FOSIS Is Deeply Concerned
At the beginning of the year, the Federation of Student Islamic Societies manifested a very great interest in international affairs, and published a large number of press releases on the Gaza conflict.
Since then, however, FOSIS has had little to say about anything happening outside this country. There was some fussing over the treatment of the jihadist webmaster, Babar Ahmed. There was a tizz over Contest 2.
There was also a very odd one, in which they chastised the Community Security Trust for not sharing with them, prior to publication, information on antisemitic incidents on university campuses. The press release concluded with an offer to assist ”in anyway we can in the prevention of such acts in future”.
(Hint – stop touring extreme Islamists around British universities)
Yesterday, FOSIS broke its six month silence on international affairs:
The Federation of Student Islamic Societies is deeply concerned over the current violence taking place in Urumqi, the capital of China’s northwest region of Xinjiang, and calls on authorities to be proportionate in response to any violence.
Oussama Mezoui, campaigns officer for FOSIS, said today, “We are deeply concerned about the death of at least 140 Uighurs in the recent clashes that have occurred in the Xinjiang province. We are particularly worried that the Chinese government will use the recent unrest to severely crackdown on the Uighur population, who already face constant repression and whose plight is largely ignored by the world’s media.
He further added, “We call upon governments and media outlets from across the world to take an active stance against Chinese human rights abuses in Xingjiang just as many have done in condemnation of China’s repression in Tibet.
In an effort to raise awareness of the abhorrent human rights violations that occur in Xinjiang, FOSIS will be coordinating a national campaign on campuses this academic year. For further information on the FOSIS Uighur Campaign please contact head.campaigns@fosis.org.uk.
So, Xinjiang is to become the new Bosnia, for the post-Iraq generation of young Islamists. I wonder how that will play with the pro-China section of the Left?
Not a word about the suppression and murder of Iranians, most of them Muslims, by the Islamic Republic of Iran. How strange.
Comments
| 8 July 2009, 10:27 am |
It has occurred to me before that China’s Muslim minority is one of he great unknowns of global politics. The Chinese have played a subtle game so far, largely staying out of the Islam v “the West” business and. Yet all this time there was at least the possibility of a Uighur independence movement coming into being and attracting the attention of Al-Qaeda and its affiliates. It could, potentially, be bigger than Kashmir or Chechnya.
I’m not an expert in these matters, but the Chinese instinct is always to crack down, Tibet-style, on expressions of descent. Tactics which seem effective when dealing with Buddhists – who only have western film-stars to back them – might not work so well if the international Jihad got involved, though. On the other hand, Beijing has a ruthlessness which Washington lacks. It could get very nasty indeed.
| 8 July 2009, 11:02 am |
“We are deeply concerned about the death of at least 140 Uighurs in the recent clashes that have occurred in the Xinjiang province.”
Most reports said a high proportion of the 140 dead were Han Chinese rather than Uighurs. China is a repressive dictatorship, but this was a series of race riots by the two ethnic groups, not wholescale state repression like in Tibet.
| 8 July 2009, 12:06 pm |
Not strange at all. Exactly what you would expect from a bunch of stinking bigoted hypocrites.
| 8 July 2009, 12:34 pm |
“Most reports said a high proportion of the 140 dead were Han Chinese rather than Uighurs.”
The trouble is that most reports come from Chinese government-controlled sources. Most of the Western reports I’ve seen come from Beijing or Shanghai, about 2,000 miles from Xinjiang. And it isn’t hard to see why they should focus more on the Han dead. So we don’t know how many Uighurs were killed, and we probably never will.
Be that as it may, I’m sure FOSIS’ main point is that Muslims are allowed to kill people, because that’s what they do, and other people aren’t.
| 8 July 2009, 12:48 pm |
Heresiarch:
The Chinese Communists may never have engaged in anything quite like Soviet and post-Soviet Russian activities in territories inside and outside of its control, but given China’s patronage of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, it’s continued relations with Iran and its relationship to events in Darfur, they haven’t exactly been wallflowers.
| 8 July 2009, 1:29 pm |
If the jihadis start real problems with the Chinese, they’ll start wishing for the soft old days of Anti-America Jihad and Guantanamo. The Chinese will be all over them…can’t they both lose?
| 8 July 2009, 2:07 pm |
If this does end up being the new Bosnia, it certainly won’t have the same outcome as the first one. Bosnia was an ethnic conflict in a state that was falling apart, a state that was unable to resist foreign intervention. China, on the other hand, is only getting stronger. Nobody would be stupid enough to try and intervene there and it’s pretty obvious that they’re willing to crush any rebellion. Not only that, but they’ll be willing to use use the most ruthless tactics instead of giving in like the west.
| 8 July 2009, 2:30 pm |
Islamists can’t expect China to respect basic human rights the way western nations do-something percieved as a weakness-and so they’re not likely to be as bold as usual.
| 8 July 2009, 2:33 pm |
What about the thousands of Pakistanis killed or displaced in the course of the government’s attempt to overturn taliban rule? Does FOSIS care about them? Of course not, because FOSIS supports taliban rule.
| 8 July 2009, 3:24 pm |
L’chaim – Yes, it’s not the religious allegiance of the killed that these people worry about, only that of the killers. So long as they’re Muslim, that’s OK.
| 8 July 2009, 4:43 pm |
From the FOSIS press release:
He further added, “We will be writing to the Union of Jewish Students and the Community Security Trust asking for clarification and further details of these incidents with the view to assisting in anyway we can in the prevention of such acts in future.”
You will not be surprised to discover that we are still waiting to hear from them. Must be the postal strike.
| 8 July 2009, 9:05 pm |
A comment I made over at the Spitoon site if I may be allowed to cut and paste.
China may appear to have reneged on its Maoist Communist ideals but it only appears that way, the leadership, like every other totalitarian regime, past and present, doesn’t like descent. The people, like all people past and present don’t like totalitarian regimes, sooner or later there will be trouble, I am astonished it has taken as long as it has to come to a head.
In my view, things are going to get a lot worse and not only for the Uighurs, China has to expand its territory, its population is too big. Imperialism draped in the hide all cloak of communism. Another People sacrificed for the good of the people.
Islamists must be extremely pissed off about this turn of events, there is hardly enough caves in Pakistan to go around as it is. The Bin Laden boys don’t want to open up to many fronts, they said as much last year re China I think?
The West is top of the Islamist Fantasy Football League, China can wait until all the other infidels have been ‘converted’, yeah right, they will be waiting a very, very, very long time, me thinks, and lets not forget, China is not like the”West” They don’t go a bundle on the Human Rights deal, so I can Imagine why the Islamist Lunatics may be a bit scared of “taking on” the Chinese.
PS, I heard most of the dead are Han Chinese, Not Uighurs, not sure how accurate the reports are, anyone have any reliable figures re ethnicity of fatalities. I did not recieve any replies to this question at Spitoon. I realize accurate Information from Chinese crackdowns is hard to come by but does anyone know if the numbers of Han fatalities are merely Chinese propaganda? I do not wish to diminish the sadness felt, the horror experienced or the outrage expressed the people of the region by asking for accurate figures, I would simply like to hear the truth from China.
| 8 July 2009, 9:19 pm |
Frankly, we cannot tell.
| 8 July 2009, 9:42 pm |
“I would simply like to hear the truth from China.”
So would I, but I’ve been waiting more than twenty years already, and some people have been waiting sixty.
Most of the victims so far – and certainly the majority of the 140 – are Han Chinese killed by Uighar Muslims, but hey, why worry about the facts when there’s a grievance to whip up.