There has been an annoying belief, both in religious circles, and in communist ones, that being a communist makes you an atheist, or that believing in the ideologies of communism is mutually exclusive to being religious. This is simply untrue and a fault of past socialist and communist nations. However, they do not represent the full ideology of communism itself, and self-criticality is a major part of many left-wing movements, where the nuance to accept the good things about communist nations (lifting people out of poverty, free subsidized healthcare, etc.) is accepted along with the denouncement of their flaws (in this case attack on public religion).
Edit: This was taken from my reddit account, u/Planet_Explorer. We’re looking for new members of r/IslamicSocialism101, so you’re welcome to join!
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“We are told that among the Daghestan peoples the Sharia is of great importance. We have also been informed that the enemies of Soviet power are spreading rumours that it has banned the Sharia. I have been authorized by the Government of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic to state here that these rumours are false. The Government of Russia gives every people the full right to govern itself on the basis of its laws and customs. The Soviet Government considers that the Sharia, as common law, is as fully authorized as that of any other of the peoples inhabiting Russia.” – Joseph Stalin, 1920
I’ve seen this quote before on r/IslamicCommunism. Honestly, when I first heard about it, it was nearly a mind-blow revelation to me that the USSR had the potential to leave one of its only flaws under its SECOND ruler. Sadly, Kruschev and Gorbachev screwed it up and how we have to live in a (so far) unipolar US dominated world. Inshallah, this will change, and a popular middle Eastern revolution will be able to establish a Muslim communist khalifa.
The intolerance of early CPC policies towards religion lead to a growth of reactionary elements and only recently (the last 20 years or so) have these groups finally started to dissolve/diminish, the same happened in the Soviet Union.
If the communists had worked with the religious to create a system of collaboration, i strongly believe there would have been less threats of reactionary and neoliberalism as outside forces would have had much less opportunity to insert themselves into isolated splinter groups.
Yep, that’s exactly what I’m saying! Although we have a critical support of the CCP and the USSR, their policies on religion are not their strong suit, and most definitely led to the growth of reactionary elements in religious circles. I feel like Hakim’s video (hope it goes back up soon) on the faults of former socialist experiments accurately sums it up in that regard. Thankfully, religious reactionary elements are becoming less prevalent, at least in Islamic circles, from my own personal understanding.
