After they spread fear and concern in many western countries about Islam and Muslims, terror groups are now heading to China. In a recent video, Daesh vowed to attack China and “shed blood rivers”.
The threat was made by Daesh members alleging to be from the Uighur Chinese Muslim minority. In the video, a man carrying a knife issued the threat before slaying a man whom he accused of being an informer, saying “You Chinese, who do not understand the language of the people, we are the soldiers of the caliphate and we will come to you to make it clear to you in the language of the arms. We shall shed blood rivers to avenge Muslims.”
The Chinese authorities previously spoke of some 100 Uyghurs leaving the country for Syria to train with the extremists before returning to fight for the independence of China’s region of Xinjiang. The Uighur Chinese Muslims speak the Turkish language. Ten million Uyghurs live in the province of Xinjiang in North-Western China bordering Central Asian Muslim countries.
Some think the threats have limited impact but in fact they can be of dangerous consequences. Such calls may drag Islam and Muslims into uncalled-for international conflicts. China has strong relations with Arab and Muslim countries. These countries have no interest in provoking tensions with this global power to the point of making China want to impose bans on Muslims like some Western parties did.
China has a different approach than the West in relation to Islam and Muslims and does not have extreme right anti-Muslim groups as in several Western countries. But terror groups are seeking to incite China against Muslims through hateful calls that remind of past conflict.
Experience taught us not to underestimate the danger of terrorism whatever limited it might seem. If China is attacked by terrorists, it might align into a new international alliance which could put the Arab and Islamic world under further growing pressure, achieving wickedly prophecies that put Islam in a civilization clash.
Islam has spread eastward and westward and flourished in the past—without Daesh or other maniacs—through trade or expeditions that were carried in accordance with the principles and values of true Islam. We have never heard of an organization led by a gang of ignoramuses succeeding in freeing Muslims from sufferings or crisis. Some bands and sects have succeeded, however, in associating themselves with religion and taking hold of many parts of the Muslim World but only transiently before they were removed.
Muslims need, more than ever, to resume their civilization, said leaders like His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashed Al Maktoum the Vice President of the UAE; they do not need more fights. Millions of Young Arabs and Muslims suffer unemployment and poverty, the lack of education, and being tempted by terror groups whose aim in life is ‘money and gunpowder’.
The main interest in eradicating Daesh—as well as countering plots by regional expansionist powers including Iran—from Iraq and Syria, is to the Arab and Muslim countries that suffered more than any others from such groups ironically claiming to defend Muslims.
Daesh are employed by countries with historical or recent ambitions in the region. Can you believe that few thousands criminals stood all these years in the face of the world’s mightiest armies, with their advanced arsenals and high-precision drones?
There in undoubted implicit agreement that Daesh stays in order to partition territories or interests in Syria or Iraq, or against the interest of Arabs and Muslims who remain standing by watching. We need to work together to eradicate these goon squads.
