Why Is Arab Media Silent About the Uyghur Separatists Supporting 'Israel'?

By Shaher Ismail Al Shaher – Mar 31, 2024

We no longer hear much about the Uyghur issue, which Arab and international media outlets often promoted as a narrative to tarnish the reputation of the Chinese government and pressure it. This issue has always been framed through the lens of “generality” implying that “China is persecuting Muslims within its borders,” which is certainly not true, since the Uyghurs are not the only Muslim ethnic group in China; there are ten Muslim ethnicities in China.

There are ten Muslim ethnicities in China, yet we only hear about the Uyghurs, indicating that the principle of generalization is incorrect, as the other Muslim ethnicities continue to practice their rituals and worship without any problems. The issue with a part of the Uyghur community is a separatist tendency fueled by external forces, especially Turkey and the United States, and other countries hostile to Beijing.

The rush by many Arab and Islamic countries to defend the Uyghurs was either due to ignorance or due to political considerations. So why have we not heard from those countries about what India is doing, for example, against Muslims within its borders? Or is their stance in line with Washington’s silent and complicit stance towards India and supporting it? Why should Washington, whose policies have been hostile to Muslims and China, be trusted to care about Chinese Muslims?

The goal of the United States is to “activate India” as part of an Asian bloc that could compete with China, especially given the historical problems and border disputes between India and China. The United States has sought to include India in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or the Quad alliance, aimed at encircling China, and it has encouraged Arab countries, “Israel,” and Italy to agree to the “Indian Corridor,” which is actually a US project aimed at competing with the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative.

The absence of recent discussion about the Uyghurs is not due to Washington reducing its intensity of targeting China, but rather to cover up the declared stance of the Uyghurs regarding the Al-Aqsa Flood and the war in Gaza. The so-called “World Uyghur Conference” chaired by Dolkun Isa issued a statement on October 9, 2023, condemning Hamas’ actions and declaring solidarity with Zionist occupation.

The statement also expressed solidarity with all those “suffering from terror and war,” meaning it denied the Palestinian people’s right to resist occupation and declared Uyghur sympathy with Zionist settlers. This stance received severe criticism from international legal associations and Muslim civil society organizations, yet it was ignored by Arab media outlets.

The failure to criticize the “weak stance of the Uyghurs” towards the Palestinian cause undoubtedly indicates the politicization pursued by Arab and international media outlets, which simultaneously ignored China’s progressive position and its clear condemnation of Zionist occupation and its actions. The Palestinian issue is no longer solely an Arab and Muslim concern but has become a crucial legal and humanitarian issue, as demonstrated by the Al-Aqsa Flood and international condemnations of Israeli massacres against the Palestinian people in Gaza.

The United States’ unequivocal support for “Israel,” politically and militarily, has faced very harsh criticism from Russia and China. These criticisms evolved into a “political confrontation” at the United Nations Security Council, culminating with the Russian-Chinese veto nullifying the US resolution that aimed at aiding the occupation and releasing Zionist prisoners, without any final ceasefire or humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza.

Washington’s response came swiftly through its dirty tools, as the terrorist organization ISIS-Khorasan claimed responsibility for the cowardly terrorist act targeting a music hall in Moscow.

The return of ISIS as an arm of US intelligence
The return, development, and international expansion of ISIS raises numerous questions, foremost among them is the failure of the international coalition led by the United States to combat ISIS. Does this have anything to do with the United States’ desire to remain in the Middle East, particularly in Iraq, following the Iraqi government’s request for its departure?

What prompted ISIS to leave the Middle East, where it kills (Muslims, including Palestinian Muslims), and does not condemn what “Israel” does, nor threaten to conduct operations against Zionist interests worldwide?

Why has the organization not targeted US forces in the region, the biggest supporters of the zionist occupation state while it commits massacres? The United States and Western countries have always claimed that ISIS was created by Iran, Russia, the Syrian regime… etc. So why has the organization not targeted the enemies of these countries?

What is noteworthy is the announcement by the US embassy in Moscow on March 7, warning US citizens of a possible terrorist attack. This message was originally interpreted by Russian authorities as an intimidation tactic to prevent people from participating in the presidential elections held during March 15-17.

The significant turnout in the elections and President Putin’s decisive victory conveyed a clear message to the West of the Russian people’s alignment with their leadership, and a future victory in the war in Ukraine. Discussion of the expected “spring offensive” by the Russian army to establish buffer zones was soon followed by French and NATO threats of direct intervention in the war. These indicators and others lead us to believe that the world is heading towards more escalation and heating up of fronts, with perhaps the most dangerous being the South China Sea region.

Last month, the US Intelligence Community issued its “Annual Threat Assessment” which listed China as the top threat to the United States, followed by Russia, Iran, North Korea, and the Hamas movement in Gaza. What is strange is that the report fails to mention ISIS as a threat to the United States despite the fact that the US is leading an international coalition to fight it!

The identity of ISIS has become clearer today, representing a continuation of a long history of collusion and shared interests between the United States and Western-backed political Islamist movements, along with British Islamist thought.

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The United States and the so-called “Chinese Jihad”
The “Chinese Jihad” refers to the United States’ attempt to replicate the Afghan model (fighting Al-Qaeda against the Soviet Union) by creating an Islamic organization to lead jihad against China “for persecuting its Muslim Uyghur population.” For years, the United States has been actively and openly targeting China under the guise of “containing China.”

This attack is conducted through efforts both domestically and internationally. Domestically, the US conducted extensive campaigns to manipulate the public opinion against the Chinese people and the Chinese government. This included promoting various lies about “freedom,” “democracy,” “human rights,” and the alleged persecution of minorities (Uyghurs). The campaign even went so far as accusing China of manufacturing the COVID-19 virus while criticizing its handling of the virus.

Internationally, the US has woven a series of alliances to encircle China, impose numerous sanctions on it, and seek to halt its technological development, while tarnishing its reputation in this field by accusing Chinese companies of spying on their users. The latest of these issues is the ongoing campaign against TikTok. The Chinese government fully understands the importance of working on both the domestic and international fronts, as fortifying the domestic environment is a necessary condition to confront these external conspiracies.

China has thus far not succumbed to the US external pressures. It has proven to be a strong country backed by competent political leadership, with the ability to overcome all previous US provocations. Therefore, it is likely that the US will return to targeting China internally. The greater danger lies in the jihadist ideology, which the United States has long successfully marketed and exploited as its most potent weapon against its enemies.

The “Afghan Jihad” against the atheist communist Soviet Union, led by Al-Qaeda, where the United States ordered certain Arab countries to finance it, is an example. Today, efforts are underway to prepare the ISIS terrorist organization to be a tool in confronting both Russia and China, as this organization has begun to announce its international operations.

What further exacerbates the danger for Beijing is that according to reports, some of the perpetrators of the Moscow bombings may belong to the Turkistan Islamic Party (the Uyghur separatist movement). This necessitates China to take more decisive steps against them in the next stage of this conflict.

ISIS: from regional to global
Afghanistan has long been a fertile ground for terrorist organizations, and it has not been able to recover from decades of US occupation.

The US withdrawal from Afghanistan aimed to create a “soft flank” to target China, especially considering the existence of a vast wilderness area (Wakhan Corridor) stretching some 70 kilometers, connecting Afghanistan to the Xinjiang region where the extremist Uyghur separatism operates.

Beijing has historically dealt positively with the situation in Afghanistan, and had even supported US presence there as it brought about a degree of stability.

Upon the US withdrawal in 2021, Beijing intervened and filled the vacuum, establishing diplomatic relations with the Taliban and striving to deliver Chinese development projects there, believing that prosperity significantly contributes to drying up the sources of terrorism.

The ISIS-Khorasan organization emerged in eastern Afghanistan in 2014. Since the Taliban took power in August 2021, ISIS-K has conducted 248 attacks within Afghan territory. Among these attacks was the bombing at Kabul International Airport, resulting in the deaths of 13 US soldiers during the US evacuation from Afghanistan.

In September 2022, ISIS-K militants claimed responsibility for the bombing targeting the Russian embassy in Kabul. They also conducted bombings in the Iranian city of Kerman earlier this year, resulting in the deaths of nearly 100 people. The terrorist organization aims to undermine the Taliban government’s relationship with China and other countries that have relations with it. Consequently, the organization attacked the Russian and Pakistani embassies respectively in September and December 2022.

On January 11, 2023, a suicide bomber from ISIS-K detonated his explosive belt near the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kabul, where a meeting with a Chinese delegation was scheduled, resulting in the deaths of over 50 people. On December 12, 2023, Beijing announced that five of its citizens were injured in an attack on a hotel in Kabul, for which ISIS-K claimed responsibility.

The United Nations, in a report issued in 2022, mentioned that ISIS-Khorasan actively recruits fighters from the Turkistan Islamic Party, the armed Uyghur separatist organization calling for the establishment of an Islamic state in the Xinjiang region in northwest China.

The report indicated that the two groups collaborate in issuing anti-China propaganda in Uyghur language, exchanging fighters and military advice, as well as planning joint attacks and coordinating weapons deals.

It is noteworthy that the Turkistan Islamic Party was an ally of Al-Qaeda and has engaged in terrorist activities in several Arab countries, especially Syria, where the organization still fights in northern Syria with significant support from Türkiye.

Will Russia and China increase their support to help the Syrian army eliminate these terrorists? This is especially relevant since the opening of the Idlib front may be met with US indifference, due to its interest in diverting the Syrian army’s attention and Hezbollah’s attention away from events in Gaza, thus relieving pressure from southern Lebanon on Israel.

It is evident that, after the Moscow bombings, Beijing should be more concerned as it finds itself in the eye of the storm especially since these threats may also spread from Afghanistan to Pakistan, where Beijing has invested $50 billion in several projects. It seems that Beijing’s most difficult test will be its ability to align its economic goals and development plans with the increasingly challenging threats to its national security.

(Al-Mayadeen)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/DZ/SC