Advertisement: For Sale [or Cash Barter]
"To whom it may concern of the Crusaders, pagans, and their allies, as well as what are referred to as human 'rights' organisations, this prisoner was abandoned by his government, which did not do its utmost to purchase his freedom."
"Whoever would like to pay the ransom for his release and transfer can contact the following telegram number."
"[This is a] limited time offer."
ISIL English-language magazine Dabiq
"I can confirm that a Norwegian citizen has been kidnapped and is being held prisoner in Syria."
"This is a serious and complicated affair. Our objective is to bring our fellow citizen home safely to Norway."
"Norway does not pay ransoms."
Prime Minister Erna Solberg, Oslo, Norway
"If he [Fan Jinghui] comes back safely, fine, no problem. But a very tragic ending could be a turning point."
Chen Dingding, assistant professor of government, University of Macau
Once a middle-school teacher in Beijing, 50-year-old Fan Jinghui is now in the clutches of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, along with Norwegian Ole Johan Grimsgard-Ofstad, 48. Mr. Fan is the first Chinese citizen to have been abducted by ISIL. His capture has intensified pressure on Chinese leaders whom their citizens expect to do something to resolve the issue of a Chinese national standing in danger of being beheaded by the jihadists.
A more aggressive counter to the spread of Islamic extremism in the Middle East may now have emerged on the agenda of the People's Republic of China which has its own concerns related to Muslims long repressed in Xinjiang. Up to now Islamic groups have been critical of China's support, along with that of its member-state in the Security Council Russia, of Syria's despotic murdering president, Bashar al-Assad.
China would much prefer not to be dragged into a foreign conflict. But the abduction of one of its nationals calls out for a forceful response. There are some on the world stage that entertain the notion that Beijing might even consider sending Chinese military resources to the region. Should that occur, there is little doubt that they would line up alongside the Kremlin's new initiative sending Russian servicemen to Syria in support of the regime against Islamic State jihadists.
Neither Russia nor China seem too dreadfully perturbed that they are in essence giving material support to a murdering regime that has chosen to assault its own civilian population to the extent that a quarter-million Syrians are now dead thanks to the four-year civil war, and eleven-million Syrians have been displaced, four million as refugees seeking haven outside the borders of Syria, and now flooding Europe as asylum seekers in their hundreds of thousands.
Chinese state media have also reported that ISIL has been busy recruiting from among Chinese Muslims to fight abroad. Islamic State, it seems, enjoys directly prodding foreign nations to respond to its provocations. One might question with some degree of deserved incredulity what it has to gain from needling a power like China to the point where it might become involved militarily in ISIL's march to consolidate its caliphate on a world-wide scale.
China is distinctly disenchanted with any kind of interference in its affairs that disturbs its 'harmonious' internal and external relations. The advertisement featuring the hapless Mr. Fan goads the Chinese government for its failure in securing the release of one of its own: "This Chinese prisoner was abandoned by his government, which did not do its utmost to purchase his freedom."
Labels: Abductions, Islamic State, Jihad
posted by Pieface @ Saturday, September 12, 2015
<< Home