Chinese Party Officials Say Radical Islam is Gaining Momentum in China

Europe and the U.S. aren’t the only areas being targeted by radical Islamic terrorists, China’s Communist Party just warned citizens that Islamic extremism in China is a very real problem.

Ningxia Communist Party Secretary Li mentioned that President Donald Trump’s recent travel ban is an example of how to prevent “religious extremism from seeping into all of American culture.”

“What the Islamic State and extremists push is jihad, terror, violence. This is why we see Trump targeting Muslims in a travel ban,” said Jianguo referring to Trump’s executive order banning citizens from six nations with a large Muslim population from entering the U.S. “It doesn’t matter whether the anti-Muslim policy is in the interests of the U.S. or it promotes stability; it’s about preventing religious extremism from seeping into all of American culture.”

Another official Sharhat Ahan, a top political party official in Xinjiang, warned on Sunday that a “people’s war” is needed as the country is becoming destabilized by the “international anti-terror situation.” Xinjiang is a predominantly Muslin area of China. 

“Over the past year, regional leaders in Xinjiang, home to the Uighur (pronounced WEE-gur) ethnic minority, have ramped up surveillance measures and police patrols and staged massive rallies intended to showcase the power of the security forces,” writes The Associated Press. 

According to Ahan these efforts are being done to “declare war against terrorists, to showcase the party and the government’s resolve to fight terror, resolve to preserve public safety and (China’s) mighty combat strength.”

“In Xinjiang, where hundreds of people have died in recent years in violent attacks, the government’s rising rhetoric has coincided with new security measures that activists say exacerbate a cycle of repression, radicalization and violence. The government, meanwhile, says Xinjiang faces a grave separatist threat from Uighur fighters linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, though it provides little evidence for such claims. IS released a video in late February purportedly showing Uighur fighters training in Iraq and vowing to strike China, according to the SITE Intelligence Group,” writes The Associated Press.  

However, President Xi Jinping has previously encouraged the party to help the country’s ethnic and religious minorities assimilate. But, now he seems to be more focused on Uighur separatists. 

“The Uighurs remain a specific and acute problem for China, as illustrated by last week’s release of an ISIS video full of trained Uighur fighters vowing to return home to China from the battlefields of Syria and Iraq to “shed blood.” President Xi responded by calling for a “great wall of iron” against Uighur separatists in Xinjiang province,” writes Breitbart.

“In retaliation for the tears that flow from the eyes of the oppressed we will make your blood flow in rivers, by the will of God,” said one Uighur militant in the video.”