A little known Islamist group has threatened attacks against the Olympic Games in China and urged Muslims to keep away from any activities linked to its events, two US-based terrorism monitoring firms said on Thursday.
"The Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) issued a new threat ... against the Beijing Olympics," the SITE Intelligence Group reported. A similar report was carried by IntelCenter.
"Do not stay on the same bus, on the same train, on the same plane, in the same buildings, or any place the Chinese are," SITE quoted TIP as saying in a video titled "Call to the Global Muslim Nation".
In July, Chinese authorities denied claims by the group that it was behind a series of bombings ahead of the Olympics. The TIP had released a video threatening the Games and claiming responsibility for deadly bus blasts in Shanghai and in Kunming, capital of the southwestern province of Yunnan.
In the new video dated Aug. 1, the speaker "describes the barbarism exhibited by China towards Muslims and East Turkistan, justifying the jihad that is declared against the communist regime", SITE said.
The video carried graphics of the Beijing Olympics logo in flames before the speaker, holding an AK-47 assault rifle and wearing a black turban and face cover, spoke in front of a black banner carrying the words in Arabic: "There is no God other than Allah, Mohammad is the messenger of God".
The speaker called on Muslims to offer support financially, physically, spiritually and verbally.
"China ... rejects Islam and forces Muslims into atheism by capturing and killing Islamic teachers and destroying Islamic schools," he argued, according SITE.