How Soviet agitprop methods are used by Islamic extremists
Reader comment on item: Letters to the editor: Jihad and the Professors

Submitted by Ken Besig (Israel), Feb 6, 2003 at 14:52

I believe that the longstanding Cold War between the former Soviet Union and the democratic West went a long way towards producing what we now know as Islamic extremism. The Arab Islamic and Third World states in general, exactly like the former Soviet Union, have never been characterized by concern for human rights or political freedom. And for decades the Islamic world remained largely a backwater whose populations were violent, dictatorial, poor, ignorant, and unhealthy, unless the state had oil resources, in which case, they at least weren't poor. But for the most part, except for attacks on Israel, these states pretty much confined themselves to abusing their own people and left the rest of the world alone. Over decades the former Soviet Union worked inside many of these countries, sometimes secretly, sometimes openly, not just establishing political cadres and cultivating political contacts, but also involving themselves in health care systems, educational systems, and in charitable organizations, not of course to improve the politics or the social system but to as much as possible turn these political and social systems into outlets for anti Americanism, anti capitalism, and Soviet style dictatorship, cynicism, hatred, and militarism. They also nurtured the natural imperialism of Islam, which not too surprisingly has it's counterpart in historic Russian imperialism which developed into Soviet imperialism. With the demise of the Soviet Union, the Islamic cadres and politicians they recruited and created no longer see themselves bound by any rules but their own, and unfortunately since Islam is a violent and primitive culture and religion with a serious imperialist component, the rest of the world is now fair game.

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