The recent terrorist attacks by Islamic jihadists against tourists in Kashmir and the threats by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to pursue them and their backers in Pakistan have revealed an emerging marriage between radical Islam and communism, reports the Washington Free Beacon (April 26). “Pakistan is the classic example of this nexus,” Mike Watson writes. “Its intelligence services allegedly supported the Taliban and many of the terrorist groups that attacked India in Kashmir for decades. This Easter marked the 10th anniversary of Pakistan signing up for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which is one of the foundations of Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative. As Islamabad sees it, jihadists are just as useful for fighting India as the communists are for economic development.” China is attracting other Islamist partners too. Chinese companies have been caught sending Yemen’s Houthis dual-use equipment, and last week the U.S. State Department accused a Chinese satellite company of helping the Houthis find targets. Another area where Islamist and anti-Israel sentiment is meeting with Chinese interests is the Maldives, one of ISIS’s most fertile recruiting grounds, which now welcomes China’s military assistance.
Watson adds that Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, Bangladesh’s “chief adviser,” recently pointed out in China that India’s northeastern region—much of which China claims—can only reach the ocean through Bangladesh. “This opens up a huge possibility,” Yunus said, “so this could be an extension of the Chinese economy.” Watson notes that during the Cold War, the communists and Islamists were usually at each other’s throats. Muslims from all over—including a young Osama bin Laden—flocked to Afghanistan to fight the Soviets, who dreamed of militarily dominating the Middle East and imposing atheistic dictatorships. Beijing seems to have a different game plan, sharing common enemies with Islamists, such as India. The Gulf monarchies’ interests have also changed from funding many of the anti-Soviet fighters in Afghanistan to cultivating friendships with China. But Watson speculates that “this marriage will probably end in divorce. Muslim groups that feel more threatened by communism, such as Indonesia’s Nahdlatul Ulama, are wary of China. To the extent that China succeeds in its ambitions to dominate Asia, it will trigger fears of onrushing atheism and persecution. Al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban already occasionally attack Chinese citizens abroad.” At the same time, many of the Gulf states are trying to deradicalize Islam and cut off funding for the more harmful strands of the faith.
(Washington Free Beacon, https://freebeacon.com/national-security/a-communist-islamist-axis-puts-india-and-america-in-its-crosshairs/)
