I just want to say. Stay strong sister! I pray for you every day, you really great woman who is not afraid of being communist and being Muslim. InshAllah you will get 1 million subscribers one day.
You don't how much we need to hear this in the left. Thank you bringing this sensible topic to the discussion. Coming from the Global South, were most of the popular clases are religious, the perception of an anti religious left must be abandoned and move on. Nothing divides more the workings classes of the world than anti religious propaganda from our leftists comrades. And actually, many philosophers and theorists are studying the many similarities between Marxism and religion. The Theology of Literation here in Latin America is an example. I highly recommend to read Enrique Düssel books on Marx, best Marx studies in all languages in my opinion. His book Theological Metaphors of Marx is mind blowing. I also recommend Franz Hinkelammert works.
While I do indeed firmly believe that the Ideals of communism and movements on the left are, fundimentialy, ideological incompatiable with religious teleological believes, (for how can the workers and people _truly_ rule themselves if there is an almighty authority or being), I do not believe that outright blocking or discrediting those who may be religious, for simply being religious, is conducive to the furthering of our ideals and our movement. Hakim has a good video on fundimentilay socialist ideals and practices in Islam (and other world religions) in his video on Gaddafi's Green Book (or maybe in his video on west asian & arab socialism, forgive me my memory is foggy), and this, to me brought me out of the notion that "all religious are bad, for religion is bad", and how we have more similarities than differences in our philosophies.
The only problem with religion from the Marxists perspective is that it was (and still is) an one of the instruments of the ruling class to exploit the workers on harder labor for lesser price by telling them about virtues of compassion and patience. That, of course, implied only the part about the ruling class(es) - in any moment, the propaganda machine of the Church, working alongside the rulers, told (and still telling now) about the wrongdoings of people, which resources they wanted to get. Religion (from the dialectical materialistic point of view) was mostly born as the remedy to ease the pain of working classes by giving them hope for better future, but it was (and still is) twisted and used by capitalists as the disguise for their schemes. V.Lenin once told, that faithfulness is not a forbidding factor for joining the Communist Party, as long as your religion is not contemplating with the Party's course. I think you heard this earlier, but I have decided to point it out - Communism expels religion by provision of the knowledge and destruction of the fear of the unknown, which can be achieved by the foundation of the better, stronger economical basis
You can't ignore the role the religious play in supporting reactionary regimes. The Iraq War and continuing support for the Genocide State of Israel would not have been so easy to achieve were it not for Evangelical Christians. Many Evangelicals are working class, but their class consciousness has been completely suppressed due to religious conditioning. In Latin America the amount of support the Church has given to outright fascists greatly outweighs the Priests who adhere to liberation theology. Those Priests are Comrades, and heroes, but they are a tiny minority. Reflexively attacking religion is not a good policy for socialists, but there are many instances where religion is unambiguously our enemy.
I grew up in a harsh Christian evangelical environment, although I rejected it early in life (I identified as atheist beginning at age 16/17 when I wrote a research paper about the history of the English Bible in high school). I just looked at the religion I was raised in and said "uh, no..." And I studied the history of biblical texts enough to know, in my view, its just a bunch of texts written and translated by mankind, there's nothing fundamentally spiritual about the texts to me. I spent my 20's mostly in a state of intense dislike of all religion. However, as I aged, I started to meet people with various views, and ultimately I realized there are people with a religious background that very deeply share my values on economics and culturally are surprisingly more open minded than many "ultra" atheists I know in some unique ways. So, I've kind of come to terms with the fact that my personal beliefs on religion (or lack thereof) shouldn't come to the forefront of political discussions. I have found profound agreement with many people of many backgrounds, and I've found many muslims that are more anti-capitalist than christians in North America. While I still don't believe in faith or even a higher being, now that I'm in my 40's I fully appreciate that people who are religious can be quite diverse. And I consider it enriching and beautiful to know many muslim friends that want to see an end to capitalism, because I know most evangelical christians I've met in my life are typically full throated supporters of "prosperity gospel" and capitalism. But, its fair to mention that many catholics don't see capitalism as highly as there are diverse opinions within christianity, but in North America too often you see capitalism and evangelical christianity are bound at the hip, inseparable. Yet, I keep meeting muslim friends in my life, even casually, that often think capitalism needs to end in order to build a more just society. And many muslims are very much against concepts like interest to banks, with a much more egalitarian outlook that mixes well with my beliefs. So, I've learned that keeping an open mind and being willing to engage with people who don't share your views 100% can often be rewarding, not frustrating, and I am thankful to know many muslims in life that have been wonderful to know. This is what I've observed in my 40 years on this earth. And I'm thankful that I'm amongst the youngest people who can recall the Soviet flag being brought down during December 1991 without a history text, it is a living history for me. And I'll be the last generation to be able to know it without a history text, as I watched that fateful day unravel on my late grandfather's TV set back in '91, which sticks with me to this very day, and its impact that we're still feeling. Everything we were told about communism is a lie if you grow up in the west. Religion was most definitely a part of society, so long as you don't try and end the economic system and stand against socialism. And honestly, can you blame any system for wanting self preservation? People who are religious and believed in economic egalitarianism were more than welcomed, and that's the story we should be hearing. The US, in all its freedom-worship culture, during the height of the cold war made it illegal to be a communist (literally, the party was banned) and made being a non-believer even more untenable than those who are religious in communism. This is a truth, it can't be refuted.
I don't think I could have put it better! I also have the fundimential distrust and disagreement with religion, but as I watched Hakim and Lady Izdiahar, I have been opened to the world of the positive aspects of religion and the suprising amount of similarities in our views and values.
what was official policy on religious freedom at this time? I always heard the USSR was at times hostile to religion, which could either be western exaggeration("the GODLESS communists!") or a genuine case of taking anti-counter-revolution & idealism a bit too far. It would also be interesting to learnabout Soviet policies on religious freedom throughout time. (Ik u mostly focus on early history, just an idea I'm curious about.)
Well, at early years there was anti religious policy - land nationalisation, destruction of churches, prosecution of priests, but also removing religion from law - marriage became secular thing, nonorthodox denominations (mostly muslims and jews) could have new opportunities and etc In 30s this policy has been relaxed - some religious holidays became days of rest for example, and in 1943 even patriarch was elected, first time since Peter I abolish them, if I'm not mistaken
Yeshayahu Leibowitz made the point that religious and secular ethics are totally different. When I, for example, do something kind for a homeless person for a religious purpose, I’m doing it bc it’s a commandment from god, but if I’m doing it out of compassion it’s a secular moral action. They are both good for the world, but the “ethic” is totally different. So although I am a practicing Jew and a Marxist, and although sometimes these two lead me to the same action, they are in truth totally different. At least that’s what Leibowitz would say.
Short answer: How did the Soviet government treat religion? As a cultural phenomenon: good. As for the worldview opposed to scientific, like the Darwin's theory of evolution: bad. Did the Soviet government struggle with religion? No, this was fighting with the institution of people - the church. The church was part of the old, tsarist government, the official leader of the church since the time of Peter the Great was the tsar. For a short period from February 1917, the church received freedom, political and economic. The latter was that all the property, all the buildings and lands that the church used for one reason or another, before 1917 were state-owned, because look at the head of the church. This confrontation, generated by ordinary human greed and cupidity, on the part of the leaders of the church, who openly called for fighting the new government (despite their dogmas, for example, "all power belongs to God") was inevitable.
Wa Alaikum Salam "Comrade". First of all, thank you for the unique perspective you provide. Though I am not a communist myself (I'm a social democrat), I was always aware my religion's (I'm a Shia Muslim, converted from Sunni/Hanafi sect) numerous overlapping points with Islam so it's refreshing to see somebody is pointing that out on the internet while also holding a light to the history of Soviet Muslims, who actually played a significant role in the revolution. Speaking of which, though, will we see you talking about executions of Muslim scholars, purges, banning of religious texts, and anti-religious propaganda in the republics with Muslim-majority populations? I am sorry but what you've been doing as of now is not goes further than Soviet/Communist apologism. "I am twice the proletariat you are for I am a worker and a Muslim!" -Mirsaid Sultan-Galiyev
Mashallah. I've been a Socialist Muslim for a long time now and its mind blowing how many Muslims refuse to see how Socialism and Islam go hand in hand, and believe living selfish lives spent in the Dunya gaining personal wealth is more somhow acceptable. Yeah because the faith that has an entire month not only dedicated towards fasting to be close to Allah SWT, but also to understand the plight of the poor and impoverished to encourage good will to those in need would definitely approve of you making millions on the backs of others. Munafiq, many of them.
@@LadyIzdihar If I were you, I'd go ask the RU-vidr "Scientific Socialism" they've gotten ahold of the entire Black Panther Party newsletter backlog and I guess is in the process of maybe getting it uploaded onto the Marxist Internet Archive, I'd ask them.
@@LadyIzdihar I'm sorry, the youtuber "Red Scare TV" I got confused with someone else who had been talking about uploading an audiobook of Robespierre, sorry about that.
he might have been influenced by wanting to stay in the good graces of gov, but i have no reason to think ussr was actively against religion even though marx called it the opiate of the masses. the anti communist ignoramuses would like people to think ussr was anti religion, but why, then, does russia still have the cathedrals and the congregations?
I've read most things regarding religion and socialism. I'm just providing snippets most people haven't come across. There's more then one way of seeing or experiencing it. I encourage people to read many or listen to many takes
One thing is russian orthodox christianity. How about islam? Or anything else, not so major within the population (at least close to actual russian state itself)?
@@LadyIzdihar Ah, just found it. From what I've heard and read so far, it seems USSR mostly tolerated religion in general. Like you said, religious (or communist) leaders tend to cherry pick whatever suits their agenda at the time. If that was compatible with the way USSR was running things, any actual intrusion would be unnecessary.
For a Western Christian, "Freedom of Religion" means freedom to persecute others, just as for a Western Bourge/Lumpen, "Personal Freedom" means freedom to exploit a position of privilege or advantage to coerce and exploit others. For a Soviet clergyman to say the Union's ideals of solidarity and camaraderie align with his Christian views of compassion and love doesn't answer the foreigner's question. Westerners espouse the belief that "Freedom of Religion" is itself sacrosanct regardless of the content of the dogma, and for conditional tolerance of religious practice to be predicated on sharing the ideals of the regime doesn't sound like "freedom", which is more important than fighting bigotry, ignorance, violence, and exploitation.
If you are interested in what the rest of the specific document I'm talking about here says, here is the link: ladyizdihar.com/blogs/izdihars-soviet-archive-2/is-there-freedom-of-religion-in-the-ussr-1950-51
This question always givese a headache. As it is normally in the context of future communist possibilities. A System that entirely serves the people would allow what those people want. Though, a system that is meant to materialist requirements of its population should probably keep its nose out of religion. At least as far as the people want it to be.
Although we can’t predict exactly what the future will hold it is likely religion will be less important and smaller in a future communist society than now.The reason being that religion emerged from a certain historical material background from ancient humanity through the bronze and Iron Age.There is a reason all major religions today do not date before the year 1000 AD,and why new religious movements are dying and usually are just carbon copies of older traditions.That is because their misunderstandings of reality are grounded in the old consciousness of the old world before rationality and science proved most of the stone and Bronze Age claims of religion to be false.There is also a reason richer countries are seeing a mass dying or religious views and strict religious observance and specially beliefs.The richer and more knowledgeable a society is with our modern scientific understanding the more likely it does not resort to magic and mysticism to explain the natural world and to find meaning.Religion emerged from fear and lack of understanding of the world around us because of our very small perspective from our bodies,we could not fly so many of us could not see the curvature and believed the earth was flat,our eyes can not see far so we believed the sun was literally floating over earth and that the stars were little balls of light that could fall from the sky,we did not understand thunder and fire so we claimed unknown spiritual beings must create them.As we started to think more abstractly we brought those ideas from our Stone Age past into our new philosophy and so was born,Platonism,Neoplatonism,OrthodoxChristianity,rational Judaism among other religious philosophies.The way we should look at religion is as what Stalin said of consciousness ,that it is the slowest to develop in society as a whole.Sometimes a society will achieve many advances in technology thanks to the work of all but only a few will have the resources and education to understand how these new technologies and discoveries affect us and how they help us to understand the world better.The goal I think therefore should be education.Also we definitely should be against organized religions as they have been politically opposed to the socialist project historically and can be used for self enrichment of a few.
I think the faith that I hold dear will die out if capitalism remains the dominant mode of production. The pursuit of communism, in my view, is necessary for Christianity to survive.
I love your content and I’ve been wondering if you would feel comfortable talking about Judaism during the Soviet Union. I know the USSR wasn’t a great place to be Jewish but neither is the world sometimes! Just coming from a communist who’s in the process of converting to Judaism, I trust you. I know it’s a sticky topic and I understand if you’d rather not. Regardless, thank you for the work you do!
I dont have sources, nor im 100% sure, but I heard in a Brazilian communist group that the Soviet Union was the first governament to criminalize antisemmitism. (sorry for my english)
I'm not sure where you heard that it was not a great place to be Jewish, in fact, it was the only country that took in an unlimited number of Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazi regime and treated them as equals. Quite notably a significant percentage of high-ranking Soviet officials were Jewish.
@@KingSizzle21 They were both bad. I’m fully a communist and often frustrated by the one sided history we learn about the USSR but just because it was worse under the tsars doesn’t mean it was sunshine and roses after the revolution
@@SarahWildsmith they weren’t both bad. Imperial Russia had pogroms aimed at terrorizing the Jews in the Pale of Settlement. The USSR criminalized antisemitism. It isn’t fair to say they were the same.
Religion is like a prison for many people. We need to liberate people from this prison. People say that religion is something personal but for many people it's like a prison that they cannot escape from. If a Muslim converts to another religion, they could get killed, because the prophet spoke against that. Whenever I see a girl in a hijab, I don't see her personal choice, I see that she's oppressed. Idk how you can still speak in support of religion when we should be fighting against all forms of oppression including religion. We aren't liberals.
Hey Comrade Beautiful Lady Izdihar I always,seeing your videos and following you on Instagram MAN YOU ARE SUCH A SOVIET PATRIOT AS I AM UNFORTUNATELY I DONT HAVE ALL THESE SOVIET STUFF I REALLY WANT THAT CAP AND THAT FLAG EVERYTHING. May I tell you something I believe that testament and information you were telling about that Russian Orthodox priest was telling these guys did you know this : My mom is Russian born in Moscow she told me that in her time am talking about after 1950s Orthodox religion / as I believe Islam as well was free and welcome in the USSR BUT ONLY UNDER 1 AGREEMENT all tell you : Her father was a Communist her mother was Orthodox so there was no even a beef between them only in the Soviet community there were people who were KOMSOMOL MEMBERS who didn't want anything from these Church people and their religious beliefs so what happens if you did go to church one day you would be arrested by the Party for violating this rule the other part that's the religious people were NOT ALLOWED to join KOMSOMOL PARTY FRIENDSHIPS OR EVEN GOING ON TO PIONEER CAMPS THAT WAS FORBIDDEN OR A KOMSOMOL MEMBER WOULD GO TO CHURCH AND BELIEVE IN GOD NOT A GOOD IDEA TO. You could be arrested for that reason to so it wasn't oppressed at all but she sad that you had to choose between the 2 factions or you stay atheist As she still is today. I hope you like my information and I can't wait to meet you in real life so we can talk plenty about our same obsession and a new fantastic friendship.😎😁😍
