China's Ramadan Smack-Down

In China's Xinjiang Provence, where the second largest conflux of Chinese Muslims reside, China once feared the Uighur Muslims had separationist designs on their oil and gas rich lands. Through a Pact between China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, China officially has the co-operation of the Pact countries in combating militant Islam. In an article dated June 20, 2001, IslamOnline writes of "China's Gang of Six Against Muslims."

The war against Islam has enlarged further with the establishment of a new committee of Islamophobes, as Russia and China have forged a new regional alliance to combat the spread of Islam into Central Asian nations. "The signing of the...Pact has laid the legal foundation for jointly cracking down on terrorism, separatism and extremism, and reflects the firm determination of the six states to safeguard regional security,"....

But it a messy world out there, with "terror" occurring throught the globe, and China is either committing it, or suffering from it. China still accuses the Xinjiang Muslims of a "separatist movement," with desires to "...split China." Uighur Muslims rocked the area of Beijing with threats against the Olympic games, keeping police at fever pitch, and a recent violent raid on a police station killed two Chinese and wounded several others. Here's the latest with Holger's take on China's Ramaden smack-down.

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China Bans Mass Prayers During Ramadan in Muslim Province of Xinjiang by Holger at Holger Awakens The Chinese, at least, are consistent. They have done their best to suppress Christianity in China and now are taking steps to crack down in the islamic centered province of Xinjiang. Of course, this new action of banning mass prayers in Xinjiang is more related to a punishment to the islamists there who have directed several terrorist attacks against China in the past few months. Here's some of the details from Express India:

Authorities in China's Muslim-populated far northwest province of Xinjiang are seeking to prevent mass prayers and the distribution of religious material as part of a security crackdown for Ramadan, government notices said. As the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan began, local governments this week issued orders to clamp down on security in the region and stop its ethnic Muslim Uighur population from using the holy month to foment further unrest. "Faced with recent violent and disruptive activities by religious extremists, separatists and terrorists, we must... step up ideological education of religious leaders and followers," a notice posted on Xinjiang's Zhaosu county website said.

Now, the Chinese are trying to say that these are security precautions but this is much more than that. This is the Chinese sending a huge signal to the islamists that they are through [snip] around with them. My prediction is that the Chinese will further isolate these islamists in Xinjiang province...that they will further persecute them and believe me, it's not in my nature to root on the Chinese but in this situation, I say hallelujah! What will be interesting will be to see how the islamic influences in Xinjiang coming from outside of China react. Xinjiang province shares a good sized border with Pakistan and it is with much certainty that a lot of the munitions and strategy for the Xinjiang islamists is coming from Pakistan...can you imagine if that border were to erupt about now? Can you imagine a Chinese attack inside of Pakistan to quell the flow of munitions into Xinjiang? It will also be interesting to see the global response from the islamic and jihadist countries...you know, the Pakistans and the Afghanistans and the Irans of the world that went apeshit when the Danish cartoons were published...what will these countries say to China's ban of Ramadan prayers? I doubt we will see much uproar because most of these jihadist countries fear the Chinese (not to mention they are a pretty good oil customer). The Chinese have officially joined the Global War on Terror and although they certainly aren't a Western ally in that fight, it is welcome to see a country with balls of iron show the islamists the brand of response that they will recognize...and that is one of no mercy.