An Unlikely Jihadist, Denouncing Assad in Mandarin

[Cherokee]

BEIJING — The man in camouflage fatigues raised his Kalashnikov rifle and fired three shots into the air while trudging through a field of purple and yellow flowers.

He told the person filming him that after reading the works of Sayyid Qutb, the modern Islamist theorist, he had gone to study in Libya and witnessed the revolution there. Then he traveled to Syria to help overthrow the government of Bashar al-Assad, which he said “is butchering every Muslim here in cold blood, including children and women.”

He spoke in Mandarin. He called himself Yusef, but a subtitle in English said his Chinese name was Bo Wang. On the surface, he appeared to be an extremely rare — perhaps the only — example of an ethnic Han citizen of China joining a jihadist group in the Arab world.

The bizarre video first got the attention of some Chinese last week, when it was posted on YouTube and then on Youku, a popular video-sharing site in China. It was quickly deleted from there, possibly by censors aware that the material was too delicate for the sensibilities of Chinese officials. In the video, the man told the Chinese government to drop its support of Mr. Assad or “all Islamic countries of the world will unite to impose economic sanctions against the Chinese government.”

China and Russia have blocked Western members of the United Nations Security Council from authorizing the use of force to intervene in the increasingly bloody Syrian civil conflict, and China has repeatedly said that foreign nations should engage in dialogue with Mr. Assad to resolve the crisis rather than exercise military power.

It was not possible to verify the authenticity of the video, which was posted on YouTube on March 17 by a user named ayahm84, and then on Youku by someone using the handle of “Bashar al-Assad.” But two people with contacts in Syria said they had heard of the Chinese rebel fighter, and the green landscape in the video closely resembles that of northern Syria.

There have been few, if any, cases of ethnic Han taking part in a jihadist movement in recent times. The Han are the dominant ethnic group in China and generally do not follow Islam. The two most prominent Muslim ethnic groups in China are the Hui and the Uighurs, who complain of discrimination by ethnic Han and by the Han-dominated Communist Party. Under the administration of President George W. Bush, 22 ethnic Uighurs from China captured by American forces in Afghanistan were sent to Guantánamo Bay, but they were later deemed by officials not to be enemy combatants.

“We’ve of course heard of American and other Western converts fighting alongside jihadis,” said Bruce Hoffman, a professor at Georgetown University and a former RAND Corporation analyst who studies insurgencies and terrorism. “I know of no Han Chinese, though. I would imagine that Chinese officials, given their perennial concern about the spread of radical Islam into western China, will not be pleased with this development.”

“We’ve of course heard of American and other Western converts fighting alongside jihadis,” said Bruce Hoffman, a professor at Georgetown University and a former RAND Corporation analyst who studies insurgencies and terrorism. “I know of no Han Chinese, though. I would imagine that Chinese officials, given their perennial concern about the spread of radical Islam into western China, will not be pleased with this development.”

Images show the armed Chinese fighter walking through a forest with evergreen trees and stepping over flowers and stones. He carries a Kalashnikov in his right hand, then fires it.

The rest of the video shows him perched against a stone in the field with a bayonet fixed to his rifle, which is pointed outward, as if at an unseen enemy. He speaks to the camera, without a distinctive regional accent. To his right is a black flag with white writing.

The fighter briefly introduces himself and then lashes out at Mr. Assad. “People have no freedom, no democracy, no security and no respect here, not at all,” he said.

He goes on to speak of 1,400-year-old ties between the Chinese and the Arabs, stretching to the time of the Prophet Muhammad and the Tang dynasty, when the Silk Road thrived. “However,” he says, “now the Chinese government has destroyed that traditional friendship between the Chinese and Arab people” because Chinese leaders, along with their Iranian and Russian counterparts, “sell weapons and provide financial assistance to the Assad government.”

There has been some discussion of the video on Chinese-language forums, though several of the original posts have been deleted. A post on one forum that remained online this week called the man “a brain-poisoned youth blind to right and wrong.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/30/world/asia/an-unlikely-chinese-warrior-in-the-battle-for-syria.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0

 

[KingMamba]

Sir talking about democracy in Syria when China is a virtual dictatorship, go figure.

 

[Shabz Nist]

Oh good. I guess China is going to join the Indian camp now. Thank you boyusef.

 

[haviZsultan]

Nice share, friend.

I do not believe that one person who calls himself Yousef will cause a rift between China and the Islamic world. But this does speak of increasing radicalization of Muslim youth.

 

[ExtraOdinary]

freelance jihadis from everywhere are flocking towards syria. wonder what the chinese have to say abt this.

freelance jihadis from everywhere are flocking towards syria. wonder what the chinese have to say abt this.

 

[Persian Achaemenid Empire]

So this one person represents the 1.2 billion chinese people? Okay, thank for letting us know.

 

[Shabz Nist]

Ramadan a challenge for China's Muslims

BEIJING // Before first light during Ramadan, He Xiying will eat noodles and mantou, a wheat-based steamed bun, both of which are staple foods in north China.

Ms He, 52, a retired clothing factory worker who lives in the capital, said she also sometimes eats rice, which is more popular in southern China, for her suhoor meal.
"Usually I will eat things that will keep me from being hungry in the morning," she said.
At Beijing's Niujie Mosque, which traces its history back more than 1,000 years, the iftar meal to end the fast at sunset includes round-shaped pastries similar to mooncakes, the sweets eaten during Chinese festivals, as well as less-characteristically Chinese foods such as Swiss roll.
While Ms He, a member of China's Hui Muslim minority, fasts during Ramadan, her 24-year-old son, Ding Ruihe, does not. This reflects a pattern that is not uncommon, as some younger Muslims who work full time tend not to take part.
"It's because I am busy with work," said Mr Ding, a hairdresser who, nonetheless, visits the mosque during the Holy Month.
Similarly, the restaurants in the city's Muslim area to the south-west are open throughout the day during Ramadan, although there are fewer customers.
For Ding Yulan, 78, also a Hui Muslim, fasting is impractical because of illness linked to her age, but she is keen to mark the Holy Month by good deeds.
"I give money to those who beg. I do that at other times too but in Ramadan, I give more," said the mother-of-four.
While many Hui Muslims in Beijing adhere to the traditions of Ramadan even though they are a minority in the capital, there is controversy over measures by the authorities in the western province of Xinjiang to discourage observance among Uighur Muslims.
Citing health concerns, local governments have told officials and students to eat and drink during the day and have said Muslim restaurants must remain open.
While the Xinjiang authorities have reportedly restricted observance of Ramadan practices before, this year's crackdown is "very strong", according to Dolkun Isa, the chairman of the executive committee of the World Uyghur Congress. He said many people tried to hide the fact they were fasting.
The congress, which represents a number of overseas Uighur advocacy groups, opposes Beijing's rule in Xinjiang, with officials having previously described Chinese in the area as "colonists".
"It's not new, but this year the Chinese government and the local government has published new regulations and is trying to stop religious activities," said Mr Isa.
The authorities are providing lunch for teachers in some schools during Ramadan, he added, something they would not normally do, as a way of testing whether individuals were fasting. Those found to be abstaining from eating risk losing their jobs, he said.
By restricting observance of Ramadan among Muslims, Mr Isa said China was breaching its own constitution, which guarantees freedom of worship.
The crackdown has echoes of events in December last year when Xinjiang's Dunmaili district posted an online notice ordering residents not to wear veils or other Muslim clothing, such as kandura and abaya-like robes.
There have long been tensions between China's majority Han people and Xinjiang's nine million largely Muslim Uighurs, many of whom feel economically disadvantaged and shut out from jobs with major companies.
In July 2009, frustrations erupted into riots in the provincial capital, Urumqi after a confrontation between Uighur protesters and police, resulting in 197 deaths of Han and Uighur people, according to official figures.
If the authorities become more repressive, they could provoke further violence, said Ding Xueliang, a professor at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
He researched issues linked to China's minorities while working in Beijing for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
"[Ramadan] is the most important [festival] for Muslims," he said. "If they do not engage in political actions, why bother them? Let them do what they want to do. It is really a sad situation."
To defuse tensions, Mr Ding believes the authorities should improve the job prospects of Uighurs. By targeting religious traditions, he believes officials risk increasing disenchantment among the Turkic minority.
"Some of the resentments could be reduced by some kind of government policy to help minority individuals to get more of a share of economic opportunities," he said.
Having a less fraught relationship with the authorities, China's Hui Muslims are able to enjoy Ramadan as a time to celebrate their sense of community.
Ma Zhijun, 62, an administrator at the Niujie Mosque, said "Muslims from around Beijing" visit for iftar. The mosque has dozens of boxes of food, marked as halal with the seal of a Muslim food company, delivered for worshippers in the evening.
"I enjoy it, it feels harmonious," she said of iftar at the mosque. "Muslims are one big family."
dbardsley@thenational.ae


Read more: Ramadan a challenge for China's Muslims - The National
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[Thorough Pro]

Nothing more than a "Boo" created by western media for Chinese consumption.

Sir talking about democracy in Syria when China is a virtual dictatorship, go figure.

 

[Shabz Nist]

August 5, 2012
Beijing Steps up Persecution of Muslims in Xinjiang

The mostly Muslim Uighur population of China’s far-western province of Xinjiang has never had it particularly easy when it comes to practicing its faith. Under Mao Zedong, when religion was essentially forbidden throughout China, the state would go to extremes to suppress Islam—like force-feeding candy to Muslim school children to make them break their Ramadan fasts.
The bad old days of repression may now be coming back strong. Concerned about ethnic “splittism”, Beijing is increasingly resorting to tactics—some new, some old—to make it difficult for Uighurs to live out their faith:
Last year, the authorities started forcing low-income families to agree to abandon some Muslim traditions in exchange for social security payments. Forms posted on the internet show that some women signed a pledge not to wear the veil and not to receive veil-wearing guests in their homes, in exchange for receiving low-income subsidies for their families.

One middle school in Aksu, a city on the northern rim of the Taklamakan desert which has seen deadly sectarian violence in recent years, said it would step up propaganda for national unity and against “ethnic splittism” and ensure that “no teachers or students attend any religious activities” during Ramadan.
This is not a sign that China knows what it’s doing in Xinjiang.

Banning fasting and other Islamic practices is not going to build much support for Beijing’s rule in this restive province, which as recently as July 2009 saw racial riots that claimed almost 200 lives.

The free exercise of religion is among the most fundamental of human rights. For its own sake, and in the interests of simple justice, China needs to find a way to reconcile the needs of its government with the rights of its people. Suppressing Islam is not the way.

Students of international relations can learn something else from this policy. China is deeply worried about large, resource rich and thinly populated Xinjang. It sees the spread of radical Islam as the most worrying feature of a difficult situation. This has implications for China-Pakistan relations. If China thought Pakistan could or would provide serious help at smashing the networks that support Islamist opposition, there would be more interest in Beijing in developing a deep strategic relationship with Islamabad.

But China seems to believe that Pakistan is either unwilling or unable to provide these guarantees, and it notes that Pakistani support for anti-American terrorists like the Haqqani network shows Islamabad to be an unreliable ally. A Taliban dominated Afghanistan would similarly be, from the Chinese (and Russian) point of view a petri dish in which dangerous movements would breed.

For China as for Russia, the struggle against radical Islamic terrorism is a domestic as well as a foreign policy issue. Unfortunately, the kind of crude suppression that China is currently trying against all forms of Islam, however moderate and peaceful, will strengthen the radicals in China and abroad.

 

[Zarvan]

Nice share, friend.

I do not believe that one person who calls himself Yousef will cause a rift between China and the Islamic world. But this does speak of increasing radicalization of Muslim youth.

Defending Muslim is if radicalization than we all stand for it and we will promote it and this is one example and thousands of example are there who are fighting INSHALLAH syrias will be victorious and Assad will be taken out

 

[MooshMoosh]

I saw this video and the other video of the Chinese rebel who wears jalabia with beard making dua lol. Hope the Chinese governments doesn't send them to jail if they come back because some countries already made the policy if anyone returns will be sent to prison. What a disgrace!

 

[Beerbal]

Defending Muslim is if radicalization than we all stand for it and we will promote it and this is one example and thousands of example are there who are fighting INSHALLAH syrias will be victorious and Assad will be taken out

USA is with you..

 

[sEoulman556]

This is just unbelivable!!!