Socialist believers

One of the prominent figures in the Peasants' War in Germany during the first half of the 16th century was the German priest Thomas Müntzer. Müntzer shouted out against the forces that caused that rebellion as follows: “The swamp of usury, theft, and banditry is the princes and lords who make all living things—the fish in the water, the birds in the sky, the plants on the earth—their own property. Then they preach to the poor: 'Thou shalt not steal(!),' yet they themselves grab everything that falls into their hands and suck the marrow out of the peasant and the craftsman.” What, then, was the goal of this rebellion, in which thousands of peasants lost their lives in clashes? In other words, what did Priest Müntzer hope to achieve with the uprising? Let us hear the answer to this question from Friedrich Engels, one of the pioneers of scientific socialism: “Müntzer’s political program was directed toward communism. (...) By the kingdom of God, Müntzer meant a society without class differences, without private property, and without a state authority independent of or alien to the members of society.”

Müntzer was certainly not the only one who rejected ownership of the means of production, adopted a communal, collective worldview, and fought for this cause. Throughout many pages of long history, in different religions and different regions of the world, religious groups have interpreted the meaning of the divine message as communal living and have simultaneously carried this message into their lives. One of these groups was the Hutterites, who were part of the Anabaptist communities. Rejecting the concept of private property, the Hutterites carry out their production and work processes together in communal living spaces. Hutterite groups continue to live their 'communist' lives in countries such as America, England, Germany, and Australia. According to them, Jesus Christ wanted them to live this way. On this point, their leader Peter Riedemann says: “God wanted everything to be common for man. Thus, man will follow Jesus. For this, man must abandon human inventions and possessions.”

When it comes to Jesus Christ, he must also be mentioned separately. For the words and warnings that Jesus Christ spoke to the rich have long since taken their place in the pages of history. In one of his sermons, he says, “Woe to you, you rich” Jesus, starting with these words, continues by saying that they will hunger afterward. Again, in another place, "Do not store up treasures on earth" he calls out to the rich. His anger is great. We read in Matthew: "Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God." In other words, there is no place for the rich in the sight of God! Because the god they serve is not God, but money. These words appear in the Bible as follows: "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." 

The following words expressed by the Prophet Isaiah, who is believed to have lived in the eighth century BC, regarding fasting can also be seen as one of the important rights of the egalitarian tradition. We read from the Book of Isaiah: 

Is not this the fast that I choose:

To set free those who are unjustly bound in chains and yokes,

To bring freedom to the oppressed,

Is it not to break every kind of yoke?

Is it not to share your food with the hungry?

To take the homeless poor into your house,

To clothe the naked when you see them,

And not to withhold your help from your own kin,

Then your light will break forth like the dawn,

You will quickly find healing.

Your righteousness will go before you,

The glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;

You will cry for help, and he will say: 'Here am I.'

As we stated above, there are quite a large number of religious groups that advocate for justice, a dignified life, and a social existence based on solidarity. From the Mazdakites to the Zoroastrians, and from Manichaeism to the Islamic tradition, we continue to encounter such egalitarian discourses in many eras. The Qarmatians, considered part of the heterodox Islamic tradition, are, for example, one of the important elements of the communal religious tradition. Organized in the form of fortresses, the Qarmatians have gone down in history as the "Islamic Communists," in the words of Faik Bulut. 

In more recent history, the Qalandari dervishes appear within the ascetic tradition with their anti-property lifestyles. One of these dervishes, Otman Baba, an important figure in the Alevi-Bektashi tradition who is said to have died in 1478, criticizes the acquisition of property quite harshly. Ahmet T. Karamustafa shares the following information regarding Otman Baba: "He was completely opposed to acquiring property and rejected all kinds of gifts, especially money, which he likened to excrement. Absolute poverty was the only social condition that led to religious salvation." The Encyclopedia of Islam writes the following about him: “Otman Baba did not get along with members of the madrasa, nor with some of the Sufi sheikhs of his time. A major factor in this must have been his accusations against them for hoarding worldly goods, chasing fame and glory, collaborating with circles close to power, peddling false wisdom to the public, and turning the foundations they established into family inheritances.”

In much more recent history, many figures from Ali Shariati to Mahmoud Mohamed Taha, and from Mustafa al-Sibai to Nurettin Topçu, have written striking lines regarding the connection between religion and socialism. For example, in the context of socialism, these words flow from Topçu’s pen: “The fact that the group attached to Islamic culture in our country has always understood Islam superficially and from the wrong side is what makes it oppose socialism. In reality, this cause is the cause of justice that resides in the essence of Islam. Socialism is the defense of the rights of the people, which God has declared He will not forgive if violated. Those who cannot know that we will take our place at the very heart of Islam as socialists are captivated by the foreign attire of the word. They do not think that a word is an outfit, a garment; we are the ones who dress it. The spirit and the cause belong to God. Because they cannot see the spirit, they are shooting at a pathetic garment.”

While what the words in religious texts truly intend and what kind of longing for a world they address people with is a separate subject of debate, we can say that religions have never been read independently of power relations, and therefore, the dominant power also determines the religion being practiced. In the order of the wealthy, of course, interpretations that submit to that order and do not hear or do not voice the cries of the oppressed would be presented to us as religion. And indeed, that is what happened. The entire social structure, starting with the political order, made the gods of the powerful and the 'ulema class' allies. Those who opposed them were the 'socialist believers.' The socialist believers, some of whom we have tried to convey here.