's control over the church.
"Laura and I just had the great joy and privilege of worshipping here in Beijing, China," he said after attending a church service with his wife, Laura.
"You know, it just goes to show that God is universal, and God is love, and no state, man or woman should fear the influence of loving religion," Bush said. Diplomatic circles saw this as a perfectly crafted sentence meant to show his faith in God as well as send out a political signal to the Chinese leadership.
The US president also mentioned his experience at the church during his meeting with Chinese president Hu Jintao.
"Once again, I had a very uplifting experience going to a church. It was a spirit-filled feeling. As you know, I feel very strongly about religion. And I'm so appreciative of the chance to go to church here," he told the Chinese president.
Bush had promised to push the Chinese leadership to let its people speak and pray freely without harassment.
The US president is also expected to discuss issues like counterterrorism, trade, economic markets, individual freedoms and efforts to halt the nuclear weapons capability of Iran and North Korea during his stay in Beijing.
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New violence kills 11 in China's Xinjiang Associated Press Posted online: Monday, August 11, 2008
KUQA, China, August 10: Assaliants using homemade bombs launched a series of attacks and battled with police on Sunday in a western Chinese city far from the Beijing Olympics. Ten attackers and one security guard died, police said.
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The pre-dawn violence in the restive Muslim region of Xinjiang came despite tightened security for the games and followed threats by an al-Qaeda-linked militant Islamic group that it would disrupt the sporting event.
Police said in a brief statement that "violent terrorists" attacked a shopping center, hotel and government buildings in the city of Kuqa in west central Xinjiang. Without providing details, it said officers killed eight attackers and two others blew themselves up, while two were arrested. Three attackers were at large, it said.
In a more detailed account, the state-run Xinhua News agency said the bombs were made from bent pipes, gas canisters and liquid gas tanks. In one of the largest attacks, assailants drove a three-wheeled vehicle with explosives into the compound of the public security bureau at about 2:30 am, Xinhua reported. An explosion followed that killed the security guard, injured two police and two civilians, and destroyed two police cars, it said.
Police opened fire on the attackers, killing one. Another blew himself up, injuring a third, and a fourth was captured in the assault, Xinhua said, citing an unidentified local government spokesman.
Six hours later, a battle broke out in a nearby market where police found five attackers hiding under a counter, Xinhua said. The men hurled bombs at the police, who fatally shot two of them, while the remaining three killed themselves with their own bombs, the news agency said.
Xinhua said the captured suspect told police that 15 people were involved in the attack.
Police declined to confirm the Xinhua account or comment on the discrepancies between it and the police statement.
The already-tight security in Xinjiang was increased after assailants killed 16 border police and wounded 16 others in Kashgar city on August 4, ramming a stolen truck into the group before tossing homemade bombs and stabbing them.
The attacks mark a dramatic increase in violence in Xinjiang, where local Muslims have waged a sputtering rebellion against Chinese rule. Heavy security had largely succeeded in suppressing violence over the past decade.
Wang Wei, vice president of the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee, called the attacks the work of "East Turkestan terrorists" — the name some separatists use for Xinjiang — and said no government would tolerate such violence.
"The very purpose of these attacks is all about separating the region from China," Wang told reporters. He said the attackers "want to use the Olympic stage to enlarge the impact."
Authorities shut down Kuqa county, a region 2,800 km west of Beijing where some 4,00,000 people live, for most of the day. Soldiers with machine guns patrolled the streets and people were told not to leave their homes. A Foreign Ministry official in Beijing, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said the restrictions were akin to martial law.
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/347102.html
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China's Xinjiang problem
Ananth Krishnan
Two terror attacks in the past week have thrown the spotlight on China's northwestern Muslim majority region of Xinjiang. But the emergence of separatist groups in the region is diverting attention away from the real problems on the ground.
Increased monitoring: Chinese police search the bags of ethnic Uighurs. The Uighur community, already in some respects on the margins of society, is feeling further alienated.
In the last couple of days, the eyes of the world may have been on Beijing and the spectacular festivities of August 8, but on China's west frontier, an equally important story is unfolding.
In the last week, a series of terror attacks have torn through China's Muslim majority region of Xinjiang — the worst violence China's northwest has seen in years. The attacks have claimed 27 lives including 16 police officers, left dozens injured and ripped apart hotels, police stations and government buildings. On Sunday, a series of pre-dawn bomb blasts rocked the remote northwest county of Kuqa. Sunday's attack was the second in a week: on August 4, 16 policemen were killed in a grenade attack on a border patrol station in Kashgar on the western border, in what was the biggest terror attack on Chinese soil in recent memory.
Xinjiang is home to more than 8 million Uighurs — an ethnic Muslim Turkic-speaking community — and much of the tension in the region is sourced in the claims of some Uighur separatist groups for greater political and religious autonomy, and also in resentment at the growing presence of Han Chinese — China's largest ethnic group — in the region that some locals say limits their economic opportunities.
Xinjiang is China's largest political sub-division — it is twice the size of France – and is home to more minority groups than any other part of China (like Tibet, it is called an "autonomous region"). In the past few months, the Chinese government has repeatedly warned that it expects the biggest terror threat during the Olympic Games to come from the region's separatist groups.
While some Uighur rights groups have accused the government of exaggerating the threat to justify imposing new restrictions, the Chinese government will look at the August 4 and August 10 attacks as validating its claims. Following the attack, the government announced that it had received intelligence indicating that the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), a Uighur separatist group, was planning a series of attacks during the Games. The ETIM recently claimed responsibility for the bus bomb blasts that rocked Kunming in southern Yunnan province on July 21.
This reporter visited Kashgar less than two weeks before the August 4 attack. It is difficult to gauge the political sentiment in the city – most Uighurs are reluctant to talk to foreign journalists. Locals were also reluctant to be drawn into political questions: many say they have not even heard of separatist groups ETIM that claim to be representing their interests.
Striking contrasts
Xinjiang is a region of striking contrasts. On the outskirts of its prosperous capital Urumqi, a vast expanse of the Taklimakan desert stretches into the horizon – dead, black and barren, except for the recently installed, gleaming, white windmills that conspicuously spin away, powering Chinese industry forward.
At the heart of the Urumqi oasis, construction cranes busily hover, day and night, adding an impressive new skyscraper to the skyline every other month. At the railway station a few kilometres away from the city's booming downtown, farmers and labourers – most of them Uighurs– crowd into cramped third-class train compartments, many leaving their homes for far away provinces in search of jobs.
In the border city of Kashgar, 1500 kilometres further west on the Old Silk Road near the Kazakhstan border, Uighur Muslims, with their own unique brand of moderate Islam, make their way to mosques, strangely quiet because of a ban on the use of loudspeakers. Patrols of the Chinese army comb the streets, looking for separatists that the government says operate out of the area.
But for many local Uighurs, the problem isn't politics. "Most of us do not bother about the political questions or independence," said a restaurant manager in Kashgar who did not want to reveal his name. "Our worries are about the rising cost of food and fuel, and finding jobs."
Some Uighurs believe the growing presence of Han Chinese in the region limits their opportunities for employment. Uighurs make up roughly 45 per cent of Xinjiang's 20 million population. The number of Han Chinese has been steadily growing since the People's Liberation Army occupied the region in 1949. Before the arrival of the PLA, an independent East Turkestan republic briefly existed in the region, formed with the support of the Soviet Union.
Han Chinese made up roughly 6 per cent of the population in 1949. According to the 2004 census, Han Chinese constitute around 40 per cent of Xinjiang's population, more than the Kazakhs and Huis, and only second to the Uighurs. The Chinese government argues that the growing presence of Han Chinese is only a natural indicator of Beijing's attempts to accelerate industrial development in the region.
The statistics, on the surface, back-up Beijing's claims: the region's GDP has increased by close to 60 per cent between 2004 and 2007. Xinjiang has a wealth of oil and mineral resources that the government is making a concerted attempt to tap. Western China's oil reserves account for more than 60 per cent of the country's oil resources.
The government has spent millions of yuan on a 4,000 kilometre gas pipeline project that directly links Xinjiang's reserves to the energy-hungry, commercial metropolis of Shanghai on China's east coast. Per capita incomes are rising in Urumqi, and the provincial capital's skyscraper prosperity is hard to ignore.
But some locals say the outward prosperity and the impressive statistics mask the problems that simmer beneath the surface. The gap between the rich and the poor is increasing, as in many parts of China. But troublingly, in Xinjiang, this gap is often clearly marked along ethnic lines. Uighurs overwhelmingly dominate lower income jobs, and there is a palpable difference between Uighur and Han neighbourhoods in Urumqi.
Unemployment is high among Uighur youth. Abla, 26, is a Kashgar native who left the city looking for employment in Shanghai. Before he moved to Shanghai, Abla worked as a cotton-picker in Kashgar, earning around 600 Yuan (88$) a month. He earns 1500 Yuan (220$) a month working as a waiter in a Uighur restaurant in a poor Shanghai neighbourhood.
Abla said many Uighur youth like himself cannot get well-paying jobs unless they are "well educated in Mandarin." Part of the problem is the system of education in tier-two cities like Kashgar, Turfan and Hotan where Uighurs are a majority. Many Uighur families are still reluctant to send their children to recently-opened government schools, where some say the study of Turkic and Uighur culture is neglected.
Fearing a gradual erosion of Turkic and Uighur culture, many families prefer to educate their children in traditional schools. But with the growing presence of big industry in the region, the reality is that knowledge of Mandarin has become a bare necessity for securing a decent livelihood.
Nasiruddin Wusu, 28, is another Uighur migrant who, like Abla, had to leave Kashgar to find work. Wusu said in Kashgar, unemployment among Uighur youth is at least around 70 per cent. Wusu worked as a labourer in Kashgar, moving barrels of oil on a refinery.
"My parents put me in a school where I did not learn enough Mandarin, so I could not find a good job after graduation," he said. "This was a common problem for many of my friends. More and more people are leaving as they can't find work."
Abla said he will ensure his son gets an education in "not just Mandarin, but English." There is now a growing awareness among his generation that if their children are to have better futures, they can no longer have the luxury of sending their children to traditional schools, whatever the long-term costs may be.
In recent months, the growing terror threat from obscure separatist groups like ETIM has drawn attention away from these problems. Leading up to the Olympics, the Chinese government has stepped up security restrictions in Xinjiang, imposing travel bans and increasing the frequency of raids and inspections on Uighurs. In a July 9 raid, police shot dead five alleged terror suspects in an Urumqi apartment. More than 80 Uighurs alleged to be terror suspects have been arrested this year, authorities have said. Tense climate
In cosmopolitan – and usually calm – Kashgar, where more than half of China's 55 ethnic minority groups can be found living amongst each other, the climate has suddenly become tense. Policemen armed with machine-guns patrol the streets. Many Uighurs have been asked to surrender their passports to local police stations, so that their movement outside Xinjiang is restricted. On the train from Kashgar to Urumqi, regular checks were conducted almost exclusively on travelling Uighurs, while many of the Han Chinese and foreigners were exempt.
The recent terror attacks have also increased monitoring of migrant Uighur communities outside Xinjiang. In certain Shanghai public buildings, tenants were issued notices last week for "safety measures during the Olympic period" asking them to report "anyone that can be identified as Tibetans, Xinjiang Uighurs and Qinghai Hualong Huis [who] enter the building to the security department." The notice said "security guards will persuade them to leave the building, or follow them till they do so."
These restrictions have left the Uighur community, already in some respects on the margins of society, feeling further alienated. Many cannot understand why they are being singled out, prevented from travelling and facing repeated inspections of their homes. "In the last couple of months, they seem to not want us to travel anywhere," Wusu said. "They seem to think we are dangerous people." http://www.hindu.com/2008/08/12/stories/2008081254680900.htm |
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