TIP Enters Jihadist Mainstream

The Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP), a Uyghur-speaking jihadist organization based in the Xinjiang province of northwest China, has entered the jihadist mainstream by virtue of its association with al-Fajr Media Center, a virtual jihadist organization that distributes propaganda for al-Qaeda-linked groups and al-Qaeda leadership . In 2008 and proceeding years, TIP operated a website under a constant threat of closure reaching a narrow audience. However, since joining al-Fajr in 2009, TIP now enjoys a steady platform for its propaganda and a significantly broader and larger audience. Al-Fajr is preeminent amongst the virtual organizations distributing jihadist propaganda and is revered by jihadists due to its associations with numerous jihadist groups, including al-Qaeda. Forums on which an al-Fajr correspondent is present, including the al-Fallujah jihadist forum and the former prominent forums, al-Ekhlaas and al-Hesbah, have memberships numbering in the tens of thousands. Groups that distribute their material through al-Fajr are instantly recognized by jihadists as legitimate and respected, and TIP is no exception. The benefits of being associated with al-Fajr allow TIP to broaden its exposure to jihadists and become a more serious threat to China and other countries in the region. With many in the jihadist community looking to support and join various fronts of jihad, some may consider China a battlefield in which they want to engage.

Though not a new organization, TIP echoes an ideology similar to al-Qaeda’s, seeking to establish Shariah-based governance free from non-Muslim encroachment. Like al-Qaeda, TIP considers jihad a global endeavor not limited solely to the participation of those in China and the Turkistan region of Central Asia. Propaganda from TIP, including multimedia productions and a magazine, aims to portray their military activity and resistance to China as legitimate, and ask Muslims from across the world to provide them financial, material, and physical support. This propaganda is not only provided in the Uyghur language, but Arabic and Turkish, as well.

Jihadists on al-Qaeda-affiliated forums were introduced to TIP in November 2006 when al-Fajr Media Center released one of the group's Arabic language videos. The video explained the history of the East Turkistan-China conflict and the Chinese government’s oppression of Muslims, as well as demonstrated military training exercises at a TIP camp. One month later, in December 2006, Ayman al-Zawahiri, the second-in-command of al-Qaeda, began mentioning the plight of Muslims in East Turkistan, speaking of the region in the same context as Chechnya, Ceuta and Melilla, and other former Muslim lands now governed by non-Muslims. Then, in April 2008, a video from TIP was distributed on jihadist forums that featured a suicide bombing by a TIP member, Usama al-Turki, against Pakistani soldiers.

Though TIP continued to produce propaganda through its media arm, Islam Awazi (Voice of Islam), it was not until its threats to China amidst the Beijing 2008 Olympics that TIP gained significant attention from jihadists and the world media. A video, titled, “Our Blessed Jihad in Yunnan,” was posted on YouTube by TIP online representatives, and, in addition to threatening attacks during the Olympics, TIP claimed responsibility for three attacks in Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Yunnan in May and July 2008. In August 2008, a second video from TIP was also posted on YouTube, titled, “Call to the Global Muslim Ummah,” reiterating the threat to the Olympics and describing barbarism exhibited by China towards Muslims. TIP official, Abdullah Mansour, who appears in the video, addresses Muslims all over the world, saying:>

Whereas its prior video releases were produced and released primarily for a Uyghur-speaking audience, beginning in January 2009, TIP began to publish material in Arabic and Turkish. Through al-Fajr Media Center, TIP released three issues of its Arabic-language magazine, “Islamic Turkistan”; a video made available in three languages (Arabic, Turkish, and Uyghur), titled, “Persistence and Preparation for Jihad in the Cause of Allah”; and a communiqué responding to the designation of its leader, Abdul Haq, by the US Department of Treasury as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. Al-Fajr also released on jihadist forums a message from TIP dated February 26, asking al-Fajr for its support. The message addresses officials in al-Fajr Media Center, requesting that al-Fajr publish the group's releases. TIP explains its position vis-à-vis China and its pursuit of Shariah-based governance and lifting of oppression by means of jihad. They say:

TIP releases are now featured on al-Fajr-affiliated forums amongst communiqués and videos from groups such as al-Qaeda and its offshoots in the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa, the Islamic State of Iraq, Shabaab al-Mujahideen Movement, and the Taliban. Through this entrance into the jihadist mainstream, relieved of the difficulties of platforms and websites that jihadists might not discover in languages they might not understand, TIP is able to reach the much broader online jihadist community and demonstrate that the group desires to embrace them as a whole. This community can then provide support to TIP through incitement, distribution of their releases to an even wider audience, offline and online, and financial, material, and physical means.

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