November 15, 2004

148 Killed in Chinese Jihad

Could China be on the brink of a bloody civil war with it's Muslim minority? Samuel P. Huntington noted in his groundbreaking book, The Clash of Civilizations, that, "The borders of Islam are bloody." In addition to China's large Muslim minority, it also shares borders with Pakistan, Kyrgistan, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan--all Muslim countries. While sectarian violence is not unheard of among the other great religions of the world, there is something unique about Islam in that 9/10 of those conflicts is between Muslims and their neighbors, or between Islamists fighting secular Muslim regimes. Here is a map of armed conflicts around the world for 2003. For all the latest news on China, I suggest following Simon's biweekly Asia by Blog report.

Telegraph:

The fighting broke out after a Han youth crashed his motorcycle into a Hui builder's tractor, tipping it over. The confrontation soon escalated into pitched battles between mobs armed with shovels and hammers. Molotov cocktails were launched across the river between Nanren and Weitang - the former predominantly Hui, the latter Han - and Huis from around the country flocked to assist their beleaguered brothers.

A local imam said that one of his followers was found beheaded in rice paddy ditches, a Hui official told The Sunday Telegraph. "They share the same market, but the Hui people are insulted by the Han's behaviour," he said. "The Han stallholders try to sell them pork, pushing it in front of their faces all the time. Now the imam says the Han in Weitang are savages who mock our traditions by cutting our throats."....

At an Islamic centre in Zhengzhou, where writing on the wall is in both Arabic and Chinese script, passions were clearly aroused by the trouble between Nanren and Weitang.

Perhaps ominously, the mosque leaders appear sympathetic to the insurgents in Iraq. The mosque's Ramadan letter declares: "In our Muslim world, our brothers are suffering a great disaster.

"Their actions in self-defence have been judged to be extremist terrorism, but they are struggling in an imperialist war that is killing people and rotting modern civilisation."

The defiant mood in Iraq is apparently shared by mosque elders, a foretaste of further problems ahead for the Chinese authorities. "If our brothers are being attacked," said one elder, Lao Mai, "it is a duty in our religion to join them in the fight."