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| For China, terror chicken has come home to roost | |
By Manzoor Ahmed
For China, ever ready to rush to the aid of its “all-weather friend” Pakistan, the Islamist terror chicken has come home to roost. Its call to its own people against practicing of Islam has received a stinging rejection from outlawed Jamaat ud-Dawa’s chief and Mumbai terror attacks mastermind Hafeez Saeed.
At a recently held 'Second National Conference on Religion' in Beijing, President Xi Jinping cautioned citizens to be vigilant against “Islamic tendencies, such as Halal products.” The principal thrust, however, was against separatism and violence by Uighours, the Muslims in the northwestern Xinjiang. The reaction came from across the border in Pakistan, where Uighours have been receiving training in tribal no-man’s land. Addressing a congregation in Lahore, Saeed announced his plans to meet the Chinese ambassador in Islamabad to lodge his protest. "By uttering such statements, China is hurting its time-tested relations with the people of Pakistan," said Saeed. Saeed’s criticism of none less than the Chinese President is rare, if not unprecedented. His tirades have been mainly against India, the United States, Israel and the West in general.
It is bad news for the developing Sino-Pak ties where in President Xi has committed $46 billion in investment for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). With its deal for the purchase of F-16 fighter aircraft from the United States falling through, Pakistan has said that it would seek ‘alternate’ source, hinting at China.
Opposition to China’s projects in Pakistan, which Pakistani analysts say are motivated by China’s own self-interest than Pakistan’s, is building up among the Islamist parties and the tribals who do not like their areas being brought under modern development like roads and communications. Groups in Balochistan are opposing the China-built and China-funded Gwadar port demanding a share from the resources that the province and the port generate.
Beijing had reportedly asked those living in Xinjiang province to shun Islam and to stick to China's state policy of "Marxist Atheism".
Saeed said the statement by Chinese leadership was a "challenge to the Islamic way of life" and called upon the Sharif government to "show some courage and direct China to stay away from hurting Islamic sentiments". At the Beijing conference, senior Communist Party officials strongly backed Jinping's statement. They made it clear that Halal products will remain banned in China as these "promote religious segregation".
China has for many years now been unhappy with Pakistan’s sustained export of terrorism, but does not come out openly for the sake of its “strategic ties”. Indeed, the Lal Masjid siege by Pervez Mushrraf was prompted by Beijing after Uighbour militants got hyper-active and Pakistani militants had begun attacking Chinese workers, especially women running beauty parlours (dubbed prostitution dens by Pakistani militants).
Weariness with Pakisan-exported militancy is extending to Europe which is experiencing its worst refugee crisis that exacerbates Islamist militancy. Spanish police arrested a Pakistani man from Barcelona on Tuesday (May 31) accused of promoting militancy via social media, according to an Interior Ministry statement.
The man had been promoting the actions of various militant groups operating in the conflict zones of Syria and Iraq, especially the militant Islamic State group, the ministry said. France, home to Europe’s largest Muslim population, is also responding to growing militancy.
In the wake of the November 13 Paris terrorist attacks that claimed more than 130 lives, the French government is ordering up to 160 mosques to be shut down in the coming months. Raids have revealed large stashes of weapons and ammunition.
The government's emergency powers grant it the right to take this extraordinary measure, and mosques that are unlicensed or have a history of "preaching hatred" are being singled out.One of France 's chief imams, Hassan El Alaoui, said last Wednesday, "According to official figures and our discussions with the interior ministry, between 100 and 160 more mosques will be closed because they are run illegally without proper licenses, they preach hatred, or use takfiri speech.
"Takfiri speech involves sectarian slurs leveled by one Muslim against
fellow Muslims. "This kind of speech shouldn't even be allowed in Islamic countries, let alone secure countries like France," El Alaoui said. Several of these mosques have been raided, revealing a "staggering" number of weapons and ammunition. Sunday, authorities conducted a raid on a mosque in Lagny-sur-Marne, 18 miles east of Paris, and uncovered 334 weapons and a large quantity of 7.62mm Kalashnikov ammunition, along with ISIS propaganda videos.
Police also turned up recordings of chants "glorifying the martyrs of jihad linked to the terrorist organization Jabhat al-Nusra," the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda. The chants were found among teaching materials for youth in a madrassa, or private religious school for boys, connected to the mosque. According to the prefecture of police, "No request was made to open a private school."
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said, "In 15 days we have seized one third of the quantity of war-grade weapons that are normally seized in a year."
As a result, 232 Muslims have been taken into custody and nine placed on house arrest. It's the third mosque since the November 13 attacks to be shut down, with many more expected in the future. Muslim-owned businesses and homes are also being searched, with 2,235 raided so far.
France currently has the largest Muslim population in Western Europe,
with about 2,600 mosques total in the country. The Schengen Agreement, which abolished border checks among the 26 member states, allows residents of the European Union more than 400 million to travel freely throughout Europe without showing identification or being screened. The border policy may be reconsidered, as it gives easy access to undocumented migrants including radical Muslims to infiltrate the country and stage future terrorist attacks.
(The writer is a Free lance journalist based in Kashmir)
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