see communism as being incompatible with their
core Islamic values and teachings, such as their
belief in God, performance of obligatory acts of
worship, and acquisition of religious instruction
as a part of one’s moral development. Muslims in
the Middle East in particular have also rejected
communism because of the Soviet Union’s quick
recognition of israel in 1948 and the support
French Marxists showed for their government in
its bloody war against the Algerian independence
movement in 1954–62.
The governments of the Soviet Union and
other communist nations pursued policies to orga-
nize subject Muslim populations in Central Asia
into discreet nationalities based on ethnicity (for
example, Uzbek, Tajik, and Kirghiz) and cut them
off from their ties to Muslims and Islamic centers
in the Middle East. Mosques and Islamic schools
were closed or converted into cultural sites, while
the overt practice of Islam was largely forced to go
underground. The dissolution of the Soviet Union
in 1991, however, spurred the revival of Islam,
including militant Islamism, in the former Cen-
tral Asian republics. In China, Muslims enjoyed
religious freedom after World War II because they
sided with the Communists in their campaign
against the Nationalists for control of the country.
This relationship disintegrated during the Chinese
Cultural Revolution (1966–76), when Islam was
outlawed. Since that time, however, Muslim com-
munities have been allowed to rebuild their insti-
tutions, and their situation has improved.
The Islamic governments of saUdi arabia and
the Iranian republic both took clear stands against
the spread of communist influence. During 1960s
and 1970s, Saudi king Faysal ibn abd al-aziz (r.
1964–75) urged Muslims to oppose the spread
of atheism in their lands, by which he meant
not only communism but also Zionism and arab
socialism. Saudi Arabia and pakistan helped the
United states provide covert support in the 1980s
to the aFghan mUJahidin in their guerrilla war
against the People’s Democratic Party of aFghani-
stan, a communist party that had seized power in
1979 with the backing of the Soviet army. Indeed,
the United States regarded both Saudi Arabia and
Pakistan as staunch allies during the cold war
(1945–91). Meanwhile, after the Islamic revolu-
tion in iran (1978–79), the new Khomeini regime
violently eliminated the Marxist Tudeh (commu-
nist) Party, the Fedaiyan-i Khalq, and other leftist
groups that had formed earlier in opposition to
the Iranian monarchy.
Elsewhere, Islamic opposition movements
competed with small groups of communists and
leftists attempting to gain political power in coun-
tries ruled by conservative or secular authoritar-
ian governments. This was the case in Iran, egypt,
and Iraq. The Palestinian nationalist movement
against Israeli occupation also reflects this fac-
tional rivalry. Several leading 20th-century reviv-
alists and reformers who were overtly opposed
to communism nonetheless seized upon Marxist
rhetoric concerning social justice, class struggle,
revolution, and liberation and reshaped it in an
Islamic mold. abU ala al-maWdUdi (d. 1979),
sayyid qUtb (d. 1966), and ali shariati (d. 1977)
were in the forefront of this group. The Islamic
movement that has most fully embodied the
combination of Marxism with revivalist Islamic
ideology is the mUJahidin-i khalq, which opposed
Iran’s monarchy and was violently suppressed after
the creation of the Islamic Republic in 1979.
See also central asia and the caUcasUs; fidai;
mUslim brotherhood; politics and islam.Further reading: Alexandre Bennigsten and Chan-
tal Lemercier-Quelquejay, Islam in the Soviet Union
(London: Praeger, 1967); Ernest Gellner, “Islam and
Marxism: Some Comparisons.” International Affairs 67
(1991): 1–6; Dru C. Gladney, Muslim Chinese: Ethnic
Nationalism in the People’s Republic (Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 1991); Ali A. Mazrui, “The
Resurgence of Islam and the Decline of Communism.”
Futures 23 (1991): 273–289.community See umma.
community 161 J