ISIS in China: Threat Pushes China to Tighten Noose on Islam
Officials of the ruling Communist Party have rallied Chinese citizens to a "people's war" against the Islamic State (ISIS) to safeguard the country's national identity. The call was made on Sunday during the National People's Congress held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
Li Jianguo, Communist Party secretary from Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region which has an ethnic Muslim population, warned about the dangers of Islamic extremism. He drew comparisons to the policies of President Donald Trump to make his point, AP reported.
"What the Islamic State and extremists push is jihad, terror, violence," he said. "This is why we see Trump targeting Muslims in a travel ban. It doesn't matter whether 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."
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The latest party official to condemn the "international anti-terror situation" is Shaerheti Ahan from Xinjiang, home to the Uighur ethnic minority that breeds a separatist group linked to al-Qaida and ISIS. In late February, ISIS released a video showing Uigur fighters training in Iraq and vowing to strike at China.
Wu Shimin, former ethnic affairs official from Ningxia, wants to promote Chinese identity to the Hui population that are descendants of Muslim traders plying the Silk Road centuries ago. "The roots of the Hui are in China," he said. "To discuss religious consciousness, we must first discuss Chinese consciousness. To discuss the feelings of minorities, we must first discuss the feelings of the Chinese people."
Mohammed al-Sudairi, a doctoral student at the University of Hong Kong, is seeing an increased anti-Islam rhetoric among the Chinese leaders. "There's a strengthening trend of viewing Islam as a problem in Chinese society," he said. "I don't think things will take a softer turn."
Muslims make up 1.5 percent of China's population of 1.37 billion. The Communist government is trying to rein in on the spread of Islam by prohibiting people under the age of 18 from entering mosques, according to International Business Times.
