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The Chinese Approach to Radical Islam

(Institute for Contemporary Affairs-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Col. (ret.) Dr. Jacques Neriah - There are roughly 22 million Muslims living in China today. The dominant Muslim minority group is the Uyghurs, a Sunni population who speak a Turkish dialect and live in the northwestern province of Xinjiang, home to 10 million Chinese Muslims. Since the beginning of the civil war in Syria and Iraq, Uyghurs have flocked to the Middle East. The Chinese government has alleged that "more than 1,000" Xinjiang separatists have received terrorist training in Afghanistan and claims to have arrested a hundred foreign-trained terrorists who made their way back to Xinjiang. The likely defeat of ISIS in Iraq and Syria could potentially send back to China hundreds of Uyghurs who had been fighting in the ranks of the rebels, fully trained for guerilla warfare. The Chinese government has sought to dilute the Uyghur majority in Xinjiang by encouraging Han Chinese to resettle there. As a result, the Uyghurs represent today barely 45% of the population compared to having been a large majority in 1949. The terrorist attacks perpetrated by the Uyghurs follow almost the same patterns as those conducted by Islamic radicals in other places, such as car-ramming, suicide bombers, and knife-wielding attackers. The writer, a special analyst at the Jerusalem Center, was former deputy head for assessment of Israeli Military Intelligence.
2017-03-31 00:00:00
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