Socialism, Bolshevism and Religion

There have been many European newspapers and telegrams disparaging the Bolshevism that has spread in Russia and neighboring countries in Europe and Asia. They describe what is going on there as a reign of anarchy, chaos, and bloodletting. They talk of violations of honor and theft of wealth, and all this in conditions of complete lawlessness and disorder. All the developed states are frightened that Bolshevism will spread to their countries, that it will triumph over their regimes, laws, religion, and morality. Yet it is precisely this fear and apprehension that must make us doubt the truth of these alarming anti-Bolshevik reports. For, if something is so openly outrageous that it scandalizes all religion, logic, morality, and reason, it cannot actually pose a real threat to the existence of religion, morality, and order. This is because it is the practice of God (sunnat Allah) in general to make the best and most proper things endure, since they are the basis for social activity. People have seen how the politicians denounce good things, praise ugly ones, and do other things that turn facts on their head. It is only natural to find people hoping for some good from Bolshevism, even though they do not really know what it is like, and only wish that they could find out what it means, and have the chance to live in a regime that practices it.

England and its allies are making war on Bolshevism by word and deed, using money and religion. It has given a task to Shaykh Muhammad Bakhit, the Mufti of Egypt, who has issued a legal decision (fatwa) in answer to a question saying that Bolshevism is prohibited by Islam and by every religion because it stands for absolute licentiousness with respect to the shedding of blood, the taking of money, and the violation of honor, identifying it with the Mardukism and Zardashtism that made their appearance in the land of ancient Persia. Many have responded to him, both writers from within the Azhar and non-Azharis, from the standpoint of history and religion and from non-religious angles, and Egyptian newspapers have examined the issue at length. But the Egyptian government has made a photographic copy of his handwritten fatwa, engraved it on a metal plate, and printed numerous copies of it. None of these were distributed in Egypt; evidently they were distributed in some Asian Islamic countries towards which Bolshevism has advanced.

Many people have asked us for our opinion of Bolshevism, of what it really is, and whether it is pure harm and evil as the politicians and the fatwa say, or whether it is for the good of all, or good for one people but bad for others. Here is what we say:

From all that we have read about Bolshevism, we understand that it is the same as socialism whose aim is to eliminate the authority of the greedy lords of wealth and their helpers, the rulers who support them, who have imposed their materialist laws that are based on devouring the rights of the workers in their own countries and on the colonization of the countries of other, weaker peoples. The literal meaning of Bolshevik is "majority" which means that real rule among every people should be in the hands of the majority of the nation, and those are the workers in industry and agriculture and other things. That would be after the authority of the lords of wealth and their high ranking partisans is brought down. They have done that in Russia after the overthrow of the oppressive tyrannical tsarist state, whose oppression and tyranny did not prevent those governments that claim to be democratic - the French and English - from allying themselves with it and making agreements with it on how to split up the Ottoman and Persian lands. There have arisen in that country from among the remnants of those tsarists, people who resist and fight the Bolsheviks for authority. And it is the business of those in power in every country to resist, with all their vehemence and might, the ones who come out to challenge their rule - regardless whether that challenge is justified or not. If there is a basis for the strong invectives leveled against the harshness of the Bolsheviks, as there appears to be, then this is one of the two reasons for it - and it is a reason that no government can claim to be innocent of. The second reason is that they were not experienced in rule and the time was a time of anarchy, disorder, and poverty, and they were unable to put their harshness and force into a system that would allow its people to call it by that name as opposed to its own.

We are certain that it is inconceivable that their activities and systems would be in accordance with the rules of Islam, and it is not for the Muslims who are observant of their religion to follow them in this. But this is not something that pertains only to the Bolsheviks; it pertains to all the positivist laws that are followed in Europe and also in the East - such as in Egypt and the Ottoman state - where there are some regulations that violate Islamic law. The Muslims wish for the success of the socialists in eliminating the enslavement of the peoples (all of whom are workers), while they reject such of their practices - and the practices of everyone else - that violate Islamic law. It being understood that they are not expected by us to implement all the branches of Islamic law, anyway, since they are not Muslims.

We are republishing here an article that explains the desires of the people as we have indicated them. This article came from the newspaper Suriah al-Muttahidah [United Syria] that is published in Mexico. Here is the text:

"Read, big businessman, what I am writing today with attention and wisdom, for the danger of socialism encompasses the entire globe!

"A Latin saying has it that 'the voice of the people is the voice of God,' that is, that when the majority want to attain some need of theirs they will take it by force and power because the majority is the reality and reality is a power that cannot be resisted.

"Minutes, hours, and days pass and every day there are numerous examples that teach us that right lies with power and this power is the majority. We observed in the war that Germany started that the peoples of the earth believed that Germany had wronged the peoples and humanity by launching the war against France, Belgium, and Serbia, so the majority rose against them. They did not fear the Germans' military might nor their military equipment such as satanic submarines, hellish airplanes, and massive long-range artillery. Instead they launched a campaign against them from every hill and valley until the majority stood against Germany and this majority was the reality, as we said at the beginning of our article.

"The general opinion today or the opinion of the majority is socialist, and the majority is a translation of the Russian word Bolsheviki. This fact requires that massive supports and firm, just pillars be erected for world peace, as well as good conditions for the workers in all corners of the world.

"We said that the meaning of the word "Bolsheviki" is the majority, and this is none other than the socialism which is of the coming dangers.

"It should not surprise the reader if we say that 99 percent of the residents of the earth are socialists or Bolsheviks or such. These are the people of whom the saying goes that their voice is the voice of God. It is these people who oust rulers, overturn thrones, and bring down kings. It is they who protect the funds, the womenfolk, the children, the possessions, the livestock, and the factories of the wealthy with their individual guns, sacrificing their lives so that the rich might increase their wealth and boost their profits.

"Work. Labor. That is the advice of fathers to their sons. In schools the pupils hear the echo of this word many times each day in their daily conversations. Leaders too, urge the people to work because in it lies the happiness of the country and without it there lies its ruin.

"We said that the working people are 99 percent of all the inhabitants of the earth. And we have said that on labor depends the happiness or ruin of the country. It is they who are sent to war to bring security and assistance to the oppressed and deal justice to the oppressor. Is it not therefore necessary, at least, that their rights be made sacred and respected and that the worker attain his essential needs??

"Friendly relations between one state and another are broken, the reason for this being the desire of one of them for a part of the territory of the other that is rich in ore or fertile, and this land will be the property of one of the wealthy. The first country will drive all of its people to the fields of oblivion and extinction, in defense of that piece of land, to preserve it for the rich owner.

"The second country will send all of its people to the fields of death and destruction to seize that piece of land and sell it to another financier in their country.

"The worker leaves his hoe, or his plow, or his saw, or his hammer; he leaves his wife, his children, his family, and his home subject to hunger, exposure, and abuse. He grabs a rifle and goes off to a meeting with sudden death amidst the roar of cannon, the whistle of bullets, the reverberation of mines exploding, the clash of sabres, and the bursting of rivers of blood, to defend the wealth of the rich man - his land, his mines, his factories. Meanwhile, the rich man swaggers with his head aloft past soft cushions as he devotes himself to drinking glasses of wine. He sits on soft velvet carpets and flirts with girls with slender waists!!

"The people do all this in the name of the homeland, though they do not own so much as a spot on a date pit of it. The worker returns from the human massacre, his hair curled, his beard white, emaciated, sick, and he finds his children and his wife a prey to hunger, cold, and abuse. The government tells him to go and work and thus does the poor worker spend the days of his life between the hoe and the plow not earning from his labor a fair wage, and only gaining a small portion of basic food and clothing.

"Ages and generations have passed and the people have borne all this suffering and hardship. They have tried to break the steel yoke of the rich, but the governments, which are partners with the wealthy, strike them down for their crimes and disobedience, and they accept the outrage done to them out of fear and terror, not out of moderation or mercy.

"But now, the people are different from the way the were yesterday. Now it is they who have the armed force, and who can direct its movement, who hold the weapons, the ammunition, the railroads, and communications. A hundred million Russians in one of the most fertile places on earth, well endowed with ores, petroleum, and coal, support the demands of the worker and are forming the first people's government on earth. You see that the peoples of the center of Europe have declared that they side with the people's governments. We also see the workers in France, Italy, and Switzerland and in all of Europe, America, and Asia demanding the overthrow of their governments and the establishment of popular (Bolshevik) governments. They do not fear their governments because among them stands the soldier with a gun in his hand, and among them stands the sailor and his ship, and all those who are with them follow their orders, including the engineers on the railroads and the makers of cannon and artillery shells. Everything, indeed, is in their hands. They can change the movement of the earth and make a general revolution that will bring justice and declare peace.

"This cannot occur except by the establishment of people's governments that feel the needs of the people and that recognize their requirements.

"Yes, people's governments cannot be set up until the wealth of the rich is spread around, because the rich resist and combat the just demands of the people, so the people are compelled to take it with force and compulsion. The rich everywhere on earth will suffer loss, but the people do not thereby do them any wrong; it was the desire of the wealthy to preserve their absolute domination that has led them to this end."