One Man's Terrorist is Another Man's Freedom Fighter?
Saw this interesting article in the New York Times today about how a Muslim separatist group in Xinjiang was issuing threats of violence during the Olympics:
BEIJING — A terrorist group seeking an independent Muslim state in western China has released a video threatening an attack on the Olympic Games here, according to an American organization that tracks terrorist Internet posts.
I find it somewhat interesting that the press generally follows the Chinese government position that these groups are terrorists organizations that are essentially illegitimate. On the other hand, with Tibetan groups, the US media generally follows the line of the Tibetan dissidents in describing the events in Tibet.
So is it that the Tibetans are better at working the media? Or is it that the Xinjiang dissidents fall into a preexisting media narrative about Muslims being terrorist organizations? I'm hardly an expert at this but I'm sure it's probably some of both...
-- Andrew MacDonald
posted by FACES Blog @ 2:57 PM
1 Comments
1 Comments:
Western media tend to follow the lead of the US government in branding violence in Xinjiang as acts of terrorism, usually in connection with the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, or ETIM. A related group (called the Turkestan Islamic Party) released a video a couple weeks ago laying claim to the Kunming and Shanghai bombings, but it's an amateurish video effort that succeeded stating the wrong dates for its terrorist attacks, so its been written off by the media.
Since ETIM has been placed on the CIA's list of terrorist organisations, it gives Beijing the opportunity to tag each and every incident in Xinjiang (or China, as it may be) as an act of Islamic extremism. Interesting as scholarly opinion is divided as to whether this organisation actually exists (see http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/04/asia/police.php).
As to why Tibetans are always viewed in a more favourable light in the West, the fact is that Buddhism has gained popularity in the States since late 1960s and Tibetan independence remains a sexier cause than relatively unknown oasis-dwelling Muslims.
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