Posted on 04/02/2008 1:57:37 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Muslim extremists attempt uprising in western China: government
57 minutes ago
China has accused Muslim extremists in the nation's northwest of trying to start a rebellion, an incident that an exile group said Wednesday was mainly a women's protest against Chinese rule.
According to a statement from the Khotan government in the Uighur Muslim dominated Xinjiang region, extremist forces tried to incite an uprising in a local marketplace on March 23.
"A small number of elements... tried to incite splittism, create disturbances in the market place and even trick the masses into an uprising," the statement said.
The statement said the people involved adhered to the "three evil forces", a Chinese expression that refers to separatism, religious extremism and terrorism.
"Our police immediately intervened to prevent this and are dealing with it in accordance with the law," said the statement, posted Tuesday on the Khotan government website.
The incident occurred after Chinese authorities last month warned that terrorists based in Xinjiang were planning attacks on the Beijing Olympics and as police were trying to contain unrest on a much larger scale in neighbouring Tibet.
People in both Tibet and Xinjiang have long claimed they suffer widespread repression under Chinese rule.
An Uighur exile group said the Khotan protests erupted after a Muslim businessman died in police custody and as hundreds of women gathered to demonstrate against a ban on wearing traditional head scarves.
"The Uighurs began protesting after the killing of Mutallip Hajim, who had died in police custody," Alim Seytoff, head of the US-based World Uighur Congress, told AFP.
"The women were also protesting the ban on head scarves."
The two protests included up to a total of 1,000 demonstrators, he said, adding that as many as 600 protesters had been detained.
Hajim, a wealthy jade trader and philanthropist, was taken into custody in the restive city of Khotan in January, according to the US government-backed Radio Free Asia.
But his body was turned over to his family on March 3, with police instructing them to bury him immediately and inform no one of his death, it said.
Local police and the religious affairs bureau in Khotan, also known as Hetian, either denied the reports or refused to comment on the incident when contacted by AFP.
"Mutallip Hajim, there is such a man, but I do not know anything about him," said a police officer at the Khotan public security bureau before hanging up the phone.
Xinjiang's Communist Party chief said on March 9 that a January raid on "terrorists" there had foiled a planned attack directed at the Games.
Rights groups and exiles have alleged that China is trying to stoke fears about terror attacks in Xinjiang as an excuse to silence dissent and justify tight control ahead of the Olympics.
China knows who these animals are, and believe me you won’t see them tolerate their stuff like Europe does.
Considering the long standing ties of communists to terrorists, including islamic ones, they deserve each other.
I disagree. Islamic terrorists are little more than a bunch of petty criminals that got really lucky once because we’ve had a couple stooges as our last two presidents. Pardon my bluntness but I truly believe that.
China has a huge military, a huge economy, a whole lot of nukes, holds a lot of our debt and makes pretty much everything we use. They can do us a whole lot more serious, deep and irreparable harm than al Qaeda ever could.
I feel like Cassandra here. Do all we can to get rid of the terrorists but remember who the real long term threat is: China!
You totally misunderstood my post. I’m not ignoring the massive economic and military ongoing threat communist China poses to the US. The greedy career politicians, sell-out economic traitors, and beltway morons in the White House, Congress, and Senate do that on a daily basis by allowing China to enjoy a massive trade imbalance, a roaring economy made possible by American purchases, and a gigantic global military buildup at our expense, but not me. All I am saying is that if China wants to destroy its emerging violent Muslim radicals, I don’t care and won’t object. In fact the more they become entangled in their own fight with these extreme Muslim fundamentalists, the better for us as they sure as hell see our war in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere against Muslim radicals as a historic opportunity to amass a huge military force against us under the radar while we are distracted by violent Islamic scum consuming our time, money, energy, and resources. I only wish we had the resolve to stomp the living crap out of our Muslim problem as easily as China deals with their violent Islamic threat like we once used to do to deadly enemies before political correctness, multiculturalism, cowardice, greed, and suicidal stupidity motivated and formed our national “leadership”.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.