ISIS’ brutality is a known commodity but its slick production and recruiting team is quite impressive in its own work for the cause.
ISIS’ propaganda machine now includes Mandarin chant
The Islamic State has been recruiting fighters all over the world and know it has taken aim at the world’s most populous nation. The group, whatever you choose to call it, posted a chant or nasheed this week in Mandarin in the hope that it will lead to more Chinese fighters that are believed to number somewhere between 100 and 300 in Iraq and Syria. The nasheed, a digital copy of the chant was recently posted online by the Al Hayat Mediat Center which is the foreign-language media division of ISIS according to the SITE Intelligence Group.
The chant calls for Chinese Muslims to “wake up” and to “take up weapons to fight.”
China had been on ISIS’ radar for some time with its leader Bakr al-Baghdadi calling China one of many countries where “Muslims’ rights are forcibly seized” in 2014.
The video is likely aimed at the Turkic-speaking Uighur ethnic group that practices Sunni Islam just like the Islamic State. Numerous Muslim groups in Turkey say that the Uighurs are discriminated against with China’s anti-islamic policies primarily in the western autonomous region of Xinjiang.
Last month, Chinese officials said that security forces killed 28 people linked to a deadly coal mine attack. Ten of these “terrorists” were killed in a cave after security forces burned them “out” with a flamethrower.
China, according to its last census in 2010, is home to at least 10 million Hui Muslims as well as 10 million Uighurs. Additionally, the Kazakhs and Tajiks in China are predominately practicing Muslims.
Thank Saudi Arabia for Salafists and ISIS
Most of the leadership of the Islamic State are Salafists, an ultra-Orthodox form of Sunni Islam. The sect is, essentially, very close to Wahhabism and both originated in Saudi Arabia. Both sects are especially harsh on Shiite Muslims believing them and other Muslim groups as heretical hence the brutality wherever the group pops-up. ISIS has killed considerably more Muslims than non-Muslims since its inception.
While the great majority of Chinese Muslims are not Salafists, ISIS is essentially trying to recruit them nontheless while calling them “Muslim brothers” in the recording.
Once again, there really is no way to know how many Chinese have joined ISIS in Syria but in 2014, Mr. Baghdadi specifically said that ISIS has Chinese in its ranks along with 11 other nationalities.
Wu Sike, a former Chinese envoy to the Middle East, said last year that at least 100 Uighurs were fighting in Syria but stopped short of calling them members of ISIS.
More proof of Chinese fighting for ISIS
In September of last year, the Iraqi Defense Ministry posted on its Facebook a picture of a Chinese fighter fighting for ISIS that was captured by the Iraqi Defense Forces. No further details were made available beyond the mans face.
The year prior, in 2013, a group opposed to Assad posted a video that included a Chinese man with an AK-47 reportedly called Bo Wang who spoke Mandarin in the video. Wang, who also goes as Yusef, said that he was studying in Libya before deciding to take up arms in Syria to overthrow Assad who “is butchering every Muslim here in cold blood, including children and women.”
Last Month, ISIS’ online magazine, Dabiq, said that that ISIS had killed a Chinese hostage named Fan Jinghui. This report was confirmed by the Chinese Foreign Ministry but gave few more details.
Following the execution, President Xi Jinping of China vowed to crack down on terrorism. However, China has yet to make any material contributions or attacks on ISIS since the killing.
The full text of the chant with translated from Mandarin
We are mujahid/Our shameless enemy will panic/To die fighting on the battlefield/Is our dream
We are mujahid/Our shameless enemy will panic/To die fighting on the battlefield/Is our dream
A century of slavery/Leaves that shameful memory/Deep in the ignorant slumber/Nightmare will continue on
A century of slavery/Leaves that shameful memory/Deep in the ignorant slumber/Nightmare will continue on
Wake up! Muslim brother/Now is the time to awaken/Take up the faith and courage/To fulfill the lost doctrine
Wake up! Muslim brother/Now is the time to awaken/Take up the faith and courage/To fulfill the lost doctrine
We are mujahid/Our shameless enemy will panic/To die fighting on the battlefield/Is our dream
We only abide by/The Quran and the Sunnah/No power/Can stop our progress
We only abide by/The Quran and the Sunnah/No power/Can stop our progress
To fight in God’s way/Is the Great Allah’s command/Take up weapons to fight/Admire Allah’s truth
To fight in God’s way/Is the great Allah’s command/Take up weapons to fight/Admire Allah’s truth
We are mujahid/Our shameless enemy will panic/To die fighting on the battlefield/Is our dream
The glory of Islam,/Is etched in the history/To let it shine again/Is what we are striving for
The glory of Islam,/Is etched in the history/To let it shine again/Is what we are striving for
Wake up! Muslim brother/Now is the time to awaken/Take up the faith and courage/To fulfill the lost doctrine
Wake up! Muslim brother/Now is the time to awaken/Take up the faith and courage/To fulfill the lost doctrine
We are mujahid/Our shameless enemy will panic/To die fighting on the battlefield/Is our dream.
