Day by day I begin to wonder more and more if I can even call myself a communist anymore. Its becoming hard to really reconcile my faith with communism if the ideology itself is theorically opposed to it. Bukharin's book, "ABCs of Communism," has an entire section on Chapter 11 that directly talks about why religion and communism are incompatible. Communists believe history is driven by class struggle and material conditions. Religious people believe in stuff like divine intervention or divine will. A communist would probably look at islam (my faith) and be like "No prophet was sent a message by God and acted upon it, it was their material conditions that made them act." I don't see how one could believe both, it feels like its either or.
Sure, it is perfectly possible for religious people to largely agree with Marxists on such things as historical materialism and present-day class struggles, not to mention struggles for national liberation, against racism, etc. It is possible be anti-capitalist and fight for a classless, moneyless, and stateless society where MOP is colletively owned but at the end of the day, there is philosophical tension.
I feel at best, I can be an ally, but the way I see it, I will never be one of them. I do not belong. My voice does not count equally and my beliefs make me suspect. I have faced hostility from leftists that are atheist and hostile towards religion and been called a revisionist. If this is how me and others are gonna be treated just because of our faith, I'd rather die than simply be used as cannon fodder in a revolution.
Dialectical materialism: our ideas are our social material conditions reflected imperfectly in our brain
Religious folks implementing the above: god set the above matter in motion
A sensible communist would understand that religions themselves reflect the political economy (eg UAE salafist islam with their concentrations of captial and imperialist comprador class is significantly different to the Islam of Hamas and their revolutionary anti-imperialism despite both being Sunni. One could make a similar argument for say the Catholicism of cuba vs catholicism found in USA), and athiesm does not make you an anti-imperialist let alone having a scientific understanding of capital.
And to hit it really on its head: consider all these Western Marxists refusing to support those on the ground fighting imperialists; they are essentially liberals cosplaying with a sickle and a hammer.
Marxism is a science, and this includes the science of how capital works and how to build socialism from it ("from" in a dialectical materialist sense). If a person practising a religion can also be a scientist then the same coul be said for a social scientist.
Develop the vanguard that will help the peoples you want to emancipate scientifically, everyone else is just wasting your time.
(My background: I am an athiest but my ancestor's homeland would not have ended formal western colonisation without revolutionary socialist muslims. Period.)
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