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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| 16 customs officers killed and 16 wounded in an attack in Xinjiang |
| 2008-08-04 |
| Sixteen policemen were killed and 16 others injured after a border patrol armed police division in northwest China's Muslim-populated Xinjiang region was attacked Monday, state media reported. Two attackers drove a lorry into the station in the Xinjiang city of Kashgar, the Xinhua news agency reported. An earlier report said two vehicles were involved. They threw two grenades, which exploded, before they were arrested at about 8:00 am (0000 GMT), Xinhua said. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #8 #7 has it right. A brief history of the Uighurs, a review of items I've written here before: Nestorian Christians came along the Silk Road in the 6th or 7th Century, and gave the Uighurs their alphabet and written language, including scripture. Muslims that came down the Silk Road afterward forced conversions (you can guess the methodology) a few centuries later. The Uighur brand of Islam was a hodgepodge of Islam and animism. Swedish missionaries began a new Uighur church in the 1890s. During WWII, while the Chinese Government was fighting the Japanese, the Uighur Muslims killed all the Christian men and force the women and children into Muslim families. Today, the surviving Christians form the nucleus of a small Christian community. During the Mao era, the government sent ethnic Han to every province. These people got all the good jobs and good housing. The government wanted to pressure everybody into accepting Communist ways, and indulged in racist policies. So Muslim Uighurs were crowded out of opportunities in their own country, and Uighur Christians were pressured from both sides. The Chinese communist policies have made life difficult enough for the various Muslim ethnic groups that people are willing to accept the AlQaeda brand of Islam. The Christians are holding on. Last report I had (a while ago) was that Chinese Christians were trying to help their Uighur brothers and sisters economically and in fellowship. Hard to do with the government breathing down their necks; but they're trying. |
| Posted by: mom 2008-08-04 10:26 |
| #7 could it be that the in this case the Muslims are responding to real oppression by their Han Chinese "brothers". There was seperatism in Xinjiang (east turkestan) before radical Islamism, IIUC, and while the rebels have accepted help from AQ, this isnt quite a one dimensional struggle. |
| Posted by: superstitiousGalitizianer 2008-08-04 09:45 |
| #6 I have no doubt whatsoever that they are fighting with chinese AKs and grenades. The chicoms are way too greedy to pass up a sale like that. Insallah. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2008-08-04 09:37 |
| #5 Hey look at the equation.....millions of $ in arms sales vs. a couple of thousand dead peasants. Looks like a no brainer to a ChiCom bigwig, no? |
| Posted by: AlanC 2008-08-04 09:25 |
| #4 Gorb I have no doubt whatsoever that they are fighting with chinese AKs and grenades. The chicoms are way too greedy to pass up a sale like that. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-08-04 09:06 |
| #3 Oh, Boyz! I heard the Chinese routinely use Koran pages to start their water-buffalo-dung cook fires, but only on Fridays and other Islamic holy days. Don't that make you want to head east? |
| Posted by: Bobby 2008-08-04 06:11 |
| #2 Maybe if the Chinese shipped them a few trainloads of weapons to these terrorists it would help. After all, the Chinese seem to think it helps everywhere else, so what's good there ought to work at home too. |
| Posted by: gorb 2008-08-04 04:12 |
| #1 Yep, mooselimbs. Wherever they are, booms ensue. I hope that Chinese leadership will get it what they are dealing with and that policing mode may not be sufficient any longer. They were concentrated on Falun Gong and Christians, but their true mortal enemies are in Islam's camp. |
| Posted by: Spike Uniter 2008-08-04 02:02 |