“The incident followed several high-profile attacks blamed on militants in Xinjiang, the traditional home of the Uyghurs who complain they have long suffered ethnic discrimination, oppressive religious controls, and continued poverty and joblessness.” Mainstream media outlets that retail uncritically jihadists’ list of grievances don’t realize that these grievances are merely pretexts to justify jihad in terms of Islamic theology, under which only defensive jihad is allowed until the restoration of the caliphate. The pretexts may shift; the jihad will remain.
“Five Police Officers Killed in Attack on Xinjiang Security Checkpoint,” Radio Free Asia, June 22, 2014 (thanks to Blazing Cat Fur):
Five police officers have been killed in a pre-dawn attack on a security checkpoint in China’s restive far-western region of Xinjiang after government officials harassed ethnic minority Muslim women wearing head scarves and men with beards, according to police and residents.
Unknown assailants on Friday stabbed two police officers guarding the checkpoint in Qaraqash (in Chinese, Moyu) county in southwestern Hotan prefecture and then set fire to a room in the building where three police officers were taking a nap, police said.
Residents going for early Friday morning Muslim prayers discovered the two wounded officers and the charred remains of the three others in the room and alerted the authorities. The two officers died on the way to the hospital.
The incident followed several high-profile attacks blamed on militants in Xinjiang, the traditional home of the Uyghurs who complain they have long suffered ethnic discrimination, oppressive religious controls, and continued poverty and joblessness….