We live in strange times, where many leaders can’t seem to see much further than their noses. Case in point: China’s Leadership.
While the world sanctions Iran, and for the first time in 30 years of hypocrisy, finally the Brits and Canadians have closed their embassies in Tehran, China has actually doubled its oil imports from Iran. Yet, China more than any other nation has a time bomb ticking – sourced in Iran – that is probably its single largest national security threat.
You see, every mullah from Morocco to Malaysia, looks up the billionaire Mullahs in Iran that have made it big. The Ayatollahs ride in motorcades, write big checks, and house white stallions. They rule over a defiant military machine that threatens Israel – no less. There is no bigger honor – in the Muslim world than threatening Israel. It means you’ve arrived. It means you have big cojones…which in turn means you can get all the sigheh’s (temporary wives) you want!
China’s leadership should have no illusions, for you can bet there are Uighur or Hui Mullahs or Imams who long for that same destiny and are planning their own Islamic republics – so they can sit pretty too.
China today has by several serious sources upwards of 40 Million Muslims. As Wikipedia points out: “Today Islam is experiencing a revival (in China). There is an upsurge in Islamic expression and many nation-wide Islamic associations have organized to co-ordinate inter-ethnic activities among Muslims. Muslims are found in every province in China. Of China’s 55 officially recognized minorities, ten groups are predominately Muslim. There are 35,000 Islamic places of worship, and more than 45,000 imams (Mullahs). In 2006 a record number of Chinese traveled to Mecca for the hajj, up 40 percent from the previous year.”
More critically, within a generation, China is forecast to have more Muslims than any other Muslim nation. Minorities in China (though relatively small in comparison with the rest of the nation) actually occupy over 60 percent of the land of China – much of it strategically important and rich in natural resources. Predominantly Muslim Xinjiang, for example, borders the Soviet Union, Mongolia, Afghanistan, India and Pakistan and is rich in minerals, including oil. While Yunnan on the southwest frontier, which has a substantial Muslim population, borders Burma, Laos and Vietnam and has some of China’s largest timber reserves. Take second and pull out a large map of China and look at where all these Muslim ethnic groups are and the problem becomes crystal clear: the Uighur, Kazakh, Kirgiz, Uzbek, Tatar and Sala, all Turkic peoples; Tungxiang and Paoan, of Mongol origins; the Iranian Tajit and the Chinese Hui – the Chinese have a time bomb on their hands.
One should never forget the West’s ill-fated manipulation of Muslims in Afghanistan and Iran – to counter the spread of Communism. If I was a leader in China – I would not put it beyond the CIA or MI6 or their Iranian surrogates (believe me they exist) to secretly connect with China’s 35,000 imams (Mullahs) and plant the seeds of China’s destruction. China after all is America’s number one foreign policy challenge. For the Chinese government it may seem wiser to keep minorities there happily and firmly within the Chinese fold.
This then only means one thing: help defeat the theocracy in Iran. For again, the biggest single threat to China are the billionaire Mullahs that inspire revolution everywhere. They should spend a few minutes on you tube and just listen Iranian Mullahs pride Mullahs claiming that the Arab spring is inspired by them. Oh, they are asking Muslims everywhere to rise up against oppression (everywhere – except Iran that is). But that message will filter to China.
Human greed is programmed into our genetics. Put yourself in the shoes of a poor Imam in a bumfuck town in Western China – living on a spoonful of rice a day – and then imagine what he is thinking when he reads about the might Mullahs in Iran that control oil, the army, and literally sit on Billions of dollars of cash. It’s a time bomb for sure. And it will blow up in China’s face.
The future for China is NOT to appease these bastards, but to bring them down. And help establish a strong secular, transparent and regionally constructive neighborhood (and I am including cleaning up Pakistan and Afghanistan and even Tajikestan when I say this) that you can trade with – and prosper from. Put anti-American emotions aside; it is in China’s long-term interests to promote secularism and down play religion as a central – commanding force in government.
We live on a small planet. And our destinies are intertwined. No government anywhere should be so naïve or stupid to think that it is immune to the vicious forces of fanaticism. When fanatics take over, reason is lost and the only outcome from this is oppression and violence. China’s dilemma is shared by Europeans too where Islam is the fastest growing religion; and within a generation something like 25% of the world’s population will be Muslim. If we allow Theocracy to flourish, and for Islam to become dominated by fanatics, and thugs then we will all suffer for it. And by the way, Muslims will suffer for it too.
As a Muslim, I can tell you truthfully, that the reformation of Islam, and the moderation of Islam will take time. For now it is the fanatics that have the upper hand, and it is the Mullahs in Iran that are inspiring all the clergy everywhere. If the Mullahs in Iran last another 30 years, China can kiss its territorial integrity goodbye.
If you are Chinese or have access to Chinese leadership – share this message with them.
