Michael Kemper - The Soviet Discourse on the Origin and Class Character of Islam, 1923-1933
http://www.academia.edu/10632679/The_Soviet_Discourse_on_the_Origin_and_Class_Character_of_Islam_1923-1933The article examines the growing radicalization of the Marxist anti-Islamic discourse in the USSR as a case-study of "Soviet Orientalism". To which of Marx's five socio-economic formations should Muslim society be assigned? During the relatively pluralistic period of the New Economic Policy (1921-1927) Marxist scholars offered various answers. Many argued that Islam emerged from the trading community of Mecca and was trade-capitalist by nature (M. Reisner, E. Beliaev, L. Klimovich). Others held that Islam reflected the interests of the agriculturalists of Medina (M. Tomara), or of the Bedouin nomads (V. Ditiakin, S. Asfendiarov); and some even detected communist elements in Islam (Z. and D. Navshirvanov). All authors found support in the Qur'ān and works of Western Orientalists. By the late 1920s Marx' and Engels' scattered statements on Islam became central in the discourse, and in 1930 Liutsian Klimovich rejected the Qur'ān altogether by arguing that the book, as well as Muḥammad himself, were mere inventions of later times. By the end of the Cultural Revolution (1929-1931) it was finally "established" that Islam was "feudal" in character, and critical studies of Islam became impossible for decades. The "feudal" interpretation legitimized the Soviet attack on Islam and Muslim societies at that time; but also many of the Marxist writers on Islam perished in Stalin's Terror. We suggest that the harsh polemics the authors directed against each other in the discourse contributed to their later repression. By lending itself to the interests of the totalitarian state, Soviet Marxist Islamology committed suicide—the ultimate form of "Orientalism".
Michael Kemper - Studying Islam in the Soviet Union
http://dare.uva.nl/document/2/81562....
President Niyazov (died in 2006), well-known for his authoritarian rule coupled with a grotesque cult around his personality, wrote a ‘Holy Book of the Spirit’ (Mukaddes Rukhnama), which he made mandatory reading for his people, at schools and even in higher education. This book is a kind of epos of the Turkmen people, a celebration of its heroic past and its customs and moral virtues with some Islamic elements. Niyazov maintained that his Rukhnama was a ‘sacred book’ given to him by God in some kind of revelation – which makes Niyazov the first and only post-Soviet president who claimed to be a prophet, in this case the new prophet of the Turkmens.
The synthesis of Niyazov’s ethno-nationalist ideology and Islam is also clearly reflected in the architecture of the grand mosque he built in his native village outside Ashgabat: the minarets as well as the interior of the mosque are decorated with verses not from the Qur’an but from the president’s holy book.
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Topic: Random Islamic History Posts