ISIS Releases Propaganda Song In Chinese

The minaret of Sultan Emin Khoja in the city of Turpan in China's Xinjiang region

TAIPEI — The latest piece of ISIS propaganda is a four-minute Chinese-language song released over the weekend on the Islamic terror group's official website Jihadology.

Taiwan's Central News Agency (CNA) is reporting that the song, which first appeared Sunday, is entitled "We Are Mujahid" and features a vocal chorus in Chinese urging would-be jihadists to join their fight. The Mandarin lyrics include: "Muslim brothers wake up," and repeats the refrain "We are mujahideen," using the Arabic term for those who take up jihad holy war. There are also phrases extoling the virtue of martyrdom: "Our dream is to die on the battlefield', the Taiwanese news agency quoted from the terrorist group's website.

Chen Shimin, associate professor of political science at National Taiwan University, told the United Daily News service that in the Islamic State's founding document announced last year that its territory covers Xinjiang, the northwest region of China that borders Afghanistan and Pakistan.

It would appear that the latest Chinese-language song is aimed at recruiting from among the Chinese region's Uighur Muslim minority. Professor Chen cited reports of some Uighur having joined the terrorist movement in Iraq and Syria.

Arthur S. Ding, Director of the Institute of International Relations at Taiwan's National Chengchi University said that mainland China is much more vulnerable to an Islamist attack than Taiwan, due to Beijing authorities' oppressive rule and mass Han Chinese immigration to Xinjiang.

CNA.COM.TW

The Central News Agency (CNA) is Taiwan's official state news agency. Founded in Guangzhou,China, in 1924, it was relocated to Taipei, Taiwan, in 1949. CNA receives part of its funding from the central government. CNA sends out news in Chinese, English, French, Spanish and Japanese.

CNA.COM.TW

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What If Antonio Guterres Screamed In The Forest And Nobody Heard?

The UN Secretary-General is raising the tone in the war in Gaza, but it comes at a time when international institutions are extremely weak. Looking back at history, that's a dangerous thing.

Photo of United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres boarding a plane at Egypt's El Arish International Airport, as part of his late October visit to the Middle East.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at Egypt's El Arish International Airport, as part of his late October visit to the Middle East.

Gehad Hamdy/dpa/ZUMA

Pierre Haski

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PARIS — There was a time when all eyes turned to the UN Security Council as soon as a conflict broke out somewhere in the world. The United Nations was the theatrical enclosure where the great powers of this world would put themselves on stage: Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet leader banging his shoe on the podium, or Colin Powell, the American diplomat waving his chemical vial before invading Iraq.

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Today, we might almost forget the very existence of the Security Council, even with two major wars are underway, in Ukraine and Gaza. The United Nations is marginalized, which is what risks happening when the great powers directly or indirectly confront each other.

It is even surprising when the UN Secretary-General raises his voice to warn about the crisis in the Middle East which he's declared: “threatens the maintenance of international peace and security”; and raises the risk of seeing in Gaza a “total collapse of law and order soon.”