When the U.S. invaded Afghanistan, there was a small contingent of Uighurs—members of a Muslim ethnic group from the Xinjiang province of northwestern China—fighting alongside al-Qaeda. This organization has had but meager success establishing cells within Chinese borders, where radical Islam has relatively little purchase among Muslims. But, writes Thomas Joscelyn, that could very well change because of Beijing’s increasingly brutal treatment of the Uighurs—sending hundreds of thousands to concentration camps, imposing unprecedented surveillance, quartering party agents with families, and raping and torturing untold numbers. He writes:
One argument I’ve seen made in counterterrorism circles is that the [the Uighur al-Qaeda affiliate], the Turkmenistan Islamic Party (TIP), is really just a “nationalist” group focused on resisting the Chinese Communist Party’s oppression. That is obviously false. There is nothing “nationalist” about its participation in the jihad in Afghanistan. TIP also maintains a sizable contingent in Syria, where its men fight alongside other al-Qaeda-affiliated parties and foreign fighters against Bashar al-Assad’s regime. That conflict is obviously far afield from Xinjiang, but TIP has made it a priority.
Beijing’s actions could very well drive more Uighurs into the arms of both al-Qaeda and Islamic State. TIP regularly releases videos decrying the Chinese government’s campaign in Xinjiang. Islamic State—which has its own contingent of Uighur jihadists—has increasingly highlighted the China’s actions in its weekly al-Naba newsletter. These propaganda efforts are intended to portray jihadist organizations as legitimate outlets for Uighur anger.
China’s [anti-Muslim] campaign is not only morally abhorrent, it could very well lead to the rise of a new generation of jihadists from Xinjiang.
Read more on FDD: https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2020/04/29/how-chinas-repressive-policies-could-fuel-the-jihad/