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Showing posts with label Uighurs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Uighurs. Show all posts

Friday, November 6, 2020

Islam - Current Day - Avenging the Prophet; Uighur Terrorists and USA; Sanctions in Lebanon; Muslims Guard Church; Young French Muslims Put Shariah Above French Law

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‘These filthy teachers will pay’: French police arrest man suspected of threatening school staff while on morning walks
4 Nov, 2020 16:02

A man described as “known to police” has been arrested in the French town of Athis-Mons near Paris, for allegedly making threats to local teachers, vowing to “avenge the Prophet.”



The suspect was detained on Wednesday morning in front of the Jean-Jaurès school in Athis-Mons, French media reported, citing police sources. The day before, police were deployed to the school to provide “security” for the facility following a complaint from a member of the teaching staff.

The man reportedly shouted threats at the teachers of the elementary school at least twice before his arrest while passing by the school during his morning walks, French media reported. He vowed to “avenge the prophet of Allah” and make “the filthy teachers pay.”

The identity of the 39-year-old suspect has not been revealed. The man has no criminal record, a prosecutor’s office in the southern Paris suburb of Evry told Franceinfo. However, a police source has confirmed to Le Parisien that he was known to law enforcement, though not to the “intelligence services.”

It is unclear if any particular developments at the Jean-Jaurès school prompted the suspect to issue his threats. However, his actions sparked concern in the wake of the murder of Samuel Paty, a French teacher who was beheaded after showing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed to his class.

Just over a week after the Paris tragedy, four people were killed in an attack inside a church in Nice. Following the teacher’s murder, Paris vowed to fight Islamist extremism in the country as the nation appears to be witnessing a surge of Islamic radicalism.

As many as 66 probes have been launched into cases of suspected justification of terrorism since Paty’s murder in mid-October, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Monday, adding that some of the investigations involve suspects as young as 16 or even 12 years old.

A week ago, a high school student, 16, was indicted for justifying terrorism in the eastern city of Vesoul after he said that all “disbelievers” should share “the same fate as Mr. Paty.” On Tuesday, another high school student was taken into custody in Bourges, central France, after supposedly sharing photos of beheading on social media. An investigation was also opened against two 12-year-old students in Strasbourg after they made remarks suggesting they support Paty’s beheading during a minute of silence for the slain teacher.

Speaking to the Law Committee of the French National Assembly, Darmanin described what he called “a habit of hyper violence” among French youth as “extremely worrying.”

It has always been, and yet it is only now that you are doing something about it. it may well be too little and too late!




In the Middle of Election Chaos, Pompeo Decides to Turn Loose the Terrorist Arm of Uighurs in China - Why?


China condemns US for ‘whitewashing’ terrorist organizations after dropping Islamic extremist group’s designation
6 Nov, 2020 17:13
© Reuters / Paul Carsten

Beijing has called on the US to reverse its decision to remove the East Turkestan Islamic Movement from its list of terrorist organizations, accusing Washington of ‘whitewashing’ militant groups.

Speaking at a press briefing on Friday, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said that “China deplores and firmly opposes the US decision” to drop the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) from its list of designated terrorist groups. 

 Demanding the US reverse its decision, he strongly affirmed that “terrorism is terrorism” and urged America to “refrain from ‘whitewashing’ terrorist organizations or going backwards in international cooperation on counter-terrorism.” 

The change in policy was made in a US State Department notice by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, although the Trump administration did not immediately explain why they had delisted the group. The absence of an explanation led Wenbin to accuse the US of having “flip-flopped” on the designation and claiming it has exposed “the current US administration’s double standard on counter-terrorism.” 

Removing ETIM from the list means that the group will no longer be subject to any US sanctions that were imposed, removing any limits on financial transactions or travel restrictions that had previously applied.

Beijing has been accused of detaining up to one million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in internment camps in Xinjiang, which China terms “vocational training centers.” 

The ETIM is an Islamic extremist group founded by Uyghurs in Western China who seek to create an independent Islamic state in Xinjiang, called East Turkestan. The group has been affiliated with Al-Qaeda and it has been listed as terrorist by the UN Security Council ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee since 2002. 

Is it possible the US Admin holds China responsible for Covid19? I am inclined to think so, and to think that this is an aggressive act of retaliation against China, to create more trouble for the Xi regime.

I'm sure the last thing Pompeo wants is another Islamic country the size of Mongolia. But it seems he is quite confident that China will never allow that to happen.




Lest you think for one minute that Pompeo is friendly toward Muslims...


Lebanon’s former FM Gebran Bassil hit by US sanctions over alleged corruption & Hezbollah support
6 Nov, 2020 18:31

US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, shakes hands with Lebanese Foreign Minister, Gebran Bassil,
after a meeting in Beirut in 2019. © Reuters / Jim Young/Poo

The US has imposed sanctions on prominent Hezbollah-allied Lebanese politician Gebran Bassil “for his role in corruption.” The former foreign minister branded the move an “injustice.”

Bassil is accused by the US of “appointing friends to positions” in 2017 and funneling government cash through shell companies to “individuals close to him” in 2014 when he was minister of energy.

Of course, it might have been more effective to sanction him in 2017 rather than wait until he was out of government.

“The systemic corruption in Lebanon's political system exemplified by Bassil has helped to erode the foundation of an effective government that serves the Lebanese people,” US Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said when announcing the sanctions.

The sanctions restrict any assets fully or partly controlled by Bassil in the US, and they are the latest measures the US has slapped on Lebanese officials for alleged corruption and over their support for Iran-backed Hezbollah, which it classifies as a terrorist organization. 

Bassil, son-in-law of President Michel Aoun and head of the Shia-allied Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), said the sanctions did not “frighten” him and that he had not been “tempted by promises.”

“I became accustomed to injustice,” he added in a tweet responding to the sanctions.

Bassil's support for Hezbollah was also “every bit of the motivation” for the decision to sanction him, one senior US official told Reuters. 

The politician has previously defended the militant group, which formed a political alliance with his FPM in 2006, citing Hezbollah's MPs in parliament as evidence that it is not a terrorist group. 

Hezbollah has slammed the US over the sanctions, calling them “a blatant interference in Lebanon’s affairs.” By targeting Bassil, Washington was trying to force a large Lebanese political bloc to submit to its conditions and dictations, the group said in a statement.

The sanctions come as Lebanon's Sunni Prime Minister Saad Hariri, an opponent of Hezbollah, is still trying to form a government after his predecessor resigned amid public outrage over the devastating explosion in Beirut Port in early August.

The country has been struggling with an economic crisis and collapsing currency for several months – a situation further complicated by both the blast and the Covid-19 pandemic.

And the influence of Hezbollah and Iran. 




How nervous would you be?


French Muslims STAND GUARD outside Catholic church in show of solidarity with Christians following terrorist attacks
6 Nov, 2020 16:23

General view Lodève Cathedral © Wikipedia

Muslims of Lodeve, a town in the south of France, organized to protect the local cathedral in a show of solidarity with Catholics, following the deadly terrorist attack in Nice at the end of October.

“In recent years, I’ve had a pit in my stomach,” French-born Muslim Elyazid Benferhat told the Associated Press. The activist said that after every act of Islamic terrorism inside France, it is regular Muslims who are left to suffer the consequences in terms of social persecution, even though they “had nothing to do with it.”

After the latest terrorist attacks, Benferhat assembled a team, recruiting acquaintances and fellow members of the local football club, to protect the local church. He also said that they coordinated with police, after the French government decided to increase safety measures at religious sites.

Lodeve church-goers were touched by Benferhat’s group standing guard outside the Cathedral, and the parish priest, Luis Iniguez, said the gesture gave him hope in dark times, PA reported.

While his mother was from Algeria, Benferhat was born in France and grew up speaking only French, saying he is “more French than anything. But I am also Muslim,” he added, “And we have seen Islamophobia in this country, and terrorism.”

Benferhat spoke of the beheading of a teacher near Paris last month, calling it an act of “unbelievable, unprecedented cruelty.” After the October 29 attack at the Notre Dame Basilica in Nice which saw three more people killed, he decided to act “so that everyone wakes up.”

When a local paper published a picture of Benferhat and other Muslims protecting the church, Iniguez hung it inside the cathedral. “People were happy to see that,” he said.

After being spotlighted in the national media, Benferhat attracted some far-right critics. Despite that, he says that the response has been “90% positive” and the group is planning to guard the church again on Christmas and maybe even expand their scope past Lodeve.

It is good to see a Muslim speak out and act out against terrorism. There are, however, too few of them. There are also too many reasons for sane Muslims to be radicalized in France. Islamophobia is real and, in my humble opinion, should be. Muslims can be radicalized at the drop of a hat, and terror triggered by things that might seem very small to the French.




This is what I mean...

Poll shows 57% of young Muslims in France believe Sharia law
more important than national law
6 Nov, 2020 14:56

FILE PHOTO: Members of the Muslim community pray during Friday prayers inside the mosque in Frejus, France.
© FRANCE-ELECTION / LEPEN REUTERS / Jean-Paul Pelissier

A new opinion poll has shown France’s Muslim population to be increasingly disconnected from the general population, with 57 percent of young Muslims believing French law to be subordinate to Sharia law.

A study published on Thursday by the French Institute of Public Opinion (IFOP), highlighted the increasing divide between the French general population and Muslims living in France.

The study’s most astonishing finding is that the majority of Muslims under the age of 25 (57 percent) believe Islamic law to be more important than French law in France – an increase of 10 percent since 2016.  About 38 percent of French Muslims overall felt the same. Meanwhile, only 15 percent of the Catholic population believe that their religious laws should come before French law.

A number of questions on the poll were indirectly related to the beheading of schoolteacher Samuel Paty on October 16, who had shown a caricature of the Prophet Mohammed in a class on freedom of expression, inciting rage in one student.

Of the 515 French Muslims who took part in the survey, 66 percent opposed the right of teachers to show caricatures of religious figures to their students. French people overall (75 percent), including Catholics (80 percent), overwhelmingly supported the right of teachers to show the images.

Meanwhile, only 34 percent of Muslims in France approved of the recent dissolution of the Collective Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF) and BarakaCity. Both groups were disbanded by President Emmanuel Macron in his recent crackdown on radical Islam for inciting hatred and justifying violence – a claim which they have denied. Sixty-five percent of the general population agreed with banning the CCIF while 76 percent agreed with banning BarakaCity.

The study also provided broader data showing the differing cultural opinions between the French population, particularly Catholics, and Muslims living in France.

Further examples show Muslims being overwhelmingly in favor (81 percent) of specific hours for women to use municipal swimming pools and the teaching of Arabic in public schools. French people have generally been fiercely opposed to both notions. 

Islam has been under the spotlight in France following a series of terrorist attacks in Paris, Nice, and Lyon in late October. Macron’s response has seen a number of Islamist groups banned, including the ultranationalist Turkish organization ‘Grey Wolves’. 

The president also introduced new measures in October to tackle what he termed “Islamist separatism,” including providing local officials with more powers to deal with radical Islam. 

The French government’s crackdown has been slammed by many Muslim leaders across the world and has led to a boycott of French goods. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan compared the treatment of Muslims in France to that of the Jews before World War II.




Austria closes mosque & religious association for ‘radicalization’
of presumed Vienna attacker
6 Nov, 2020 12:35 

Armed police officers patrol near the site of a gun attack in Vienna, Austria on November 4, 2020.
© Reuters / Leonhard Foeger

Austrian authorities have decided to close two religious facilities that contributed to the extremist views of the hardline Islamist accused of the Vienna attacks. The shootings left four people dead and more than 20 injured.

Austria’s interior and integration ministers announced the closure of radical mosques, APA news agency reported on Friday. The step was taken following a crisis meeting between the ministers and the head of the Islamic Religious Community of Austria (IGGO), Umit Vural.

Speaking at a press conference later in the day, Integration Minister Susanne Raab said that at least two religious venues contributed to the radicalization of the man who staged the deadly shooting. One of them, a mosque, has been already closed, another one, which is legally an association, was ordered to shut down as well.

Austria’s Interior Minister Karl Nehammer, for his part, acknowledged that “unacceptable” mistakes have been made while handling the evidence available on the attacker. Earlier this week it emerged that Slovakia informed Austria about the Vienna attacker's attempt to purchase ammunition this summer, yet the valuable information got lost somehow.

The head of security for Austria got fired today!

Vienna police chief Gerhard Puerstl, in turn, said that more sustainable measures should have been taken against the attacker and if the Slovak intelligence had been duly processed the outcome of the whole chain of events would have been different. The official also revealed that four suspects, detained in Germany earlier on Friday, had spent time with the assailant.

The deadly attacks occurred across Austria’s capital late on Monday. Four people were gunned down after a shooting started near a synagogue in central Vienna, with 23 more injured across the city.

The primary suspect, who was killed by police, turned out to be a 20-year-old Austrian citizen identified as Kujtim Fejzulai, who also held a North Macedonian passport. He had previously been jailed for trying to join Islamic State in Syria, but had been released early in December. 

Some 15 suspects detained in connection with the shootings are said to be members of a hardline Islamist network. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attacks.




Monday, February 11, 2019

China Rejects Turkey’s ‘Baseless’ Criticism over Uighur Muslims & Claims of Famed Poet’s Death

China, unlike Europe, will never allow Islam,
or any other religion, to take over the country

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu chats with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi before a meeting in Beijing.
©Greg Baker/Pool via REUTERS

Beijing has rebuffed accusations by Ankara’s foreign ministry of alleged concentration-camps for a Turkic minority group in China, including reports that a famed poet had died in one.

The statement by Beijing’s embassy in Ankara called Turkey’s claims “totally unrealistic,” and highlighted their “strong opposition” to the accusations.

"The Chinese Foreign Ministry’s response to the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs: the allegations are outrageous, we have an official initiative," the tweet read.

“Allegations that the Chinese government is liquidating the ethnic, religious and cultural identities of Uighurs and other Muslim communities are totally baseless,” the statement concludes.

On Saturday, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy released a statement condemning the “torture and political brainwashing” allegedly committed by the Chinese government while “systematically assimilating” the country’s minority Muslim population. He also called to commemorate the death of Abdurehim Heyit, claiming the Uighur poet and musician died in a Chinese internment camp.

However, China responded on Sunday by releasing a video of Heyit which seemed to show him in good health, suggesting that reports of the poet’s death may have been exaggerated.

While these responses specifically addressed Aksoy’s claims, they also showcase Beijing's general answers to accusations that a million Uighurs are being held in re-education centers in China.

Although the Chinese government admits that such centers exist, it says that they are there to provide job and language training while stamping out “extremist elements.” They also claim that these “vocational centers” have been open to outside journalists, including those from Turkey.

Pressure against China has been escalating since a law was passed last month aiming to “Sinicize” Islam throughout the country. According to Chinese state media, the initiative aims “to guide Islam to be compatible with socialism.”

Good luck with that!







Thursday, November 15, 2018

China Rebukes Canada and Other Diplomats for Letter on Muslim Rights

Canada reportedly spearheaded a letter initiative
expressing concern about Uighur camps
The Associated Press 

John McCallum, Canada's ambassador to China, right, sits next to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during a bilateral meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Singapore on Wednesday. (Adrian Wyld.The Canadian Press)

China said Thursday that 15 foreign ambassadors, including the envoy from Canada, exceeded their diplomatic roles by issuing a letter expressing concern about the incarceration of hundreds of thousands of members of the country's Muslim minorities in re-education camps.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told reporters at a daily briefing that it would be "problematic" if the diplomats were attempting to put pressure on local authorities in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, where the detentions have taken place.

Hua said the letter violated the terms of the Vienna Convention governing diplomatic relations, and that the ambassadors should not "interfere in the internal affairs of other countries."

"As ambassadors, they are supposed to play positive roles in promoting mutual understanding, mutual trust and co-operation ... rather than making unreasonable requests to the countries where they are based," Hua said.

She said the letter issued this week and reportedly spearheaded by Canada's ambassador, John McCallum, was based on hearsay, despite widely distributed reports from detainees, relatives and officials documenting the sweeping and seemingly arbitrary detentions.

Inmates and relatives say the camps impose military-style discipline and punishments and force detainees to renounce their religion and culture while swearing fealty to President Xi Jinping and the ruling Communist Party.

Trudeau raised concerns with China's premier 

Asked about the letter, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he had "highlighted the questions and concerns that we have" surrounding the issue in his bilateral meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on the sidelines of the annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Singapore.

"Canada will continue to look for ways to advance and promote human rights in partnership with our like-minded allies everywhere around the world," Trudeau said at a news conference Thursday.

Meanwhile, his efforts to promote a trade deal with China are not being served by his efforts to be the saviour of the world. One can certainly agree on efforts to advance human rights, but stepping on the little toe of a giant may not be the best way to get their attention. 

China's efforts to curb Islamism in its western provinces are somewhat like Myanmar's efforts to curb Islam in its most western state. Islam is a threat to Communism as it is a threat to Buddhism. Cruelty and barbaric responses are certainly not the best way to respond to that threat, but may be the only way China and Myanmar can think of.

In Europe, Islam is not yet recognized as a threat. It's just a matter of time before it is, but at the rate some countries are going, it will probably be too late to avoid violence when that threat is finally realized. European governments and media that hide the evils already being performed by Muslims in their midst, are just making sure that violence will be the only solution, unless Europeans want their granddaughters wearing burqas and being married at 9.

The letter to the Chinese government has not been made public, but Reuters said it was signed by 15 Western ambassadors, including the Canadian, British, French, Swiss, European Union, German, and Australian envoys.

Diplomats from the countries named in the report either did not reply to requests for confirmation or said they had no comment.

Hua's comments came as a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers is bringing a measure to urge President Donald Trump to help Chinese Muslims respond to the crackdown.

A man takes part in a demonstration against China during its Universal Periodic Review by the Human Rights Council in front of the UN's office on Nov. 6. The protest drew some 1,000 Tibetan and Uighurs. (Denis Balibouse/Reuters)

The legislation would urge Trump to condemn "gross violations" of human rights in Xinjiang, where the UN estimates that as many as one million Uighurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities are being held in arbitrary detention.

It would also support an existing push for sanctions against Xinjiang Communist Party chief Chen Quanguo and other officials under the Magnitsky Act, which prevents foreign officials from entering the U.S. and freezes any assets they have in U.S. banks.

Other sanctions raised for consideration by the act include a ban on sales of U.S.-made goods or services to Xinjiang state agents such as those that could be used for surveillance and suppression.

Xinjiang Province, China

'Behaviour correction'

Chinese authorities have denied that the internment camps exist, but say petty criminals are sent to "employment training centres." The Xinjiang government has revised regulations to officially permit the use of "education and training centres" to reform "people influenced by extremism."

The rules direct the centres to teach the Mandarin language, occupational and legal education, as well as "ideological education, psychological rehabilitation and behaviour correction."

Xinjiang's native Uighur and Kazakh ethnic groups are culturally, religiously and linguistically distinct from China's Han majority, and the region has been home to a low-intensity rebellion against rule from Beijing. Many of the region's natives say their culture is under threat from Chinese policies aiming to assimilate them and that they face disadvantages in education and employment from Han migrants from other parts of China.

Members of the Muslim Hui ethnic group — culturally and linguistically closer to the Han — have also been ensnared in the campaign that has drawn comparisons to Mao Zedong's radical 1966-76 Cultural Revolution.

Also on Thursday, China's cabinet released a report titled "Protection and Development of Xinjiang Culture" that stressed the importance of adopting Mandarin Chinese among ethnic groups and referred to their Islamic faith as "religious culture."

"Xinjiang adheres to the historical tradition of the Sinosization of religion and actively adapts religion to socialist society," the report said.


Saturday, April 8, 2017

China Punishes 97 Officers for Failing to Crack Down on Muslims

By Elizabeth Shim 

Officers in China’s police force are being told to step up scrutiny of the Uighur Muslim population
in the northwest territory of Xinjiang. File Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo
UPI -- Police in China's northwest territory of Xinjiang are being penalized for not following orders to monitor the region's Muslim population.

A total of 97 officers in Xinjiang were recently punished for not doing their job, the South China Morning Post reported on Friday.

The cadres in an oasis town in southern Xinjiang, including seven village policemen, were disciplined for not properly spying on locals.

Officers who did not register the precise number of Muslims at congregational prayers or did not know the identities of those who were absent from patriotic gatherings, like weekly flag-raising ceremonies, were penalized, according to the report.

The announcement of disciplinary measures is rare, but is providing insight into how the state maintains what are at times harsh policies against the 2 million Uighur Muslims in the territory.

The group has come under stricter scrutiny since a knife attack in February killed eight people, and a bomb blast in December led to five deaths.

Village police are also implementing forceful measures or blackmailing villagers as crackdowns take place at a local level.

Authorities who are resorting to bullying methods are being punished, according to the state announcement.

Mosques in the region are being required to install surveillance cameras and lax enforcement of the latest rules was raised as an issue by the state, according to the Post.



Monday, August 10, 2015

China Joins Angola and Cameroon in Pushing Back Islamization

From Shoebat.com
I am not Shoebat's biggest fan by any means but what he writes here is quite accurate and well worth reading.

Before a Muslim community gets into Jihad mode, the first thing they do is call on all Muslims to repent from alcohol, pork and tobacco. It is this spark which begins the process rolling, as small groups of Muslims begin to push that agenda on Muslim communities by using peer-pressure. When this happens, it is a sign that trouble is ahead. Pretty soon they begin to demand a change in laws in order to force the host to acquiesce to their demands.


This problem exists in any society where Islam is allowed. So when giving Muslims “freedom of religion,” the ball gets rolling and soon Islam’s ethics begins to conflict with the host nation.

Religion of Peace
What the west needs to learn, and they will, slowly, is that Islam is the antithesis to western ethics: the more you have repentant Muslims, the more they are prone to violence while in the Judeo-Christian ethics, it is usually that the repentant gives peace and also finds peace. The reason for such a reverse between the two ethics is simple to understand. Firstly, Islam focuses on the outward forms of holiness: Hijabs, beards, no drinking, no pork and no smoking. Secondly, Islam’s concept of ‘peace’ has nothing to do with western understanding of the term. Peace in Islam is the Muslim definition for ‘justice’ and is foreign in all aspects,  be it the concept of peace, the definition of peace and the practice of peace. In Islam, peace can only exist when Sharia reigns supreme.

Stopping Islamization
China joins Angola and Cameroon in serious attempts to stop the Islamization of their country. Politically correct western countries will not begin to push back until it is too late.

So in order to fight the spread of Islam, the best approach is almost like the war on drugs where a society brings down the enabler, that is the ‘drug pusher’ (Imams, mosques) and also the substance (Quran and Muslim materials).

So in China, unlike the west, they get it. The Chinese authorities launched a series of “strike hard” campaigns to weaken the hold of the drug of Islam in China’s western region. So they have ordered Muslim shopkeepers and restaurant owners in its troubled Xinjiang region to sell alcohol and cigarettes, and even promote them in “eye-catching displays,” as Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported. Alcohol and tobacco, while it is a problem, to the Chinese is the lesser of the two evils. So now establishments that failed to comply were swiftly dealt with and were threatened with closure and their owners with prosecution.

Government employees and children are also barred from attending mosques, lest they consume the drug and are even prohibited from observing the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. And in many places, women have been barred from wearing Hijabs and the men are discouraged from growing long beards.

China understands that spreading Islam starts by peer pressure and public scorn towards anyone who smokes or drinks alcohol. For example, in the village of Aktash in southern Xinjiang, Communist Party official Adil Sulayman, said  that many local shopkeepers had stopped selling alcohol and cigarettes from 2012 “because they fear public scorn,” while many locals had decided to abstain from drinking and smoking.

So while some might think that China is imposing on freedoms, it becomes a tough balance, westerners  need to ask themselves as to why they impose on Christians to bake cakes for gays with an agenda. So while we complain about China, where are the massive complaints about forcing Christian shops to acquiesce to the LGBT?

In reality, it is the Islamists who are imposing their Sharia driven agenda on the public and the Chinese government is thwarting their attempts. For example, in one unrelated incident in neighboring Qinghai province on Friday, an angry crowd of Muslims smashed windows of a supposedly halal store in Xining city, after pork sausages and ham were found in a delivery van, according to the local government and photographs on social media.

Sulayman said authorities in Xinjiang viewed ethnic Muslim Uighurs/Uyghurs who did not smoke as adhering to “a form of religious extremism” and this is true to a certain extent. They issued the order to counter growing religious sentiment that was “affecting stability,” he said.

The notice ordered all restaurants and supermarkets in Aktash to sell five different brands of alcohol and cigarettes and display them prominently. “Anybody who neglects this notice and fails to act will see their shops sealed off, their businesses suspended, and legal action pursued against them,” the notice said.

According to Radio Free Asia, Hotan prefecture, where Aktash is located, had become “a hotbed of violent stabbing and shooting incidents between ethnic Uighurs and Chinese security forces.”