IS releases song in Chinese to rally jihadists in China

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IS releases song in Chinese

By Liu Xin Source: Global Times Published: 2015-12-8 0:48:01

Recruitment drive in China intensifies: expert

An extremist call to arms sung in Putonghua calling on followers of Islam in China to sacrifice themselves on the battlefield will bring added pressure to China's anti-terrorist efforts, analysts said Monday.

Analysts said that the song, released Sunday by the Islamic State (IS) propaganda website Jihadology, attempts to strengthen IS penetration in China, especially after the recent killings of Chinese nationals overseas.

The four-minute song, titled We are Mujahid, contains lyrics such as "It's our dream to die fighting on the battlefield," "No power could stop us from moving forward," "Pick up your weapons to revolt," and "The shameless enemy would panic."

Jihadology describes itself as an "academic website that curates new primary source material from global jihadis" on its Twitter account.

"This is the first time that the IS has released a Chinese song to recruit members or inspire its followers," Zhu Yongbiao, assistant director of the Institute of Central Asia Studies at Lanzhou University, told the Global Times on Monday.

It also means that China, a country which has direct experience of terrorist attacks, is facing escalating pressure to fight terrorism, Wu Shaozhong, an intelligence expert from the People's Public Security University of China, told the Global Times.

Most domestic acts of terrorism were planned and perpetrated by East Turkestan Islamic Movement forces together with domestic terrorists, Wu said.

"Some terrorists in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region traveled via Turkey to Syria and Iraq to join the IS and some of them will return to launch terrorist activities in China," an expert from the Institute of American Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, who asked for anonymity, told the Global Times.

Zhu said that the IS regards China as one of its major enemies considering China's increasing efforts in cracking down on terrorism, not only in Xinjiang but also in seeking cooperation with neighboring countries.

"Another reason for claiming China as one of its main enemies is that as a self-claimed spokesperson of its religion, the IS always includes China's Xinjiang region as part of its ambitious plan to built a global caliphate, which the Chinese government's policies make it hard to realize," Zhu said.

Analysts said that the IS is adept at utilizing various social media outlets to spread its ideals, recruit members globally, inspire potential followers and increase its influence.

Inspire jihadis

Wang Guoxiang, a Beijing-based expert on Middle East issues, told the Global Times that the songs are deliberately sung in Chinese to attract other Muslim groups in China that speak the same language as Han people.

Some people who sympathise with religious extremism could be inspired by such a song and become jihadist followers, he said.

In earlier reports, authorities had revealed that people who participated in terror attacks in China were mainly Uyghurs from Xinjiang who barely spoke much Putonghua.

It is an alarm call for China to pay greater attention to the IS, as it makes great use of social media to exert its influence into China, said Zhu. Considering the growing terrorism threat, both the government and Chinese enterprises operating overseas should improve their contingency plans to deal with terrorism.

The IS announced that it killed two men on November 18, with one being identified as Chinese national Fan Jinghui from Beijing.

Chinese President Xi Jinping "strongly condemned" the IS for the killing of the Chinese hostage and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the government would hold the perpetrators accountable.

Three men working for the State-owned China Railway Construction Corporation were killed when gunmen attacked a hotel in the capital of the West African nation of Mali on November 20. The IS claimed responsibility for the attack.

"A Chinese-language propaganda song will remind the rest of the world that China is also a victim of terrorism. Some countries need to abandon their double-standards on anti-terrorism issues in China," said Wu.






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