Posted on 04/24/2016 11:21:39 AM PDT by VitacoreVision
The Coming Islamic Revolution
The Soviet Infidels live in daily fear of a Muslim holy war
Lea Rehimi | The New American
November 9, 1987
In Eastern Europe, what has been called a "cultural genocide" is being waged against Bulgaria's largest national minority, the Muslim Turks. Amnesty International has estimated the number killed as a result of this "Bulgarization" campaign at between 300 and 1,500. Bulgaria's regime has outlawed such practices as speaking Turkish, wearing Turkish clothes, practicing Turkish/Muslim customs, and using Turkish names. Fathers who have their sons circumcised, an Islamic rite, face heavy fines or imprisonment; Turkish boys are examined every few months in order to enforce this edict.
The main principle of Bulgarization has been to deny the existence of a Turkish ethnic group. According to The American Spectator (May 1987), "Since Bulgarization was launched, several 'archaeological studies' based on punative examination of human skulls unearthed in Turkish regions of the country have concluded that the original inhabitants of these regions were not Ottoman Turks, but something called 'proto-Bulgarians.' This research is frequently cited by party spokesmen to bolster the argument that Turks never existed as a distinct ethnic group in Bulgaria, and that Bulgarization thus represents nothing more than a return to one's historical roots." As Interior Minister Dimitar Stoyanov announced, "There are no Turks in Bulgaria. The issue is closed."
Gorbachev's "Russification"
Last December, the replacement of a native Kazakh from the post of first secretary of the Kazakhstan Communist Party with an ethnic Russian sparked fierce riots by the Muslim Kazakhs in the capital of Alma-Ata. Slogans such as "America is with us!" and "Russians are against us!" were shouted. Somewhere between 10,000 and several hundred thousand are said to have participated in the demonstration. It took two days for the Soviet authorities to bring the situation under their control; since that time, the equivalent of martial law has been in effect in the capital.
The removal of the Kazakh Communist Party leader and the present Soviet campaign in Bulgaria are part of Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of "Russification" of the non-Russian ethnics. Even Raisa Gorbachev has stepped in with a "Russian Cultural Fund," which promotes education in Russian heritage and has been partly responsible for the growing nationalist tendency in Soviet publications. This policy includes systematic purging of ethnic officials from the Communist Party hierarchy in each non-Russian Republic; replacement of ethnic security police in the KGB with Russians; and compulsory Russian instruction in schools, including even czarist-Russian history.
In 1917, there were 30,000 mosques in the Soviet Union, each with its traditional Koranic school. Today fewer than 450 mosques remain. The Muslim peoples under Communist domination were forced to substitute the Cyrillic alphabet for the Arabic alphabet, thus cutting the new generations off from their Islamic heritage. Despite the Kremlin's efforts, however, Soviet Muslims retain both their religious and cultural identity. Subjected to anti-religious propaganda from the age of four, many of those educated under Stalin, Khrushchev, and Brezhnev have rejected Marxist-Leninist beliefs concerning religion, becoming outspoken anti-Soviet nationalists. These young Kazakhs, who rioted in Alma-Ata, are the same ones that Moscow has been counting on to manage Soviet holdings in Asia, not unlike the 40,000 Afghan children now being indoctrinated in the USSR to become the new Communist elite to rule Afghanistan.
There can be little doubt that Mikhail Gorbachev perceives Islam as a threat. For more than 60 years, the Soviets have been trying unsuccessfully to eradicate Islam. The present decade has brought with it a new kind of Islamic problem for the Kremlin: the threat of Islamic Revolution. The rise of Islamic militancy in Iran under the rule of Ayatollah Khomeini and the invasion of Afghanistan have increased the possibility of its spread into the Soviet central Asian republics. During the past two years, Moscow has modified its suppression of Soviet Muslims in the hope that it can halt the spillover of the Islamic Revolution into its own territory.
What may worry the Kremlin most is the idea of an "Islamic State" which is endorsed by almost all Muslims. The Islamic State would involve the unification of all Muslim countries, and for the Soviet Union this would mean an Islamic separatist movement within its own borders. Such a movement could greatly upset Soviet ties with Islamic countries.
The central Asian republics have never been completely integrated into the Soviet empire. For more than half a century, Moscow kept the Soviet Muslim population isolated from the rest of the Islamic world. But, by invading Afghanistan, the Red Army has lifted the Iron Curtain that has separated Soviet Tadzhiks, Uzbeks, and Turkomans from their brethren in Afghanistan and Iran. At the onset of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Soviet military policy included sending Muslim troops to the front lines. This proved to be a fundamental misjudgment on the part of the Kremlin, for many of these Muslim troops defected to the Mujahideen. In Soviet Nationalities in Strategic Perspective, S. Enders Wimbush describes the conditions of Muslims in the Red Army. He notes that most are assigned to "dirty jobs" such as construction and that little effort is made to integrate them with Slavic troops. This practice, however consistent with Soviet policy, is becoming potentially dangerous. By 1995, between one fourth and one third of conscript-eligible Soviet men will come from the Muslim population. The experience of Afghanistan demonstrated the Soviet central Asians' unwillingness to fight against their Muslim brothers. With the likelihood that they may be equally unwilling to fight any more of Moscow's battles in Asia, the Kremlin may be faced with a dilemma.
After nearly eight years of war, Afghanistan's tenacious resistance to Communist domination is having a considerable effect on Soviet Muslims. The fact that poorly equipped and sparsely aided Afghans could hold one of the mightiest superpowers at bay for eight years gives hope to resistance movements not only in Soviet central Asia but throughout the world. For the first time since the October Revolution, central Asian Muslims have rediscovered the Muslim "Umma" (Community of Believers) and kinship with the Afghans and the entire Islamic world.
Armed incursions by Afghan Mujahideen into Soviet territory across the Amu Darya River have spurred samizdat publication within the central Asian republics in defense of their brother Muslims. Reports of demoralized Red Army soldiers trading their bullets, guns, and supplies for hashish and heroin, often shooting their officers in the back during battles, and of defections to the side of the Mujahideen, have encouraged many anti-Soviet resistance movements.
Military Policy
Within Afghanistan the Soviets have attempted to undermine the Afghan people's cultural identity, particularly their attachment to Islam, which provides the driving force of their resistance to Communist rule. The Afghan's "jihad," or holy war, is not so much a war of national liberation as it is a crusade to protect Islam from Soviet infidels. This may be a clue to the perseverance of the Mujahideen, fighting the Red Army against all odds. To die in battle promises a place in eternal paradise.
As a result, the Soviets have incorporated an anti-Islamic policy within their military strategy. The policy includes the destruction of mosques and other Islamic and cultural sites, as well as the installment of Soviet-backed clerics. The damage to Afghanistan's unique heritage of Islamic architecture is an irreparable loss not only for the Afghan people but for the Islamic world as a whole. One of the tactics used by the Red Army to dishearten the Afghan population is the placing of lime on the bodies of villagers killed by Soviet raids. The lime causes bodies to decompose within hours. When the surviving villagers return to bury their dead, many of the victims are unrecognizable and their bodies come apart when touched. This heinous act has been carried out since the beginning of the war to dispel the Islamic belief that, when a person is martyred, his body takes longer than usual to decompose.
The leader of Afghanistan's Soviet-installed government, Najibullah, is an ethnic Afghan and former head of KHAD, the Afghan arm of the KGB. Before he was installed as President, Najibullah was known for his anti-Islamic stance and trampled the holy Koran under his feet at a party meeting. In fact, this Soviet-trained leader first caught the Kremlin's eye when, as a young university student in Kabul, he often gave speeches on the evils of religion.
Soviet leaders perennially boast that the Soviet people form a single "internationalist community," but their current campaign against the Islamic religion has demonstrated a policy of Soviet apartheid. There are presently 50 million Muslims in the USSR; by the year 2000 an estimated one of every five Soviet citizens will be Muslim. Unless Moscow is able to forestall the spread of Islamic revolution to its central Asian provinces, Soviet Muslims may pose a formidable challenge to the Communist hierarchy.
Interesting how things change.
More interesting how things in the recent past seem to be a precursor of things in the present time...
Thomas Jefferson saw it coming.
>>In 1917, there were 30,000 mosques in the Soviet Union, each with its traditional Koranic school. Today fewer than 450 mosques remain.<<
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Russia is making certain it will survive while the US has already given up.
Should have an IKEA instruction version of that.
I would say the rise of Trump shows us that we haven’t quite given up.
The rise of Trump goes accompanied with the building of new mosques. The US is inviting its executioners to share their home.
Trump has nothing to do with the building of new mosques. Unless there’s something in Trump Tower I’m unaware of.
I’ll take Putin for $500, Alex.
Now that's a trend that's your friend.
>Trump has nothing to do with the building of new mosques. Unless there’s something in Trump Tower I’m unaware of.
He fought against the Mosque at ground zero.
I didn’t understand that posters remarks. Trump’s the only one who wants to make islamism a top issue.
No he doesn’t, but what I am saying is that in spite of Trump’s rise, the nation continues to invite its future assassins to come and sleep in the same bed.
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