95. Information Memorandum From Karen Galatz of the Policy Planning Staff to Secretary of State Shultz1
SUBJECT
- Soviet Human Rights: Time to Emphasize Non-European, Muslim Minorities
SUMMARY: Having highlighted U.S. concerns about Soviet Jews during your Moscow trip, S/P believes there is merit in a new, but complementary emphasis on the rights of Muslims in the USSR. This would be consistent with our overall human rights strategy of nuanced, but steady pressure on the Kremlin, and with our stated policy of broad human and religious rights concerns. It also would enhance our position with Muslim nations.
S/P believes there should be increased monitoring and discussion about the status of Soviet Islam within the U.S., with intermediary Muslim countries, and with the Soviet Union. This proposed discussion could focus on the following concerns:
—Islam as a religion remains under attack in the USSR;
—Islamic peoples are routinely discriminated against, earn less money, have higher infant mortality rates and are under-represented in state and party organizations; and
—Gorbachev’s glasnost and promised religious reform has not been extended to Central Asia. END SUMMARY.
U.S. Objectives
This broader engagement would be designed to correct the widespread perception that when the U.S. says human rights, it means Israel and the American Jewish lobby. It would ease Muslim feelings that their needs are subordinate to those of Jews, and the corollary assumption that we are also anti-Islamic. It would also increase our credibility in the Arab world by doing something positive, thus reducing concerns that the U.S. is less reliable because of the Iranian arms shipments. Finally, this advocacy of the rights of Soviet Muslims would slow the pace of growing Soviet engagement in the Middle East and parts of Asia, including Bangladesh, Indonesia and Malaysia. We can accomplish this by reinforcing traditional Muslim suspicions of the Soviet Union, pointing out the contradiction between the Kremlin’s external [Page 284] policy of touting religious freedom, and its domestic suppression of religion and related ethnic/nationalist tendencies.
Possible Approaches
Within the USG, we could increase monitoring of human rights abuses in Islamic republics (Our latest annual human rights report, for example, contains but one reference to Muslims);
—Spotlight the problems of Soviet Muslims in speeches (You have two upcoming speeches before Jewish groups; specific references to Soviet Islam could be included);
—End the use of Russian transliterations of Central Asian (and other non-Russian) words, which amounts to our acceptance of the Russianization of these non-Russian languages.
—Prepare monthly pamphlet reprints of Islamic articles appearing in the Western and Soviet press for Muslim leaders and journalists;
—Translate anti-Muslim Soviet articles into Arabic and Central Asian languages (We’re already doing this into Turkish);
—Work to send Korans and other religious articles into the Soviet Union, and promote educational exchanges for students of Islam;
—Urge re-opening of mosques;
—Establish a Radio Liberty/VOA policy on Islamic programming (with increased commentary on the role of Islam in world affairs to supplement extensive Saudi broadcasts of the Koran).
With Muslim nations, we could encourage our friends to act both directly and as intermediaries with others to advocate Soviet Muslim rights and, more particularly, to:
—Sponsor resolutions in international organizations on the rights of Muslims (access to sacramental scriptures, educated clergy and the right to propagate their faith).
—Encourage the Saudis to press Moscow to increase opportunities for Soviet Muslims to make pilgrimages to Mecca;
—Ask Egypt to attempt bringing more Soviet Islamic students to Al-Azhar University and ask for reciprocity;
—Urge Pakistan, Turkey, India and others to send Korans in Central Asian languages to their co-religionists in the USSR;
—Seek access to Daghistan for study of classic Arabic, the one region where the language is spoken as in the days of Mohammed.
With the Soviet Union, we should consider pressing all of these issues privately in upcoming meetings with Soviet officials. This is consistent with the basic EUR/HA strategy of continuing to work for resolution of existing cases and starting to press new ones.
[Page 285]The Issues
There are four key points around which we could center discussions about Soviet religious and ethnic discrimination against Muslims:
1. Islam is under attack in the Soviet Union.
—In 1913, there was one mosque for every 500 Muslims. Today there is but one mosque for every 50,000 Muslims.
—Korans are in short supply. Only six inadequate editions have been published since 1917.
—The Soviet Union is trying to pervert Islam into a variation of other institutionalized (and therefore, more easily controllable) religions with an official clergy. This is contrary to Islamic law.
2. Yet, Soviet Muslims, by virtue of their faith, have developed remarkable ways to fulfill the 5 pillars of Islam.
—For example, while few can make the Hajj, Soviet Muslims substitute pilgrimages to sacred Islamic sites within the USSR.
—Vast networks of illegal Islamic secret societies exist. Thousands of unregistered mullahs lead prayers and assist with circumcisions, weddings, burials and dietary restrictions.
—And despite it all, demography and other sociological trends are helping Central Asians advance: their birthrate is about 3 times higher than the all-union average and, while their role in the central party and state hierarchies is small, it is growing at the republic level.
3. Soviet Muslims—as an ethnic group—are persecuted.
—While the standard of living in Central Asia is up since the revolution, income levels are lower for Muslims and infant mortality is two times higher than in the rest of the country.
—Muslims are under-represented in the key institutions of state and party (Only one Muslim serves on the Politburo; none in the Secretariat).
—When drafted, Muslims are conscripted to the hardest work with the least chances for advancing professionally. The official explanation cites language barriers, but the underlying reason is deep racial prejudice.
—And ideological campaigns continue to question the basic loyalty of Central Asians, again a reflection of the traditional Russian bias.
—This domestic repression clashes with the Soviet use of Muslims to cultivate cultural, economic and political ties in the Third World.
4. Gorbachev’s glasnost isn’t helping Soviet Muslims: The post-Afghanistan, post-Iranian Revolution crackdown continues.
—In Gorbachev’s own words: “A pitiless struggle” must be waged against religion (Tashkent, November, 1986).
[Page 286]—Persecutions and attacks upon unlicensed mullahs continue, the number of activists on trial has increased, media attacks go on, and the publication of anti-religious books still disproportionately focuses on Islamic questions.
S/P will be discussing a more detailed work plan with HA and EUR.2