• Anarcho-Bolshevik@lemmygrad.ml
    3·
    2 years ago

    “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. If the Daghestan people desire to preserve their laws and customs, they should be preserved.”

    — J. V. Stalin, Congress of the Peoples of Daghestan (November 13, 1920), Works, Vol. 4.

    “You [Albanians] are a separate people, just like the Persians and the Arabs, who have the same religion as the Turks. Your ancestors existed before the Romans and the Turks. Religion has nothing to do with nationality and statehood… Nevertheless, the question of religious beliefs must be kept well in mind, must be handled with great care, because the religious feelings of the people must not be offended. These feelings have been cultivated in the people for many centuries, and great patience is called for on this question, because the stand towards it is important for the compactness and unity of the people.”

    — J. V. Stalin, Enver Hoxha, Memoirs from my Meetings with Stalin, Second Meeting (March-April 1949), “8 Nentori” Publishing House, Tirana, Albania, 1981.

  • UserServiceable@lemmygrad.ml
    3·
    2 years ago

    This is a ridiculous idea to begin with. Has there ever been a single representative or representative group for Christianity since it left the Levant? (Or any major religion for that matter?) But of course the west/Christian extremists/Chuds act as though there must be. Take me to your leader.

    This goes hand in hand for expecting ‘moderate Muslims’ to disavow the actions of extremists. White Christians, Americans in general are not usually expected to do the same for America’s crimes. (And make no mistake, every air strike has a right wing Christian extremist officer behind it somewhere.)

    The closest I have ever come is being asked to disavow Trump by people overseas and black and hispanic people. But the people who really fucking need to have that experience never will.

    • Leninismydad@lemmygrad.ml
      4·
      2 years ago

      need is one thing, want is an entirely different thing. Many people want faith in something that can explain the meaning and purpose behind existence and I don’t think communism will do away with that, in fact, I think communism opens the space for even further exploration on belief and faith. We should oppose reactionary religion, but most religions of the world can be adapted to a socialist way of life, including Christianity and Islam.

    • Ratette (they/them)@lemmygrad.mlOP
      3·
      2 years ago

      Eventually I’d like to think the world will do away with organised religion etc but I’m not going to tell someone they can’t be spiritual as long as that remains a personal thing to them and it’s not something they evangelise or push onto their family, kids, society etc.

    • UserServiceable@lemmygrad.ml
      1·
      2 years ago

      It is safer to come together over something supposedly concerned with the immaterial. In the absence of any other permissible basis for an organization, for something to bring people together, religion can be a, or the, focus for resistance against oppression.

      It takes more to split a religious congregation apart than it does to split apart a group of secular leftists.