🎯 Main Thesis

• Being Muslim and being a communist are not contradictory.
• Both share values of justice, care, and solidarity.
• Misunderstandings come from distortions by those in power — both religion and communism have been intentionally misrepresented.

1️⃣ Misquote of Marx on Religion

• Full quote:

  “Religious suffering is… the sigh of the oppressed creature… the heart of a heartless world… the opium of the people.”

• Context:

  • Marx wasn’t mocking religion.
  • He saw it as a response to material suffering, a survival mechanism.
  • Religion is not the enemy — capitalism is.
  • Goal: create a world where comfort doesn’t require numbing pain.

2️⃣ Materialism vs. Faith

• Marxist materialism:
  • Not greed or consumerism.
  • The idea that material conditions shape consciousness (“life is not determined by consciousness, but consciousness by life”).
• Faith exists in and responds to material conditions:
  • Ability to pray, fast, study scripture depends on safety, shelter, food.
• Faith can be compatible with dialectical materialism — it influences real actions in the material world.

3️⃣ Myth: Communism Always Bans Religion

• Not true in general.
• Soviet Union example:
  • Targeted institutions of religious power that served ruling classes (e.g., Orthodox Church under Tsars).
  • Many mosques and Islamic schools remained open at various times/places.
  • Personal faith was allowed; exploitation and coercive religious pressures were not.
• Global South examples:
  • Liberation theology in Latin America — “God is on the side of the oppressed.”
  • Faith often fueled revolutionary movements.

4️⃣ Faith & Revolution