Oddly the Chinese government’s literally fascist crackdown on Muslims in one of their restive provinces hasn’t garnered the kind of criticism our very tepid response to the challenge of Islamic militantism has. It’s almost as if the left in this country would treat Muslims exactly the same way after the “revolution.”

From the New York Times:

BEIJING — Local governments in a Muslim desert region in western China have imposed strict limits on religious practices during the traditional Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which began last week, according to the Web sites of four of those governments.

The rules include prohibiting women from wearing veils and men from growing beards, as well as barring government officials from observing Ramadan. One town, Yingmaili, requires that local officials check up on mosques at least twice a week during Ramadan.

The local governments administer areas in the western part of Xinjiang, a vast autonomous region that is home to the Uighurs, a Muslim Turkic people who often chafe under rule by the ethnic Han Chinese. In August, a wave of attacks swept through Xinjiang, the largest surge of violence in the region in years. Some local officials blamed separatist groups for the instability, and the central government sent security forces to the area.

The limits on religious practices put in place by local governments appear to be part of the broader security crackdown. The areas affected by the new rules are near Kuqa, a town struck by multiple bombings on Aug. 10.

Yowza. And you Paulnuts thought the Patriot Act was bad. I’m a religious freedom guy myself but Militant Islam has always presented me with an almost impossible quandary. I want people to be Muslims if they want and as long as they’re Americans first but that’s an ideal in many cases, and that love of freedom is the exact opposite of what Militant Islam is. Pulp Author Robert E. Howard summed up this sort of Islam in a way politicians avoid almost eighty years ago in one of his Solomon Kane stories The Footfalls Within:

“Hassim, Kane ruminated was the very symbol of militant Islam -bold, reckless, materialistic, sparing nothing, fearing nothing, as sure of his own destiny and as contemptuous of the rights of others as the most powerful Western king.”

Certainly Howard understood then what many of us refuse to admit now, that “radical” Islam isn’t a new phenomenon nor is it driven by Wahhabism, Zionism or so called American imperialism but is instead the expression of the Arab Imperialism that permeates the Koran and Hadiths. The militant Muslim is following in the footsteps of a thousand years of Islamic conquest, not “perverting” Islam. With that in mind it is easy to see the cold logic of the Chinese Communists’ clampdown on Muslims.

But as a Republican I am unwilling in most cases to apply the same sort of logic to American Muslims, especially when there are reformist Muslims attempting to de-militantize Islam and create a more America-friendly, almost Protestant Islam. Groups like the American Islamic Congress have spoken out against militant Islam in Darfur and and America. Muslims Against Sharia have explicitly called for a Reformation of Islam that includes abolishing Sharia, declaring violent Koranic verses outdated and even forcing Muslims to admit the Crusades were provoked by Muslim occupation of formerly Christian lands.

I shudder to suggest that these Muslims would be treated the same as militants but I am under no illusions that these moderates have anywhere near the sway in the Muslim world the militants have. I want to support the moderates, but to do that I realize we have to not just keep the Militant Islam at bay, but destroy it entirely.

I have often tried joining groups in the Counter Jihad movement but have always found that they are either too willing to use an extremist model of dealing with Islam like the Center for Vigilant Freedom or else unwilling to truly deal with Islamism at all, instead becoming little more than Internet salons where people forward each other interesting articles but do little to fight the enemy. Somewhere between the two lies the path we must take, but I have not seen any organization espousing that middle ground, espousing uncompromising strength in the face of the enemy with a place at our side for our Muslim allies.

And unless we find that middle ground there can be no victory.

Iran launched a dummy satellite into space prompting fears that the same technology used for the launch could easily be used to deliver nuclear or chemical warheads:

Iran said it had sent a rocket carrying a dummy satellite into space on Sunday, triggering fresh concern in Washington that the technology could be diverted to ballistic missiles.

The launch is likely to further exacerbate tensions with the West over its nuclear drive, which Iran’s arch-foe Washington and its allies claim is a cover for atomic weapons ambitions.

“The Safir (Ambassador) rocket was successfully launched. All its systems…are Iranian-made,” Reza Taghipour, head of Iran’s space agency, told state television, adding that a “test satellite was put into orbit.”

“We have paved the way for placing a satellite in space in future,” state television said, showing images of the pre-dawn rocket launch which was attended by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Western governments, already concerned over Iran’s nuclear activities, have warned that the technology used in the Islamic republic’s space programme could be diverted to military use, claims denied by Tehran.

“The Iranian development and testing of rockets is troubling and raises further questions about their intentions,” White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

“This action and dual use possibilities for their ballistic missile program are inconsistent with their UN Security Council obligations.”

A top Iranian official told AFP that state media reports that the country’s first domestically-built satellite, called Omid or Hope, had been launched were not correct.

A defence ministry statement carried by the official news agency IRNA had said the rocket, “built by Iranian experts” was launched with Omid. But the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the media was mistaken.

Iran’s Arabic-language state television broadcast footage of the rocket heading into space and graphics showing a satellite separating from a rocket.

Iranian waffling on the issue just works to cause more concern, but despite the unnamed official’s denial the Mullahs have announced the launch using their various mouthpieces. Clearly they want the public at large to know they have ballistic missile capability. G.S.G.F. points us to the article from the Pro-Islamist Communist sympathizing cyber tabloid PressTV:

Iran successfully launches its first homemade satellite carrier, Safir 1, opening a new chapter in the country’s scientific achievements.

The launch of the new rocket from Iranian soil will pave the way for the country to send a lightweight telecommunications satellite, Omid (meaning ‘hope’ in Persian), into orbit in the near future.

The domestically manufactured Omid satellite will pass over the country six times a day for research purposes.

The launch of Safir 1 was aimed at improving the country’s space industries. Safir 1 tested remote sensing, Satellite telemetry, and geographic information system (GIS) technology as well as remote and ground station data processing.

Fars News Agency is also carrying reports of the launch, as well as a report on how the technology will improve the lives of the Iranian people.

Iranian ballistic missile technology won’t improve our lives though, China Confidential is reporting that Iran will be enriching uranium by 2009 and that its ally Syria has a huge stockpile of chemical weapons. Both countries continue to arm Hezbollah and as of now there is no area of Israel outside of the reach of Iranian proxy armies.

Ballistic missiles capable of achieving orbit could clearly cause havoc well outside of Israel. If that doesn’t scare you just think about this: The launch coincided with the birthday of Shiite end time messiah The Mahdi. I guess they’re paving the way for his glorious return.

There are unconfirmed reports that the  armed assault on an American embassy in Turkey is the work of Al-Qaeda. As Ed Morrissey points out in his post, this doesn’t look like an AQ operation in size or scope, but with Al-Qaeda getting worn down by the Iraq war, their capabilities at this point may not be what they once were.

N.T.A. has a report up taken from translations of Turkish sources. The Telegraph report implies that these were Islamists:

Witnesses said the battle began around 11am and raged for at least eight minutes as the assailants, who had driven to the consulate, apparently tried to gain access.

Television images showed bodies lying on the pavement, with trails of blood and weapons scattered around them. Police said they had recovered shotguns, rifles and handguns.

The police post was outside the consulate’s main public entrance, from where steep steps lead up to the fortified building.

A witness, Yavuz Erkut Yuksel said the attackers emerged from a white vehicle and surprised the officer at the guard post. “One of them approached a policeman while hiding his gun and shot him in the head,” he said.

Another witness described the attackers as “terrorists, with beards and long hair.”

“There were four people. Three of them got out of the car and fired at the police. I saw them dead afterwards lying on the ground and many more dead among the police,” said Enis Yilmaz, who was at the consulate for a visa.

Turkey has been targeted by a variety of groups in recent years, including Kurdish separatists and Islamist militants.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack. However, suspicion immediately fell on Islamist militants who have launched a number of raids and bomb attacks in the city in recent years.

The US consulate building was moved and fortified after home-grown Islamists linked to al-Qa’eda bombed two synagogues, the British Consulate and a British bank in Istanbul in 2003, killing 58 people.

Because Al-Qaeda has been active in Turkey before, it’s easy to suspect them, but freelance Jihadism isn’t out of the question either as hardline Islamism becomes the mainstream in Muslim countries.