So I was watching a documentary on the soviet invasion of Afghanistan
And I’ve realised many of the Islamic countries that are dealing with terrorism / extremism aligned themselves with socialism the “left” or the Soviet Union . Most of the intellectuals / politicians had high aspirations , wanted to change their society but forgot that the majority of the population were poor rural people that were divided , many saw the socialist policies as an attack on their way of life , in turn many decided to rebel against the ruling party.
1) First example Afghanistan
The communists in Afghanistan considered the culture backward , looked up to Russia and tried
to create a “cultural revolution” , they refused to take into account that the majority of the people were poor uneducated rural people who saw this as an attack on their way of life.
Noor Mohammad Taraki, the self-styled "Great Leader of the Revolution" who became both President and Prime Minister after the Communists (or "People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan, PDPA) bloody coup against President Mohammad Daud Khan in 1978, started mass killings and purges that worried even Moscow.
Taraki considered the 300,000 traditional mullahs as an obstacle to "the progressive movement of the homeland." He tortured and shot many religious leaders, or buried them alive. The so-called "Great Teacher", as he was referred to by his followers, also gave orders for members of the Muslim Brotherhood and other groups to be immediately killed.
Ideologically, Taraki was a strong believer in the "Red Terror" that occurred in the aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution. "Lenin taught us to be merciless towards the enemies of the revolution, and millions of people had to be eliminated to secure the victory of the October Revolution", he once said to a stunned Alexander Puzanov, the then Soviet ambassador to Afghanistan. After he was killed Amin came into power However, the situation became chaotic under Amin where scores of people took up the gun against the Soviet-backed regime and started a never-ending so-called jihad. The wave of massacres by his regime paved the way for a nation-wide jihad.
2 ) Somalia
1969 became allies with the Soviet Union . Similar to Afghan communists
On January 11, 1975, Somali President, Siyaad Barre, announced a decree for women (Xeerka Qoyska), giving Somali women equal inheritance right. [1]
As it happened, the new decree, which had a clause safeguarding women’s inheritance right, met a strong opposition at its early stage. Many men denounced the new law on religious grounds. Encouraged by some religious men, many young men organized protests on Friday sermons. In these sermons, they criticized the new law; and regard the observance of equal inheritance right as a step toward atheism. These religious men, lay or sheikh, attacked the new law and assaulted the morality and the goals of the Revolution, assailing in particular the President for ignoring his faith and denying the Islamic values of woman, family, and motherhood. They said justice and equality is one of the pillars of Islam and it helps eliminating all forms of inequality. They spoke about the importance of family in Muslim society.
On the other hand, in an interview he gave to an Egyptian Magazine, ROSE AL-YUSUF the President made a reference to foreign involvement in Somali affairs. He said that these foreign agents make use of religion to create riots and unrest in the country.
Egyptian interview with siad barre
Question: A step toward Marxism. Is that not so'? The question is, why this choice'?
“Answer: Because the Somalis are a simple and frank people. They call things by their names. We did not have any other choice. Since we have chosen socialism, this socialism should be a genuine one. And if this socialism is to be genuine, it must be scientific.
Socialism in essence is the science of interpreting and changing society. There is no other definition. If genuine socialism is Marxism, why then are we afraid of it or beat around the bush?
Why not go to it directly? The schools and the great socialist experiments, which proved correct, are Marxist. Why not learn from them and copy them?
We are a society unique in our backwardness. The United Nations classifies us on top of the list of the 25 most underdeveloped states in the world. Seventy percent of our people are still living in a state of pre-feudal nomadism. They cannot remain as they are for another decade. We must transform our people from nomadism and famine to life and dignity.”
The Suicidal State in Somalia: The Rise and Fall of the Siad Barre Regime, 1969–1991
Addressing a 1000-strong crowd in the Konis Stadium, his speech was a confrontational in the sense that Islam was framed as something that could hardly intermingle with modernity of the day. Given that his education and understanding of the world religions were little, Siad Barre invented in his speech a fiction follower of Prophet Muhammad to widen his declaration by claiming that the Koran was contradictory. Using with sarcasm language against Islam, he contended that the Somali Society could not rely upon two wealthy men, Guuleed Bin Ubeyd and Lord scott, who protected their wealth through religion. Ironically, both bin Ubeyd and Scott were non-existent characters, though they could be found in the Presedent's dictionary. He continued to say, with very contentious tongue, that Islam was solely intended for 'barbaric Arabs'.
He challenged his audience whether they were ready to be slaves forever. By slaves, he seemed to suggest that the Somali masses had been enslaved by Islam. 'How can hungry person would respect a religion; if the person is a woman, she would strip herself of naked, because she has a right to live'. Thus he stressed that the food of the self was better than the belief of a religion.
On January 23, 1975, ten sheikhs were executed in Mogadishu by a firing squad. Their crime was speaking and involving in religious protests against the new family law.
Question: Can I ask, then, why the clash took place with the men of religion regarding the civil status law? And what led to executing 10 of them?
President Barre became excited and said immediately:
Answer: These were not ulemas or men of religion. They were not executed because they were so or because of the civil status law. During the trial, we found out that eight of them could not read or write. We asked one of them to recite one verse of the Qur'an, but he could not. We asked one of them to perform ablutions, and he began by washing his left foot. One of them was not a Somali, etc.
Nowadays when you speak to older people they say they didn’t truely practice the religion + sheikhs took advantage of the civil war to spread their version of Islam ( trained in Saudi Arabia )
3) Egypt
A basic thread.
Nasserism is a socialist Arab nationalist political ideology based on the thinking of Gamal Abdel Nasser - its failure created a new space for Islamism in the Arab world (Islamic Exceptionalism: How the Struggle Over Islam Is Reshaping the World)
www.google.co.uk
4) Syria and Iraq
Baathism- its based on principles of Arab nationalism, pan-Arabism, and Arab socialism, as well as social progress. It is a secular ideology and obviously failed .
the consequence of Baathism’s steamy and abstract ideas, whose intellectual meaning began to evaporate once they directly encountered the largely illiterate and traditional societies of the Levant, was merely sterile police states built on repression, some economic development, and the manipulation of sect and clan.
(https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/03/07/baathism-caused-the-chaos-in-iraq-and-syria/)
origins.osu.edu
And I’ve realised many of the Islamic countries that are dealing with terrorism / extremism aligned themselves with socialism the “left” or the Soviet Union . Most of the intellectuals / politicians had high aspirations , wanted to change their society but forgot that the majority of the population were poor rural people that were divided , many saw the socialist policies as an attack on their way of life , in turn many decided to rebel against the ruling party.
1) First example Afghanistan
The communists in Afghanistan considered the culture backward , looked up to Russia and tried
to create a “cultural revolution” , they refused to take into account that the majority of the people were poor uneducated rural people who saw this as an attack on their way of life.
Noor Mohammad Taraki, the self-styled "Great Leader of the Revolution" who became both President and Prime Minister after the Communists (or "People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan, PDPA) bloody coup against President Mohammad Daud Khan in 1978, started mass killings and purges that worried even Moscow.
Taraki considered the 300,000 traditional mullahs as an obstacle to "the progressive movement of the homeland." He tortured and shot many religious leaders, or buried them alive. The so-called "Great Teacher", as he was referred to by his followers, also gave orders for members of the Muslim Brotherhood and other groups to be immediately killed.
Ideologically, Taraki was a strong believer in the "Red Terror" that occurred in the aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution. "Lenin taught us to be merciless towards the enemies of the revolution, and millions of people had to be eliminated to secure the victory of the October Revolution", he once said to a stunned Alexander Puzanov, the then Soviet ambassador to Afghanistan. After he was killed Amin came into power However, the situation became chaotic under Amin where scores of people took up the gun against the Soviet-backed regime and started a never-ending so-called jihad. The wave of massacres by his regime paved the way for a nation-wide jihad.
2 ) Somalia
1969 became allies with the Soviet Union . Similar to Afghan communists
On January 11, 1975, Somali President, Siyaad Barre, announced a decree for women (Xeerka Qoyska), giving Somali women equal inheritance right. [1]
As it happened, the new decree, which had a clause safeguarding women’s inheritance right, met a strong opposition at its early stage. Many men denounced the new law on religious grounds. Encouraged by some religious men, many young men organized protests on Friday sermons. In these sermons, they criticized the new law; and regard the observance of equal inheritance right as a step toward atheism. These religious men, lay or sheikh, attacked the new law and assaulted the morality and the goals of the Revolution, assailing in particular the President for ignoring his faith and denying the Islamic values of woman, family, and motherhood. They said justice and equality is one of the pillars of Islam and it helps eliminating all forms of inequality. They spoke about the importance of family in Muslim society.
On the other hand, in an interview he gave to an Egyptian Magazine, ROSE AL-YUSUF the President made a reference to foreign involvement in Somali affairs. He said that these foreign agents make use of religion to create riots and unrest in the country.
Egyptian interview with siad barre
Question: A step toward Marxism. Is that not so'? The question is, why this choice'?
“Answer: Because the Somalis are a simple and frank people. They call things by their names. We did not have any other choice. Since we have chosen socialism, this socialism should be a genuine one. And if this socialism is to be genuine, it must be scientific.
Socialism in essence is the science of interpreting and changing society. There is no other definition. If genuine socialism is Marxism, why then are we afraid of it or beat around the bush?
Why not go to it directly? The schools and the great socialist experiments, which proved correct, are Marxist. Why not learn from them and copy them?
We are a society unique in our backwardness. The United Nations classifies us on top of the list of the 25 most underdeveloped states in the world. Seventy percent of our people are still living in a state of pre-feudal nomadism. They cannot remain as they are for another decade. We must transform our people from nomadism and famine to life and dignity.”
The Suicidal State in Somalia: The Rise and Fall of the Siad Barre Regime, 1969–1991
Addressing a 1000-strong crowd in the Konis Stadium, his speech was a confrontational in the sense that Islam was framed as something that could hardly intermingle with modernity of the day. Given that his education and understanding of the world religions were little, Siad Barre invented in his speech a fiction follower of Prophet Muhammad to widen his declaration by claiming that the Koran was contradictory. Using with sarcasm language against Islam, he contended that the Somali Society could not rely upon two wealthy men, Guuleed Bin Ubeyd and Lord scott, who protected their wealth through religion. Ironically, both bin Ubeyd and Scott were non-existent characters, though they could be found in the Presedent's dictionary. He continued to say, with very contentious tongue, that Islam was solely intended for 'barbaric Arabs'.
He challenged his audience whether they were ready to be slaves forever. By slaves, he seemed to suggest that the Somali masses had been enslaved by Islam. 'How can hungry person would respect a religion; if the person is a woman, she would strip herself of naked, because she has a right to live'. Thus he stressed that the food of the self was better than the belief of a religion.
On January 23, 1975, ten sheikhs were executed in Mogadishu by a firing squad. Their crime was speaking and involving in religious protests against the new family law.
Question: Can I ask, then, why the clash took place with the men of religion regarding the civil status law? And what led to executing 10 of them?
President Barre became excited and said immediately:
Answer: These were not ulemas or men of religion. They were not executed because they were so or because of the civil status law. During the trial, we found out that eight of them could not read or write. We asked one of them to recite one verse of the Qur'an, but he could not. We asked one of them to perform ablutions, and he began by washing his left foot. One of them was not a Somali, etc.
Nowadays when you speak to older people they say they didn’t truely practice the religion + sheikhs took advantage of the civil war to spread their version of Islam ( trained in Saudi Arabia )
3) Egypt
A basic thread.
Nasserism is a socialist Arab nationalist political ideology based on the thinking of Gamal Abdel Nasser - its failure created a new space for Islamism in the Arab world (Islamic Exceptionalism: How the Struggle Over Islam Is Reshaping the World)
The end of Nasserism: How the 1967 War opened new space for Islamism in the Arab world | Brookings
It is difficult to overstate the shock of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria’s almost instantaneous defeat, which is why it is often called the “Six-Day War.” There had to be a reason. Perhaps God had forsaken the Muslims, punishing them from straying from the straight path.
www.google.co.uk
4) Syria and Iraq
Baathism- its based on principles of Arab nationalism, pan-Arabism, and Arab socialism, as well as social progress. It is a secular ideology and obviously failed .
the consequence of Baathism’s steamy and abstract ideas, whose intellectual meaning began to evaporate once they directly encountered the largely illiterate and traditional societies of the Levant, was merely sterile police states built on repression, some economic development, and the manipulation of sect and clan.
(https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/03/07/baathism-caused-the-chaos-in-iraq-and-syria/)
The Secular Roots of a Religious Divide in Contemporary Iraq | Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective
The Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq, centered in the central and northern part of the country, is a place where leaders torture and kill people who do not follow a draconian interpretation of Sunni Islam.
