Backlash Over Chinese Handling of Muslim Minority

August 8, 2008— -- In the lead up to the Olympic Games in Beijing, China has claimed that "terrorist" groups among its Muslim minority are linked to al Qaeda. While intelligence experts say China is exaggerating the connection, many analysts wonder whether China's heavy handedness toward the Uighurs is creating a new recruiting ground for global terror.

Already, political sentiment is changing. After years of harsh treatment at the hands of Chinese rulers, some members of the mainly Muslim Uighur minority in western China are turning to the global Islamist movement.

Among the recent developments is the presence of Hizb-ut-Tahrir, which means the Party of Liberation, a group that advocates for a single Islamic state and preaches non-violent methods. Abdul Wahid, a leading member of Hizb-ut-Tahrir in London, told ABC News that his group has active members in western China's Xinjiang region.

The adherence of some of China's Muslims to a global Islamist philosophy represents a departure for a population that has traditionally subscribed to a moderate form of Islam, and whose protests have been mainly directed against Chinese rule, said Nicholas Bequelin, a Human Rights Watch researcher.

"The religious environment is so restricted, so tightly controlled that people feel persecuted," said Bequelin. "[In such circumstances] some people tend to take the risk to join underground religious organizations that are independent from state control."

The changing sentiment, however, does not mean that al Qaeda has gone into China, U.S. officials say. Former Central Intelligence Agency officer John Kiriakou, who served in Pakistan from 1998 to 2004, said the only link goes back to before the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 when a group of Uighurs was found at an al Qaeda training camp. The U.S. military eventually took nearly two dozen Uighurs to Guantanamo -- some of whom have been released.

While the men had sought training and assistance from al-Qaeda, said Kirakou, they were organizationally distinct. Their goal was to resist authoritarian Chinese rule, a fight that was theirs alone, he said.