Communists and Muslims: The Hidden Hand of the KGB! Posted by Jake Martinez
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Posted on Lenin and Sharia-By Cliff Kincaid-On July 19, 2012:
These are only excerpts from this eye-opening presentation because of its overall length
“Introduction by
I am pleased to present Konstantin Preobrazhensky’s insightful treatment of the radical Muslim problem, in connection with how the communists, in particular the Russians, are using or exploiting them. Much of this influence stems from the operations of the Soviet intelligence service, the KGB, which continues under a different name. A former KGB officer, Preobrazhensky fled to the U.S. in 2003 and received political asylum in March 2006. His bio tells the full story of his efforts to expose the Soviet intelligence service, the KGB, and its successor.
In this report, he discusses a peculiar phenomenon – those with Muslim names and communist hearts. Or, as Frank Gaffney has put it, Sharia is “Communism with a God.” This seemingly paradoxical problem is real and has been exported by the Soviet Union as part of the communist world revolution.
I first came into contact with Preobrazhensky when I was writing about the “Arab Spring.” As the leader of Tunisia was forced into exile, I noticed that the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a Marxist–Leninist organization founded in 1967, issued a statement declaring, “These popular upsurges are shaking the ground in the Arab world and posing a new and powerful challenge to U.S. imperialism, Zionism, and the Arab regimes which have enabled them by trampling upon their own people for decades.” It said that “the Arab masses were capable of making great and revolutionary change, as we are witnessing today, and which has already achieved great results in Tunisia.”
The PFLP is part of the PLO and has a long-time association with the Soviet intelligence service, the KGB. The group earned a reputation for spectacular international attacks, including airline hijackings, which killed at least 20 U.S. citizens. The statement by the PFLP about turmoil in the Middle East was a reminder that a terrorist group associated with the Soviet Union is still in existence, active, and prepared to take advantage of world unrest and troubles.
Because of our work in exposing the Al-Jazeera television network, we found it interesting that the Muslim Brotherhood, which effectively controls the network and brags about it, gave rise to terrorist organizations such as Hamas, officially designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the U.S. State Department. However, the Muslim Brotherhood is not an officially designated FTO. This has enabled the Obama Administration to literally embrace the organization, which has taken power in Egypt.
The Muslim Brotherhood wants Egypt to unilaterally open the border with Gaza, a move that would facilitate arms shipments to Hamas and increase military pressure on Israel. A Congressional Research Service report noted, “Egypt sealed the border out of concern for the possibly destabilizing effects of Hamas’s relations with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, which the government of President Mubarak considers a threat.” President Obama encouraged the overthrow of Mubarak, a long-time American ally.
As events continue to unfold, the following questions arise:
- Could the Soviet terror networks that were a focus of so much official attention in the 1980s still be operational?
- Could they be behind some of the unrest we see in the Arab world?
Interestingly, we have recently seen the Washington Post refer to a “Marxist-Islamist movement” known as the Mujaheddin-e Khalq or MEK that is attracting support from prominent Republicans and Democrats. 1 It is designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. Government. Journalist Ken Timmerman says members of this Iranian group were trained by the Soviet Union in guerilla warfare and initially supported the Ayatollah Khomeini’s seizure of power in Iran in 1979. Today, the group claims to be opposed to the Iranian regime and in favor of democracy. Timmerman documents that the group assassinated U.S. officials, had ties to the PLO and Yasser Arafat, and was supported financially by the old Saddam Hussein regime. 2
We believe the House Committee on Homeland Security, chaired by Rep. Peter King, should hold hearings on these matters. A new committee or subcommittee – specifically designed to probe Marxist organizations – needs to be established as well. There is enough work to do, in regard to analyzing the international communist networks and radical Islam.
The core question we are raising in this report: are the Islamists in many cases communists with Islamic masks?
Preobrazhensky’s paper is a springboard for discussion and a starting point for the serious investigative work by Congress and others that needs to be done.
There is a domestic component to this problem. It is significant that Marxist attorney Lynne Stewart, who represented the “blind sheik,” terrorist cleric Omar Abdel-Rahman, told the Marxist Monthly Review magazine that radical Islamists are “basically forces of national liberation” and she emphasized how they could take down the Egyptian government. Stewart, convicted and imprisoned for proving illegal support to foreign Islamic terrorists, said:
“And I think that we, as persons who are committed to the liberation of oppressed people, should fasten on the need for selfdetermination, and allow people who are under the heel of a corrupt and terrifying Egypt—where thousands of people are in prison, and torture and executions are, according to Amnesty International and Middle East Watch, commonplace—to do what they need to do to throw off that oppression. To denigrate them [Islamists] as rightwing, I don’t think is proper. My own sense is that, were the Islamists to be empowered, there would be movements within their own countries, such as occurs in Iran, to liberate.”3
This helped to explain the focus on Egypt by international Marxists.
The Source:
The Egyptian government had been an impediment to the advance of “revolutionary Islam.” The State Department noted, “The Egyptian government’s active opposition to terrorism, and its effective intelligence and security services, made Egypt an unattractive locale for terrorist groups…” 4 Egypt had also been preventing weapons from going to the terrorist group Hamas in Gaza.
For this reason, Weather Underground terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn actually participated in protests in Egypt in January 2010 on behalf of the “Gaza Freedom March,” 5 in order to deliver “humanitarian aid” to Hamas-run Gaza. Israel conducted a raid in May 2010 on a flotilla delivering “aid” to Gaza. Endorsers of the Gaza Freedom March include Noam Chomsky, a member of the board of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, a spin-off from the Communist Party; and Howard Zinn, the late “historian” exposed by his FBI file as a secret member of the Communist Party USA.6
In Egypt, one group that has been acknowledged to have played a role in the protests is called the Revolutionary Socialists, who have been working with the Muslim Brotherhood since 2005. 7 The alliance is described in detail in an article, “Comrades and Brothers,” on the site of MERIP, Middle East Report Online, a so-called progressive, independent organization based in Washington, D.C. that is in fact a spinoff from the Marxist Institute for Policy Studies.
The Revolutionary Socialists in Egypt were joined by the Egyptian Communist Party, which issued a statement declaring, “The revolution will continue until the demands of the masses are achieved.” The statement asserted that the Egyptian government’s “American masters” have “taken their hands off in the wake of the continuing revolution of the people and its escalation everywhere in Egypt.” This was a reference to how the Obama Administration was abandoning long-time ally Hosni Mubarak.
Some history of Egypt is important. As noted by researcher and writer Antero Leitzinger:
“In May 1971, Anwar Sadat wiped out most of KGB agents [in Egypt]. In July 1972, Soviet advisors were expelled from Egypt. Eight years later, Sadat paid for this with his life, being assassinated by members of an Islamist group. Sadat’s peace policy toward Israel made it easy for the remnants of the KGB network to ally with the right-wing Muslim Brotherhood. This is the background of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the second man of al-Qaeda.”8
With the killing of Osama bin Laden, al-Zawahiri is the number one man in al-Qaeda. Perhaps he was number one all along, and bin-Laden’s death will have no discernible impact on the operational capabilities of the terrorist organization.
As we began to write about this problem, we obtained an exclusive interview with Preobrazhensky, 9 who warned U.S. policy makers that the phenomenon known as “Islamic terrorism” or “radical Islam” cannot be separated from Moscow, even today, after the collapse of Soviet communism. He said there is substantial evidence of Russian involvement with the Islamic terrorist networks, and that several highly-publicized cases of Islamic terrorism in Russia were in fact carried out by the FSB, the Russian Security Service, and successor to the Soviet intelligence service, the KGB.
“Long before Islamic terrorism became a global threat, the KGB had used terrorism to facilitate the victory of world communism,” he said. He told America’s Survival, Inc. (ASI) that Islamic terrorism is a “child” of the old Soviet-sponsored terror networks and that Russian involvement must be addressed by the U.S.
Our media do not want to hear this. Robert Moss, co- author of The Spike, told an international conference on terrorism held in Jerusalem in 1981 that the PLO had become a Soviet surrogate in the Middle East. As AIM Report editor Reed Irvine noted at the time, “the reaction of the representatives of the press was one of cynicism mixed with hostility. Wall Street Journal correspondent Susan Weaver explained the negative reaction to Moss’s statement, saying that linking the KGB with world terrorism through the PLO ‘cast a dark shadow on what remained of Henry Kissinger’s carefully designed policy of detente.’”
But there were some on Capitol Hill who did want the truth. Moss testified before a June 26, 1981, hearing of the Senate Subcommittee on Security and Terrorism that, in 1954, the 10th department of Soviet military intelligence, the GRU, drew up a plan to threaten Western access to Middle East oil. “It was a plan that would involve penetration of the Arab world and alliances with radical Arab movements.” The plan was approved by the Soviet Politburo.
Moss said, “I believe, and I know professional analysts who also believe, that that plan has guided Soviet strategy in the Middle East over the last quarter of a century. It was a backdrop to the Soviet dalliance with Nasser in Egypt. It is part of the backdrop to the intimate relationship that exists today between the Soviets and terrorist states, like Syria, Libya, and South Yemen, and the PLO.”
Bringing the strategy up to date, while also tracing the communist-Muslim alliance back to the time of Lenin, Konstantin Preobrazhensky examines the foreign policy problem that the West confronts today.
Clare Lopez, an operations officer with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for 20 years, has written that Preobrazhensky’s expertise must be taken into account when analyzing world events:
“While the lessons of classic counterintelligence may have been forgotten by many today, those like Preobrazhensky who lived the life of an intelligence officer never lose that sense, that ability to recognize clandestine operations no matter how shrouded.”10
The alliance between Moscow and the Islamists is one such operation. Preobrazhensky told ASI, “The communists have considered Islam their ally from the very beginning because in the early 20th century Islam was the religion of the ‘oppressed people,’ of the ‘oppressed nations.’ Support of Islam was considered part of Russian-based anti-colonialism. It is very significant that Vladimir Lenin in 1917addressed his second message to the ‘Muslim toilers of Russia and the Whole World.’ So they considered Muslims a reservoir of people for the world communist revolution.”
This report goes into much more detail about this aspect of the international communist movement. His other articles on this topic include:
- “Russia and Islam are not Separate,” Gerard Group International, Intel Analyses, August 31, 2007.
- “Ayatollah Putin”, FrontPage Magazine, September 2, 2009.
- ”Russian Intelligence and Islamic Terror”, FrontPage Magazine, July 16, 2009.
As stated, ASI believes that the House Homeland Security Committee – or a new Internal Security Committee—must hear from Preobrazhensky before coming to any firm conclusions about the nature of radical Islam and the global threat, and what is truly happening in the Middle East. Such a probe should examine the Obama Administration’s relations with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.
Not only does he believe that “revolutionary Islam” is an ally of the Soviet Union and now Russia in the global struggle, but Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian intelligence agent who fled to London, 11 told Preobrazhensky that al-Qaeda terrorist leader Ayman al-Zavahiri is a KGB agent trained by Moscow. Litvinenko is believed to have been poisoned by Russian intelligence on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
A veteran U.S. intelligence officer was contacted by ASI for his view on whether al-Zawahiri could be a Russian agent today. He said:
“From a formal logical point of view this connection between al-Zawahiri might not seem plausible. but when looked at from an intelligence perspective, it certainly could be. Given al-Zawahiri’s early radical bent and association with the Muslim Brotherhood, and fact he joined his first jihadist cell at age 15, and continued his activism from that point on it, it is arguable that he very likely came up on the screen of various intelligence organizations, British, American, Russian and others who were active in Egypt doing what they always do in foreign countries, look for potential and recruitable assets. The Russians could easily have identified and accumulated information on him, and at some point approached him and recruited him. Thus he served a clandestine role until such time as he went to the Soviet Union where he was given additional training.
If one intended to write a spy novel the ingredients in this report would make it easy and applying the tools of intelligence and tradecraft, it would all come about logically…For me it is quite believable that al-Zawahiri could be working for the Russians. Once al-Qaeda was formed and was attacking their common enemy, the Americans and other elements of the West, some form of unity between the Russians and al-Qaeda based on Russian support to it would follow quite naturally.”
Looking at the big picture, Preobrazhensky says:
“Strategically Russia is surrendering to the Muslim world. The Russian population is declining rapidly, being undermined by 70 years of Communist experiment and the cold indifference of postcommunist rulers. Annually, Russia is losing 900 thousand people who are being replaced by Muslims from the Caucasus and Central Asia. Islam is now the second-largest religion in Russia, where it may total up to 28 million adherents. Because of this, Russia was able to join the Organization of the Islamic Conference in 2005 (as an associate member).
“Russia’s great qualitative population change represents both a departure from the past and a strengthening link with it. The synergies between the history of Russia’s national policies of terrorism and the radical Islamic terrorism that it is spreading around the world are natural partners that may severely impact on America’s own future.”12
It should be no surprise that communists work with Muslims. Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran are two “revolutionary” leaders who have forged an active alliance against the United States. What may not be known is that Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was trained at the KGB’s Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow. Smith Hempstone, a journalist who became United States ambassador to Kenya, wrote about this in a June 11, 1989, column that referred to how Iran under Khamenei, the designated successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, would “look to the Soviet Union” for an opening to the outside world. He wrote that Khamenei was not only a graduate of Patrice Lumumba University but maintained “close ties to the Palestine Liberation Organization and has a record of supporting Iranian cooperation with the Soviet bloc and radical Third World states against the West.”
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Russia Today (RT) television, a Moscow-funded propaganda network, mentioned Khamenei’s graduation from Patrice Lumumba University in a story about the anniversary of the institution, now referred to as the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, without of course noting its KGB connection.13 The head of the “top school” said on camera that its purpose was to educate a “global elite,” while the RT reporter commented that the Russian government was increasing 10 its funding so that more foreign students could attend. One of the RT anchors described it as a “real cool place.”
Ali Alfoneh, a Resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, commented:
“What no one can deny is that fact that the Islamic Republic, which prides itself in pursuing an independent foreign policy based on the principle of “Neither East, Nor West – Islamic Republic,” has in reality always tilted more towards East. It can also not be denied that under Khamenei’s leadership, the diplomatically isolated Iran has become more and more dependent on Russia and China. Historians will judge if degeneration of Iran into a Russian/Chinese protectorate is by Khamenei’s design … or due to the general incompetence of the Islamic Republic’s leaders.”14
Brian Latell, the CIA’s National Intelligence Officer for Latin America from 1990-1994, has followed and analyzed Fidel Castro for the CIA since the sixties and just wrote his latest book, Castro’s Secrets, in which he speculates that Hugo Chavez is an agent of the Cuban Intelligence Service, the DGI. He says:
“Little is known publicly about how Chavez, a career Venezuelan military officer, became Fidel Castro’s adoring disciple. There is a good chance, however, that either he or his older brother, Adan, was spotted and recruited as a sleeper agent by the DGI years before he won power. As a recruited Cuban illegal either man might have received clandestine training in Cuba.
Hugo Chavez is known to have traveled frequently to Cuba, lodging in a luxury guest house, in the years after he was released from prison following an unsuccessful military coup in 1992.”15
If this is true, then it would suggest that the Venezuelan alliance with Iran is a deliberate strategy of the DGI, which itself was controlled by Moscow, and not just a case of two countries sharing mutual interests.
There has been much controversy over the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas and al-Qaeda are regarded as violent Brotherhood offshoots. In fact, however, as a study on terrorism conducted by the staff of the House Internal Security Committee in 1974 made clear, the main component of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Al Fatah, also grew out of the Muslim Brotherhood. 16
Indeed, the book, See No Evil, by former CIA operative Bob Baer, notes that PLO chairman Yasser Arafat “started out life as an Islamic fundamentalist” and had been a member of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Even after becoming chairman of the PLO, Baer wrote, “he never cut his ties with either Sunni or Shia fundamentalists. They were a reliable source of political strength for him.” 17
The PLO, established in 1964, openly provided support to the Iranian terrorists who helped overthrow the shah of Iran. It has been Soviet-supported 18 and was regarded as a Soviet surrogate. A 1974 House Internal Security Committee on terrorism says that the group also received support from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Algeria, and Egypt.
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Biography: Konstantin Preobrazhensky:
Konstantin Preobrazhensky is a famous intelligence expert and specialist on Japan, author of nine books about KGB and Japan. He was born in 1953 in Moscow, Russia. In 1976, he graduated from the Institute of Asia and Africa of the Moscow University with an M.A. In 1975-76 was an intern at Tokai University, Tokyo, Japan. He has authored the first Russian book on Japanese sports (“Sports in Kimono”, Moscow, 1985) and on Japanese education (“How to Become a Japanese”, Moscow, 1989). His short novel, “Karate Begins with Bows”, was acknowledged as a classical masterpiece by the Soviet Academy of Sciences, being included into academic anthology, “Soviet Authors on Japan, 1917-87”.
From 1976-91 he served as an officer in KGB Intelligence. His last position was as personal advisor on China, Japan and Korea to Major General Leonid Zaitsev, the Head of the Scientific and Technical Intelligence (Directorate “T”), Deputy Head of the KGB Intelligence (The First Chief Directorate).
From 1980-85 Mr. Preobrazhensky was the senior officer at the KGB station in Tokyo, Japan. He was ostensibly the correspondent of TASS, Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union. But for him it was not just a cover, as he is a born writer. He wrote many literary pieces about Japan. As a KGB officer he concentrated on the recruitment of Chinese scholars for Soviet Scientific and Technical Intelligence. He reported directly to Victor Chebrikov, KGB Chairman, and Vladimir Kryuchkov, Head of KGB Intelligence. Mr. Preobrazhensky was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel as a young officer.
In July 1985, Mr. Preobrazhensky became the center of a sensational spy scandal. The Japanese police caught him at a meeting with his Chinese agent, whom he had previously recruited. He was released in a couple of hours, but the KGB forcibly returned him to Moscow. Though the reason of this failure was unknown, the KGB accused Mr. Preobrazhensky of it solely. He suffered much undeserved humiliation, which he later described in his book “The Spy Who Loved Japan”(Tokyo, 1994). This book caused another spy scandal and became a best seller.
In 1991 Mr. Preobrazhensky left the KGB and became its harshest critic. His books and articles unmask its inhumane and illegal activities. From 1993-2002 he was a security issues columnist for the “Moscow Times”, a Moscow based English language newspaper. His articles, disclosing the activities of the KGB, made him world famous.
His activities have irritated the KGB greatly. Mr. Preobrazhensky suffered many provocations including attempted illegal arrest, but managed to escape thanks to his lawyers. But after President Putin coming to power, it has become impossible. KGB dissidents and critics are jailed and murdered in Russia now. That is why in January 2003 Mr. Preobrazhensky fled to the U.S.A. In March 2006 he was granted political asylum.
Here he continues to unmask the KGB. His books, “KGB Amidst Russian Emigration” and “KGB/FSB’s New Trojan Horse”, published in the U.S.A. in 2007 and 2008, have opened eyes of Russian émigré on current KGB activities among them.
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Communists and Muslims: The Hidden Hand of the KGB
By Konstantin Preobrazhensky
1. Human resource for the World revolution.
The communists have considered Islam their ally from the very beginning, because in the early 20th century, Islam was the religion of the “oppressed people.” Support of Islam was considered a part of Russian-based anticolonialism. It is very significant that Vladimir Lenin in December 1917 addressed his second message, delivered just after coming to power, to the “Toiling Muslims of Russia and East.” So they considered Muslims a reservoir of people for the world communist revolution.
According to Ben Fowkes and Bulent Gokay,”Lenin was very concerned with Asia, and as hopes of revolution in the West faded after the war with Poland in October 1920 he turned his attention to the colonies of the Western powers. In them he saw a way of using bourgeois nationalist revolutions to deprive imperialist powers of the raw materials and markets that he believed to be necessary for their survival.” 28 Interestingly, Stalin, who was then the People’s Commissar for Nationalities, also signed this public message delivered by Lenin to Russian Muslims. It said:
“All of you whose mosques and prayer houses used to be destroyed, and whose beliefs and customs were trodden underfoot by the Tsars and oppressors of Russia! From today, your beliefs, customs, your national and cultural institutions are free and inviolate.
Organize your national life freely and without hindrance. You are entitled to this. Know that your rights, like the rights of all peoples of Russia, are protected by the whole might of the Revolution and its agencies, the Soviets workers, soldiers’, and peasants’ deputies.
Support, then, this Revolution and its sovereign Government. Comrades! Brothers! Let us march towards an honest and democratic peace. On our banners is inscribed the freedom of all oppressed peoples.”29
Muslims have heard Lenin’s call. Many of them in the Russian Empire took an active part in the Communist Revolution. In some cities they formed Muslim Military-Revolutionary Committees. These Committees were engaged in overthrowing so-called Muslim- exploiting classes, the bourgeoisie and landlords associated with the old imperial regime. For example, in 1918 the Bashkir’s Muslim Military Revolutionary Committee arrested the local bourgeoisie Bashkir government.30
At the Comintern’s31 second congress, in 1920, Lenin officially introduced the new Eastern orientation, the so-called “Soviet Eastern Policy.” Lenin went so far as to suggest that with Soviet aid and propaganda, it might be possible for Asia to skip the capitalist stage and move towards socialism before a European revolution:
“It must be remembered that the West lives at the expense of the East; the imperialist powers of Europe grow rich chiefly at the expense of the eastern colonies, but at the same time they are arming their colonies and teaching them to fight and by so doing the West is digging its own grave in the East.32”
The social doctrines of communism and Islam have some similarities – such as helping the poor, social justice, etc. According to the well-known Russian expert on Islam, Vladimir Bobrovnikov, “The study of early Soviet propaganda shows how wrong is the idea that Russian authorities and Islam have always been separated on opposite sides. This is not true. In the twenties many Bolsheviks collaborated with Muslim elites. Also in Daghestan and Kabarda Soviet power was established with the support of Muslim movement of Jadid.” 33
We all remember the long war in Chechnya, which ended only in 2009. Chechen rebels fought against the Russian army, the heir to the Soviet Red Army. So it would be difficult to believe nowadays, that in 1918 their great-grandfathers fought on the side of the Red Army against the anti-Communist White Army! It was headed by General Nikiolai Yudenich and controlled the Northern Caucasus.
These ancestors might well have been regarded as the soldiers of Allah, as their commander was a spiritual leader, Sheikh Uzun-Hadji. In 1918, the mountain peoples had gathered around this Sheikh of the Avar nationality in order to dismiss the White Army from Caucasus.
Thus, the faithful Muslims fought on the communists’ side against anticommunists who wanted to establish a democratic republic in Russia! In September 1919, Sheikh Uzun-Haji announced the creation of the North Caucasian Emirate, which was at first even ackowledged by Moscow, but later abolished as soon as White Army in the North Caucasus was defeated.34
The spiritual leader of Dagestan, Sheikh Ali Haji of Aqusha, did the same thing. He took the Reds to the Messenger of Allah, Sharia, the spokesmen for the interests of the poorest people of Dagestan. He had appreciated their intention of supporting the poor and disadvantaged.
In June 1919, Sheikh Ali Haji of Aqusha has initiated a massive uprising against the White Army. But as soon as Soviet rule was established in Dagestan, the clergy were deprived of voting rights, Sharia courts were abolished, and religious leaders were arrested35
The Extraordinary Congress of the Peoples of Dagestan was gathered in 1920. Stalin himself was speaking there. He has emphasized the “serious value of sharia.” He said that, “The Soviet government considers the Sharia as competent and customary law, like other ones existing among peoples living in Russia.” 36 . According to Russian explorer of the Caucasus, Alexei Malashenko, “in the early 20s the Soviet administration has even funded the activities of sharia courts.” 37
The similar Congress of Peoples of the East in Baku, organized by Russian communists in September 1920, had adopted the “Project of Sharia”. It was explaining provisions of Sharia corresponding to the Communist doctrine. However, attempts to rely on Sharia in order to strengthen the communist regime in the Muslim regions occurred only at the dawn of Soviet power.38.
Sometimes the transition from Islam into Communism was a result of ongoing development of specific organization. In 2004, The Muslim Social Democratic Party, usually referred as Hummet, was founded in Baku, Azerbaijan. It was the first party of such kind in the Islamic world. In 1920, it became the Communist Party of Azerbaijan.
In 1926, a congress of Muslims of Tatarstan, Bashkiria, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Chuvashia and some regions of the Russian Soviet Socialist Federative Republic was held. It has sent congratulatory telegram to the Soviet leaders. It said about the the growing unity of Muslims around the world under the banner of Soviet power in the name of the struggle against imperialism. 39
Both Soviet and Imperial Russia have always enjoyed the Muslim’s support. For example, a Muslim country was the first in the world to acknowledge the young Soviet Russia as early as in 1919. It was Afghanistan.
The one Russian General who did not betray Emperor Nicholas the Second when he was dethroned in 1917 was a Muslim. His name was Huseyn Khan of Nakhichevan. In 1918 he was shot to death for his devotion to the Russian Emperor.
Russia has almost a half a millennium experience of absorbing Muslims. The ruling elite of the conquered Muslim countries was joined to Russian nobility and enjoyed all its privilegies. Their sons became the true Russian patriots like Khan of Nahkichevan. Some of them later turned communists like the son of the last Emir of Bukhara.
The Bukhara Emirate (now a part of Uzbekistan) became a vassal state of the Russian Empire in 1868. In 1896, its last Emir, Alim Khan, was awarded the status of the Russian crown prince of Bukhara.
But his son, Shahmurad, denounced his father in 1929 and later served in the Soviet Red Army. He adopted the new family name of Olimov. 40In 1960s, he taught at the Military Academy named after M. Frunze in Moscow. Teaching at such a prestigious Soviet military academy envisaged Communist Party membership. The son of Emir of Buchara became a Communist. Maybe there is some logic in it.
And the Soviet Union was the first foreign state to aknowledge Saudi Arabia in 1926!
2. The Soviet Union helped Saudi Arabia to be born.
The first Soviet Ambassador there was Karim Hakimov, a Bashkir national. He was a professional revolutionary. Having graduated from a madrasa, an Islamic religious school, he was an expert in the Muslim religion, but his heart belonged to Communism. He was the first Soviet diplomat of this kind. Later, many people with Moslem names and Communist hearts were brought up amongst the Soviet ruling class.
Having taken part in the creation of a new state of Saudis, Karim Hakimov became a personal friend of the founder of the ruling dynasty, Abdul Aziz ibn Saud.
At first, in order to win the sympathy of ruling elite, Karim Hakimov has done the Umrah, or “little pilgrimage”, to Mecca. Saudi elite considered him a zealous Muslim, but in fact he was a member of the party, vowed to destroy religion.
At the initiative of Karim Khakimov, the World Muslim Congress was called in 1926 in Mecca. It was discussing how to liberate Muslims from colonial dependence on the West. It became the prototype of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC).
At that time, Karim Khakimov could not even imagine what a great favor to Russia this organization will do exactly in 79 years! In 2005, OIC accepted Russia as an observer 41
This was a great victory of Russian diplomacy because at that time Russia was running the war in Chechnya and was concerned about the reaction of Islamic world. By taking Russia in the OIC, the Islamic countries demonstrated to the world that Russia is more important for them than Chechnya.
Karim Khakimov fell victim to Stalin’s repressions. In 1937 he was called back to Moscow and executed in 1938. The Saudi king took it as a personal offense and broke off diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.
The king of Saudi Arabia was so much devoted to his friend, that when in 1943 the Embassy of the USSR was opened in Cairo, he had sent there his adviser, Abdullah, to find out the fate of Karim Khakimov. And Abdullah was none other than British diplomat John Philby, who had converted to Islam in 1930! He was a legendary man, but he had a legendary son, too. This son was the famous Soviet intelligence agent Kim Philby!
Kim Philby was a high-ranking member of British intelligence who worked as a double agent before defecting to Soviet Union in 1963. He served as both an NKVD and KGB operative. In 1934 he was recruited by Soviet intelligence on the basis of his devotion to Communism.
What a strange combination! The English father became a devoted Muslim and the English son became a devoted Communist! Like it was with Emir of Bukhara and his son! Maybe there is really some regularity in such a transformation.
3. Muslims in the Second World War.
Prior to the Communist Revolution of 1917, Russian Empire had 14-26 thousand mosques and around 15 thousand madrasas (religious schools). By 1941, the Soviet Union had only 1312 mosques and 8052 clerics. But nevertheless, since the German invasion of the USSR in 1941, Muslim clerics took a firm pro-Soviet patriotic position.42
On July 18, 1941, the Chairman of the Central Spiritual Board of Muslims of Russia, Mufti G.Z.Rasulev, appealed to the Muslims of the Soviet Union, urging them to “rise to defend their native land … and pray in the mosques of the victory of the Red Army.” This was followed by two more appeals, including the Muslims around the world, which called “in the name of Islam to defend the Muslims and the peoples of Russia, their peaceful life and religion.”
In September,1941, the Soviet leadership decided to support the activities of the Mufti Rasulev in order to “neutralize anti-Soviet propaganda being spread from Berlin and Rome around the Muslim world.”
In October 1941, an authoritative leader of the Muslims of Central Asia, Eshon Babakhan, was released from prison and invited to a reception with Stalin. The latter offered to convene the “kurultai” (congress) of Muslims and settle the Spiritual Administration. As a result, in 1943, the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Central Asia and Kazakhstan was erected.
At the end of the Great Patriotic War, Islam was used by the Soviet state as an important tool for political influence in the world, especially in Xinjiang, China and Afghanistan, Iran, Syria and Iraq. Dissemination of the patriotic activities of the Muslim clergy in the Soviet Union has provided pro-Soviet influence on the pro-Islamic East.
4. Soviet Muslims and German Nazis
Hitler’s Germany had developed an active outreach to the Soviet Muslims, headed by former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Mohammad Amin Haji Al-Husseini, who fled to Germany after the failure of anti-British uprising in Palestine and Iraq in 1940. Mufti al-Husseini was active in the Islamic religious schools (“Mullashule”) at “Turkestan Committee” – an anti-Soviet collaborationist body established by the Nazis in 1942, and repeatedly visited the camp of Muslim collaborators and legionnaires, where he appeared to call for “holy war against infidels” (i.e. USSR) in the union with Germany. In May of 1943, al-Husseini was awarded the military rank of “SS Gruppenfuehrer.”
German intelligence was training “Islamic commandos” and carried out the
recruitment of Soviet prisoners – Muslims, especially among the intelligentsia,
who were supposed to be used in the national-religious propaganda against the
USSR.43
5. Islam in the Communist Soviet Union
The Soviet state was not only atheistic, but destructive to religion. There was supposed to be no place left for religion in communist society, which the Soviet Union was constructing.
Religion was considered to be a prejudice, subject to ridicule. Since the days of Stalin, the Soviet Union has developed a powerful “industry” of satire and humor, which mocked “negative phenomena” of Soviet life like bribery, alcoholism and, of course, religion. The leading Moscow satiric journal “Crocodile” and similar media in Soviet republics drew caricatures of all religions, including Islam, and it did not make any problems. Nevertheless, Islam had some privileges.
For example, all boys with Moslem names were circumcisioned, even if their parents were Communist Party members, government officials and even military officers, as the Soviet Army was especially hostile to religion. This Muslim rite never caused any questions by the authorities. It was considered a sort of national tradition. But people of the same social rank, who ventured to follow such a “Russian national tradition” as baptising children, got into trouble. Their careers got seriously damaged and even ruined.
Parents who had brought their children to church for baptism were exposed and called to their communist bosses. Communist party officials reprimanded them. But nothing of of the kind was done with those Muslims who had circumcisioned their children.
Of course, the demonstrative visits to mosques by those, who worked for the state, were not favored. But those people were not reprimanded for practicing Islam secretly, privately, under the guise of folk rites. The soviet term “nomenclature” referred to the high positions of some Soviet officials, who were appointed to their posts by the decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. They were ministers and vice-ministers, military generals, ambassadors etc.
The “nomenclature” of the Soviet republics of Middle Asia enjoying one more title: “National cadres,” meaning that they needed to be treated with special care. This “care” meant that they were pardoned for misdemeanors, for which Russian bureaucrats were not pardoned. They were allowed to afford a larger scale corruption and also to worship Allah.
Like all other Soviet officials of high rank, they were monitored by the KGB day and night, and Moscow was aware that they were praying at home, but closed its eyes to it. But if it became known that some Russian high official was doing the same, his career was ruined. If a Communist leader was caught practicing his religion, he was deprived of “political trust,” and, consequently, became ineligible to retain his high post.
Such a severe punishment was related not only to Christians, but to Jews too, though there were very few open Jews in the Soviet ruling class. The Soviet Union was a state of official anti-Semitism, so many Jews were consealing their nationality.
The Head of the Military-Constructional Directorate of the KGB of 1970s, General I.I.Petrovich, had a Jewish wife. It did not hinder his career as his wife was said to be related to the Brezhnev family. But this high relationship did provide her with indulgence for practicing her religion!
As all the members of the Soviet ruling class, she was supposed to be a 100 percent atheist. But she disclosed herself as a believer. Of course, she could hardly venture to attend a Moscow synagogue, which was thoroughly controlled by KGB. She probably took part in some religious action privately, and it became known in KGB.
General I.I. Petrovich was punished for this! He was immediately sent to retirement though he was not old enough and could work. But he was deprived of political trust! I knew both him and his wife personally.
Yes, Russian or Jewish members of Soviet elite were deprived of “political trust” for these offenses, for which their colleagues in Middle Asia were not. And they appreciated it greatly, were thankful. They are still ruling in former Soviet republics of Middle Asia. It is one of the reasons why their relations with Russia are so good.
Indulgence in matters of religion spread not only to highest officials, but also to ordinary Muslims. For example, local authorities closed their eyes to unofficial, private religious meetings in the closed mosques According to historian Ogulbibi Amanniyazova, “in towns, collective farms, where mosques have been destroyed, the collective farm clubs were a place of meetings, discussions, a place of prayer. Religious people from Central Asia, told me in 1960-1970-s they prayed under the portraits of members of the Politburo. Many of the cultural institutions in the Soviet Union were well suited to the activities of the faithful and helped create the original varieties of Muslim civilization…” 44
I wish the Russian Orthodox people ventured to do the same! This would cause a great scandal, fraught with criminal prosecution. In the USSR, any private religious activities, not coordinated with the authorities, were considered a breach of the legislation on cults, thus crime. People were eligible to pray only at officially sanctioned churches, controlled by the KGB.
In fact, the Russian Orthodox people did the same thing of course. They conducted illegal religious sermons and talks, but with a risk of criminal persecution. In the USSR, there has existed an underground True Orthodox Church. But KGB was hunting its members. In 1970s, they were put into prison for 15 years!
Still, Soviet authorities were sometimes puzzled by some Islamic problems. In particular, they wondered how to react to an annual Shia feast day.45 During this event its participants engaged in massive self-flagellation and cutting the skin on their heads until they begin bleeding. It is practiced also by children, and skin cuts sometimes are done even on babies.
This topic did not meet Communist ideology at all. It was a headache for the Communist Party authotities.
Attached to this report are three documents of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. They are an exchange of letters between the Central Committee and the Dagestan District Committee of the Communist Party.
In June 1964, the First Secretary of Dagestan District Committee, A. Daniyalov, has applied to Central Committee with a proposal for banning Ashura in Islam. He wrote that Shia are mostly living in Azerbaijan, where Ashura was prohibited more then 30 years ago, in 1931. Knowing this, Azerbaijani Shia were coming to Dagestan to celebrate Ashura, where it was not prohibited. A.Daniyalov had proposed an adoption of the special law of prohibition of Ashura.
The Central Committee replied cunningly. He refused to forbid Ashura legally and proposed to sue its participants based on other Soviet laws. The answer was the following:
“The study of this question has shown that adoption of this law is inappropriate. With the adoption in 1958 of the Basis of criminal legislation of the USSR and Union Republics, the Azerbaijan prohibition of shakhsei-vakhsei, adopted in 1934, has lost its legal force, and its restoration would require the adoption of new criminal law. But this is not necessary. Religious processions are prohibited in accordance with the legislation on cults, and people responsible for its violation may be prosecuted under Article 142 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Soviet Socialist Federate Republic (RSFSR). What about self-torture, it, firstly, is not widespread, and, secondly, the fight against this prejudice should be done not by prosecution, but by advocacy.
Dagestan Regional Committee of the CPSU is recommended to strengthen educational work among those who still adheres to the feast day, “Shakhsei-Wakhsei,” at the same time actively taking measures to curb the illegal activities of the organizers of the processions and self-torture in these celebrations.
The Council for Religious Cults of the USSR Council of Ministers…recommended the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Caucasus to publish and read in all mosques a fatwa that selftorture are outdated custom which can not be justified by references to Islam.”
This answer was making clear the fact that in the Soviet Union sometimes Islamic fatwas were issued by the order of the Central Committee of the Communist Party! But in fact the Shia Muslims of Dagestan and Azerbaijan went on celebrating Ashura. These documents did not hinder them at all. The Soviet Union was following a double standard regarding Islam. It was dividing Islam into bad and good. The bad one was a domestic Islam, doomed to annihilation like any other religion under Communism. The good one was “foreign Islam,” which could be utilized for destroying West, the strategic goal of world communism.
General Secretary of the CPSU Leonid Brezhnev in a speech at XXVI Party Congress stated that “in some countries of the East … Islamic slogans are actively promoted.” He acknowledged that “under the banner of Islam, the liberation struggle can be deployed.” 46
6. Islamic names and Communist hearts
All three generation of Soviet people were raised in the spirit of rejection of any religion. Anti-religious propaganda was a part school program. That is why it is not surprisng that great number of Soviet people turned away from all kinds of rerligion. The Islamic nations were not an exception. Many Tatars told me the following:”Yes, I am a Tatar but I am not a Muslim! I do not believe in God!” They became respectable Soviet officials, milutary and KGB officers, and, of course, Soviet diplomats in the Muslim countries. They produced a new cultural phenomenon called “The Islamic name and communist heart.” The first person to embody it was above mention Karim Khakimov, the first and last Soviet ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
During the entire period of the war in Afghanistan, the Soviet ambassador there was a Communist with a Muslim name: Fikryat Tabeev, former First Secretary of Tatar District Committee of the Communist Party. It flattered the leadership of Afghanistan, being evidence of Soviet respect of the Islamic religion.
7. Communism and Islamic terrorism
Commitment to terrorism unites Islamists and the Communists. If in Americans the very word “terrorism” evokes a feeling of horror, for Communists it is surrounded by a nimbus of heroism.
In Communist understanding, “terrorist” means “hero.” The same goes for the Islamists. For example, in 1917 Lenin openly proclaimed the policy of “red terror.” Communists took hostages in their home country, carried out massive arrests aimed at intimidation, and exterminated entire social strata associated with the old imperial regime. Now, Russians do not like to recall that the KGB was born in 1917 as an organ of “red terror.”
This gave an ideological basis of the fact that some schools of terrorists in the Soviet Union were subordinated not to KGB, but directly to the Central Committee of the Communist Party. They were called “Saboteur Training Centers.”
Islamic terrorism is only a part of the world of terrorism. Long before Islamic terrorism became a global threat, the KGB had used terrorism to facilitate the victory of world Communism. Many famous world terrorists were KGB agents like Carlos the Jackal.
Yasser Arafat also was a KGB agent, ant all his Palestinian terrorists were closely connected to the Soviet Union. Many of them studied at the KGB schools of terrorists.
There has always been a link between Communist and Islamic terrorism. Its embodiment was the Japanese Red Army, a communist militant group, founded in early 1971 in Lebanon. It sometimes called itself “Arab-JRA” after the Lod airport massacre in 1972.
The late Alexander Litvinenko, poisoned in London in November 2006, told me that his former FSB colleagues had trained famous al-Qaeda terrorists Ayman Al-Zawahiri and Juma Namangoniy during the 1990s and 1980s. Ayman Al-Zawahiri, one of the world’s most wanted terrorists, has been responsible for the murder of U.S. nationals outside the United States. Before his death, Juma Namangoniy (Jumabai Hojiyev), a native of Soviet Uzbekistan, was a right-hand man of Osama bin Laden in charge of the Taliban’s northern front in Afghanistan. Juma Namangoniy was once a student of the Saboteur Training Center of the First Chief Directorate of the KGB in 1989-91.
Alexander Litvinenko also told me that famous General Dostum, a former government army general during the Soviet war in Afghanistan, was a KGB agent, too.
Conclusion
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