Second Blasts in China's Xinjiang region.

[queendumb]

This is from the BBC News

Several explosions have hit the north-western Chinese province of Xinjiang, state media has reported.

It said there was sporadic gunfire after the blasts, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

Earlier this week, 16 Chinese policemen were killed in an attack on a border post in the province, Xinhua reported.

Xinjiang is home to many Muslim Uighur people. Uighur separatists there have waged a low-level campaign against Chinese rule for decades.

Xinhua news agency said the explosions occurred between 0320 local time (1920 GMT) and 0400 (2000 GMT) in Kuqa, a town in central Xinjiang.

Police are at the scene and have sealed off the area, witnesses said.

The incident comes a day after the Olympic Games opened in Beijing, with a spectacular display of fireworks, music and dancing.

Human rights groups say Beijing is suppressing the rights of Uighurs.

Correspondents say China has spoken in the past of what it calls a terrorist threat from Muslim militants in Xinjiang, but it has provided little evidence to back up its claims.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7551954.stm


Does any one think this is a seperist movement from china? An attempt by the Xinjiang's Uighurs? Does this mean that China has discovering al Qaeda in its own backyard?

Ps. Sorry for any spelling mistakes.

 

[dwaxe]

Finally, the last big country is to be attacked by terror!

Maybe Chinese people will actually care about those other countries now.

 

[The Fishman]

Does any one think this is a seperist movement from china? An attempt by the Xinjiang's Uighurs meaning China has discovering al Qaeda in its own backyard?

Ps. Sorry for any spelling mistakes.

Don't really understand the question. China has a Muslim minority in the far-western Xinjiang province. As with many other ethnic minorities, they want independence. This, coupled with the fact that they were (and still are to an extent) systematically persecuted by the Communist authorities, makes they very angry and likely to side with the conspiracy-based worldviews of groups like al-Qaeda.

 

[Truronian]

Al Qaeda are involved?

 

[Maniac]

Even if Xinjiang seperatists use muslim extremist rhetoric, this is just a consequence of it being 'in' these days, and thus easy to mobilize fellow Muslims and form a common identity around. But their real issue is a desire for autonomy. So any reference in this issue to al Qaeda, or assuming intentions similar to them, is moronic. Though of course Chinese authorities would like everyone to believe they are al Qaeda terrorists.

As usual, one person's freedom fighter is another one's terrorist.

Edit: it could be considered contradictory to support Tibetan autonomy, but not Xinjiang autonomy.

 

[The Fishman]

Al Qaeda are involved?

They might, or the seperatists might just be inspired by them.

 

[queendumb]

Don't really understand the question. China has a Muslim minority in the far-western Xinjiang province. As with many other ethnic minorities, they want independence. This, coupled with the fact that they were (and still are to an extent) systematically persecuted by the Communist authorities, makes they very angry and likely to side with the conspiracy-based worldviews of groups like al-Qaeda.

Sorry re-reading it now the question doesn't make much sense really there should be a "?" between the words "Uighurs" and "meaning" making it: "An attempt by the Xinjiang's Uighurs? Meaning China has discovering al Qaeda in its own backyard?".

I wanted to ask if it was Xinjiang's Uighurs and/or al Qaeda or is it just china saying it is.

 

[SharpMango]

if the uyghurs had a trendy leader like the dalai lama to publicise their cause with all the cool students in europe/america joining 'free xinjiang' societies, some people in xinjiang wouldnt have to resort to this..
but they know the rest of the world hasnt heard of them..
and xinjiang has just as great a claim to be independent as does tibet...
of course...neither country is going to become independent any time soon (short of a complete collapse of the CCP)..
i guess this is one of those 'better to die on your feet then on your knees moments'.....
no one cares for the uyghurs but themselves.

 

[SharpMango]

this flag is illegal in china.

sympathy or no...
we should all ask ourselves if it should be a crime to wish for independence for their homeland or not...
im not talking about 'terrorism' here...
simply to desire independence for the uyghurs is a crime in china.

 

[JohnRM]

This is from the BBC News



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7551954.stm


Does any one think this is a seperist movement from china? An attempt by the Xinjiang's Uighurs? Does this mean that China has discovering al Qaeda in its own backyard?

Ps. Sorry for any spelling mistakes.

Things have always been kind of shakey, in China.

 

[Ramius75]

to some of the posters here.

Isnt bombing of civilian consider an terrorist act? something that has been done by many organization in indonesia bali, phlippine manila, spain madrid, turkey istanbul, India, and many others? Most in the name of creating their own sepreate states too... and especially the pan islam empire which span from middle east to philippine?

Isnt al queda's main goal is to create a unified islam empire also?

so how is one organization different from another?

 

[Bill3000]

FREE UIGHURSTAN!

 

[Bast]

Fireworks?

 

[SharpMango]

to some of the posters here.

Isnt bombing of civilian consider an terrorist act? something that has been done by many organization in indonesia bali, phlippine manila, spain madrid, turkey istanbul, India, and many others? Most in the name of creating their own sepreate states too... and especially the pan islam empire which span from middle east to philippine?

Isnt al queda's main goal is to create a unified islam empire also?

so how is one organization different from another?

yes. bombing civilians is a terrorist act. everyone knows that, in fact that is probably the correct definition of terrorism. Some of those bombings you mention have been done by AQ orgs, some havent..madrid/bali/istanbul spring to mind most of all. the others all have complicated various reasons which would take forever to go through (eg southern phillipines seperatists, indo-pak rivalry etc.)
in any case, just because AQ desires a unified islamic caliphate, doesnt automatically make that desire to be 'evil'.
i'd say the majority of muslims actually desire an islamic caliphate.the muslim world had a caliphate of some form for 1300 years, so it is no surprise that the feeling is still strong. obviously most muslims realise how complicated such a vision is to realise at this present moment. and the vision of the typical muslim is completely different to that of the typical AQ operative (then again the size differential between the two is several orders of magnitude)
in any case, who know what these uyghurs are attacking? a police station seems like a typical resistance movement style attack to me.in fact they practically teach it in guerilla warfare 101 (naxalites in india attack police stations regularly, as do the LTTE of sri lanka, as did GAM in algeria etc.).
in a state controlled media environment, in a land where access to certain provinces is massively restricted, no one really knows what is happening in xinjiang...

remember always there are two sides to the story...just because one side lacks access to modern media does not mean that the other side does not have its own story to tell.

 

[Ramius75]

remember always there are two sides to the story...just because one side lacks access to modern media does not mean that the other side does not have its own story to tell.

defintely, i always like to listen to both sides of a story... but in some cases, im skeptical...
will the islamic caliphate listen to both sides of the story also ? or will they allow other religions to flourish or allow no religion at all ?

see, thats the danger... the mujahardeen were all freedom fighters once also... and now they are branded under taliban and consider terrorist in their own region by the USA.

 

[silver 2039]

Where was this blast targeted at? If it was a government, police, or military institution its a legitimate guerrilla attack.

If its targeted at civllians its a terrorist attack.

The article doesn't specify.

 

[Maniac]

Isnt bombing of civilian consider an terrorist act? something that has been done by many organization in indonesia bali, phlippine manila, spain madrid, turkey istanbul, India, and many others? Most in the name of creating their own sepreate states too... and especially the pan islam empire which span from middle east to philippine?

Terrorism is the weapon of the weak, because they have no other choice. If they could, I'm sure all the groups you name would prefer to blast their way into Beijing/Washington/whatever with a column of tanks, and defeat the other's military straight on, instead of blowing up some civilians.

PS: I disapprove of the goals of most of the organizations you mention above of course.

 

[Pannonius]

Even if Xinjiang seperatists use muslim extremist rhetoric, this is just a consequence of it being 'in' these days, and thus easy to mobilize fellow Muslims and form a common identity around. But their real issue is a desire for autonomy. So any reference in this issue to al Qaeda, or assuming intentions similar to them, is moronic. Though of course Chinese authorities would like everyone to believe they are al Qaeda terrorists.

As usual, one person's freedom fighter is another one's terrorist.

Edit: it could be considered contradictory to support Tibetan autonomy, but not Xinjiang autonomy.

Why is it moronic? They're doing AQ's job, there is a reason to believe that AQ is at least helping them in some form.
P.S. I don't support tibetan authonomy .

 

[SharpMango]

defintely, i always like to listen to both sides of a story... but in some cases, im skeptical...
will the islamic caliphate listen to both sides of the story also ? or will they allow other religions to flourish or allow no religion at all ?

see, thats the danger... the mujahardeen were all freedom fighters once also... and now they are branded under taliban and consider terrorist in their own region by the USA.

i think if one looks at most islamic 'empires' of the past that religious minorities did okay...perhaps not perfect, but certainly enough to not cause a mass exodus...
there are countless examples, the millions of jews who used to live in the middle east and muslim spain..., the multi-religious nature of the ottoman empire, including the fact that for a very long time, the prime minister/vizier would have to be a non-muslim..
then looking to the east, when you see the vast muslim empires of the indian subcontinent, the fact that islam is still a minority religion in india is testament to the fact that by and large, other religions did perfectly fine under islamic rule.....
howeeeeeeever..
when someone speaks of a caliphate now, its more akin to the european union...most people would imagine some sort of broad federation slowly taking in countries...
Saudi arabia with kuwait, bahrain, qatar, oman, yemen.extending out to iraq, syria, egypt etc....
just getting 15 odd 95percent muslim states to unite their political systems is difficult enough...i doubt very much that anyone else needs to worry....
besides its not going to happen for decades...but it doesnt mean that the desire is still less on the side of most muslims...the problem is of course that all the petty ruling elites would lose power...and they'd hate for that to happen!..
after all no matter how federated 2 republics are, when they become 1, you're still going from 2 elites to 1....and people who live of the fruit of other people's labour hate that!

 

[Fronx]

I wouldn't be surprised if China would "find" the proof to say that Al-Qaida is behind this, just to get more sympathy.

As far as I have understood and know, the act of Uighur responsing to the China with terror isn't rare, only the magnitute seems to be unusual (and that is very likely due to Olympics).


Ofcourse Olympics would be a good target for some other, more well known terrorist organizations. However this attack happened purely outside the olympics area, just to make people pay attention to that "oppressed" area, so I think that also rules out any big terror organization "terror terror" attack. Al-Qaida might have targeted something bigger, and definitely relating to the olympics, in my opinion. (Or am I blinded by western authorities to think, that Al-Qaida would only want big death toll and to shook west, instead of helping some local muslims to get some western attention? Maybe I am).