(Black September,
PFLP, OOP,
Red Brigades,
Japanese Red Army)
Ilyich Ramirez Sanchez(Spanish. Ilich Ramírez Sánchez , also known as Carlos Jackal(eng. Carlos the Jackal); genus. October 12) - an international terrorist who carried out terrorist operations in the interests of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Red Brigades, the Red Army of Japan, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). He is currently serving a life sentence in the French prison of Clairvaux.
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✪ Terror. Chronicle of an undeclared war. Carlos Jackal
✪ Igor Molotov "CARLOS SHAKAL: TERRORIST? REVOLUTIONARY?", Part 02
✪ Igor Molotov about the book "My friend Carlos the Jackal"
✪ Igor Molotov "CARLOS SHAKAL: TERRORIST? REVOLUTIONARY?", Part 01
Subtitles
Biography
In 1968, Jose Ramirez achieved the enrollment of his son at the Peoples' Friendship University of them. Patrice Lumumba. While studying in Moscow, Ilyich met Mohammed Budia, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). In November 1969, Ilyich was expelled from the youth wing of the Communist Party of Venezuela, and in June next year he, along with sixteen other students, was expelled from the university at the request of the Venezuelan Communist Party.
In July 1970, Ilyich left Moscow and went to Beirut, and then moved to Jordan, to the PFLP training camp. There, in 1970 and 1971, Ilyich underwent two three-month training sessions, becoming one of the best students of Georges Habash, who gave Ilyich the nickname Carlos. He received the nickname Jackal from journalists after a search in a hotel room in his belongings found the novel by Frederick Forsythe "The Day of the Jackal."
In the fall of 1971, Carlos traveled to London to start working for the PFLP. At that time, the commander of the PFLP operations in Europe was the already familiar Mohammed Budia. Carlos first collected information, compiling a list of 500 potential targets for the PFLP. But after Israeli agents assassinated Mohammed Boudia in June 1973, Carlos and Mohammed Muharbal took charge of operations in Europe. On December 30, 1973, Carlos made an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Joseph Edward Schiff, president of the Marks and Spencer Company and honorary vice president of the British Zionist Federation. On August 3, 1974, Carlos and Muharbal organized bombings in Paris alongside four news outlets that sympathized with Israel in their publications. The mined cars were parked in front of the agencies' offices. At 2 am three explosions thundered, one bomb did not explode. Nobody was hurt as a result of the terrorist attacks.
On December 19, 1975, at 11:30 am, Carlos and five accomplices infiltrated OPEC headquarters, killing three people and wounding several. By the time the police arrived, Carlos had taken hostage more than 80 participants in the meeting, including ministers from 11 OPEC countries. After 36 hours of negotiations, the Austrian authorities agreed to all the conditions put forward by the terrorists - including the allocation of a plane for the flight of terrorists and hostages to any country. In response, Carlos released 40 hostages while leaving the airport, leaving only the ministers and their assistants. From Austria, the terrorists flew to Algeria, where ministers from "non-Arab" countries were released. Carlos and his team went to Tripoli, where the Libyan minister was released. On December 24, upon their return to Algeria, the remaining hostages were released. After the release of the hostages, Carlos and his accomplices received political asylum in Algeria, once again avoiding arrest.
The attack on OPEC was the last operation in which Carlos took personal part. He is believed to have returned to Lebanon and assumed a leadership position in the PFLP. There is also information that in 1976 he participated in the planning of the hijacking of the plane in Entebbe.
In 1978, following the death of Waddey Haddad, Carlos became estranged from the PFLP. It is known that between 1976 and 1985, Carlos operated from Hungary, where he kept weapons. In January 1982, Carlos' wife, German terrorist Magdalena Kopp, was arrested in Paris during an attempted terrorist attack. Carlos, in an unsuccessful attempt to secure her release, orchestrated several bombings in France. In 1984, Carlos was interviewed by Nabil Mogrobi ( Nabil Mogrobi) and allowed him to take a photograph. He later tried to prevent publication, but to no avail. As soon as the article was published in Al-Watan al-Arabi, an explosion thundered outside the magazine's office in Paris, as a result of which one person was killed and 64 injured. In 1985, Carlos left Hungary and spent some time in Prague. In the early 1990s, he settled in Sudan.
On August 15, 1994, the Sudanese authorities extradited Carlos to French agents from DST... He was charged with the murder of two Parisian police officers and Mohammed Muharbal in 1975. Prior to his trial, he was imprisoned in Santa Prison. The trial, which lasted from 12 to 23 December 1997, found Carlos guilty and sentenced him to life imprisonment without the right to pardon. He was later transferred from Santa Prison to Clairvaux Prison.
In 2003, his autobiographical book "Revolutionary Islam" was published in France, in which he, in particular, talks about his attitude to the religion he adopted - Islam.
On December 16, 2011, a court in France handed Carlos a second life sentence for organizing four explosions in France, as a result of which 11 people were killed and more than a hundred were injured. On June 26, 2013, a Paris court denied Ilyich Ramirez Sánchez the cancellation of the second life sentence.
In March 2017, Carlos was sentenced to a third life sentence by a French court for organizing an explosion in a shopping center in Paris, which killed two and injured more than thirty people.
In May 2017, six Russian writers wrote an open letter to French President Emmanuel Macron asking him to pardon the imprisoned revolutionary Carlos Jackal. Among the signatories are Alexander Prokhanov, Igor Molotov, German Sadulaev, Israel Shamir, Andrey Rudalev and Sergey Petrov.
Fiction
A snub nose with a hump, thick lips, plump cheeks of an angry child, a beret pulled over his eyes. Solid and strong figure.
- Andrey Tamantsev - "Double trap" (from the series "Soldiers of Fortune"), 2001, ISBN 5-7390-0770-4. A special task force pursues international terrorist Carlos Pereira Gomez, nicknamed Pilgrim, Blaster and Jackal, who is trying to blow up the Northern Nuclear Power Plant on the Kola Peninsula. The terrorist bears great resemblance to the prototype - Carlos Jackal, but his biography is markedly different.
- Stephen Lieser - Shot from Afar (1994). A terrorist group led by Carlos Jackal, together with IRA officials, is planning a high-profile political assassination of a high-ranking official in the United States. Two veterans of the special services - an American from the FBI and a British from the SAS - unaware of each other, are conducting a parallel investigation.
- Karl Meinhof - Enemy Image (2000). According to the author of the book, the image of the hero was created after studying information about Ilyich Ramirez Sanchez.
Cinema
- TV series " Special Forces K. E. T."(1986, USA, director - William Friedkin). As Carlos - Eddie Velez.
- The Double (1997, Canada, directed by Christian Duguet) is a spy thriller, the plot of which is based on the plan to capture Carlos the Jackal. Aidan Quinn plays Carlos.
- "Carlos", directed by Olivier Assayas (2010) is a television multi-part biographical film. Carlos is played by Edgar Ramirez.
- The Bourne Identity Secret (1988 American adaptation of the 1980 novel by Robert Ludlum), thriller. Directed by Roger Young. Yorgo Voyages as Carlos
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Ilyich Ramirez Sanchez(Spanish. Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, known by the nickname Carlos Jackal(eng. Carlos the jackal); genus. October 12, 1949) is an international terrorist. He carried out terrorist operations in the interests of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Red Brigades, the Colombian organization M-19, the Red Army of Japan, ETA, the PLO, the NFO of Turkey. Currently serving a life sentence in a French prison.
Biography
Fiction
A snub nose with a hump, thick lips, plump cheeks of an angry child, a beret pulled over his eyes. Solid and strong figure.
- Andrey Tamantsev - "Double trap" (from the series "Soldiers of Fortune"), 2001,. A special task force pursues international terrorist Carlos Pereira Gomez, nicknamed Pilgrim, Blaster and Jackal, who is trying to blow up the Northern Nuclear Power Plant on the Kola Peninsula. The terrorist bears great resemblance to the prototype - Carlos Jackal, but his biography is markedly different.
Cinema
- "True lie"
- "Double" (eng. The assignment) is a spy thriller, the plot of which is based on the plan to capture Carlos the Jackal.
- Carlos (mini-series), directed by Olivier Assayas, 2010 - TV serial biographical film.
- Frederick Forsyth, Jackal Day
International terrorist who has committed more than 100 terrorist attacks and worked for a variety of international organizations, among which were the "Red Brigades", "Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine", "Red Army of Japan" and others. Currently, Carlos Jackal is serving time in a French prison.
Ilich Ramírez Sánchez was born in 1949 in Venezuela. His strange name - Ilyich - Carlos received, oddly enough, in honor of the Soviet leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. So, his father, lawyer and passionate communist José Altagarcia Ramírez-Navas (José Altagarcia Ramírez-Navas), named all his sons in honor of the Soviet revolutionary leader - the two brothers Ilyich are named, respectively, Vladimir (Vladimir) and Lenin (Lenin).
The boy grew up in an atmosphere of faith in the world revolution. By adolescence, he shared his father's political views and began to passionately hate "world imperialism." The boy dreamed of becoming, like his father, a lawyer, as well as a professional revolutionary.
In the mid-1960s, he joined a youth communist organization, and later his parents divorced, and their mother took the children to London (London). Ramirez studied at Stafford House College in Kensington (Kensington), and after graduation he went to study at the London School of Economics (London School of Economics). In 1968, Ilyich, together with his brother named Lenin, briefly studied at the University. Patrice Lumumba in Moscow (Patrice Lumumba University, Moscow), and in 1970 it was from Moscow that the young man went to Beirut, Lebanon (Beirut, Lebanon).
It was in Lebanon that he joined the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in 1970. By the way, he also visited camps for training young terrorists as a child -
his father sent him to such organizations for the summer more than once. It was in Lebanon that Ilyich Ramirez received his nickname - Carlos, gave him this name Bassam Abu Sharif (Bassam Abu Sharif) for his Latin American origin. But the nickname Jackal was later given to the terrorist by journalists - during a search in his hotel room, the book "The Day of the Jackal" by Forsyth was found.
Carlos Jackal began his active terrorist activities in the early 1970s, but from the very beginning he did not succeed - an attempt to eliminate the Jewish businessman and Zionist Joseph Edward Sieff failed.
Several other attacks followed - a bomb at Bank Hapoalim in London, an attack on three French newspapers, and an unsuccessful attack on Israel's El Al Air Company at Paris Orly Airport in 1975.
The Jackal was also attributed to participation in other terrorist acts, but there is no precise evidence of this.
The most famous terrorist attack involving Carlos Jackal is the attack on the OPEC headquarters in Vienna (Vienna) in December 1975. Hostages were taken, and Carlos and his group of six people subsequently managed to get a fueled plane, on which the terrorists, along with the hostages, flew away. Later, the hostages were released for money, and the terrorists fled to the Middle East. By the way, Carlos Jackal himself considered this operation to be a failure.
Islam Carlos Jackal accepted in the same 1975, on the eve of St.
his 26th birthday. It happened in the training camp of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. He was hiding in the countries of the Middle East for many years, and no particularly high-profile cases with his participation were revealed, which, however, did not mean at all that the terrorist was inactive.
The French authorities got hold of Carlos Jackal in 1994, extradited him after long delays to the government of Sudan (Sudan). In 1997, he received a life sentence in La Santé Prison in Paris. He was later transferred to Clairvaux Prison.
In 2003, Carlos's autobiographical book, "Revolutionary Islam", was published, in which he discusses religion in general and Islam in particular.
At the end of 2011, the court brought new charges against the terrorist, and Carlos Jackal received a second life sentence for organizing terrorist attacks in France, as a result of which a total of 11 people died.
“I am proud that I have set the record for the most successful operations among the members of the Palestinian resistance,” Carlos said in an interview.
The image of Carlos the Jackal is very widely replicated in modern cinema and literature. Thus, the terrorist became the hero of several books, as well as films (spy thriller "The Assignment" / "Double"), and even got into the song of the group "Black Grape" and the video game "James Bond 007: Agent Under Fire".
"I do not regret anything that I have accomplished. But I regret the evolution of the modern world, the collapse of the USSR and the fact that we have not yet managed to liberate Palestine."
I am a living trophy Zionism and American imperialism.
My name is Ilyich, and my brother is Lenin. It is not hard to guess what name our younger brother was given at birth.
My childhood took place in a petty-bourgeois environment saturated with revolutionary mysticism. Therefore, I wanted to become a lawyer, like my father, but at the same time - a professional revolutionary.
I converted to Islam on the eve of his 26th birthday - in 1975, at the training camp of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, near Jaar, in the Yemeni province of Abian. All around were Muslims, and they asked me to become one of them, so that, if necessary, I could lead them to paradise myself.
Believe in god it is not difficult when, in desperate situations, everyone who was next to you perishes, and you continue to live.
I do not regret about nothing that I have done. But I regret the evolution of the modern world, the collapse of the USSR and the fact that we have not yet managed to liberate Palestine.
IM proud of the fact that among members of the Palestinian resistance, I have set the record for the most successful operations.
Me, Osama bin Laden - the Sudanese sold us all.
Followers of Machiavelli there are three types of weapons: the lie, the B-52 (ultra-long range bomber. - Esquire) and the printing press from which the dollars are coming off.
Nowadays a person is deprived of his freedom through the fault of the media.
Power of America feeds on the meat of killed soldiers.
Those who today are like pigs in the slaughterhouse screaming about the horrors of terrorism, they themselves will be the first to resort to it - as soon as they feel the need for it.
There is no such purpose which would be invulnerable to those who are ready for any sacrifice.
Armed struggle - it is not a matter of choice. I do not believe that a normal person can be a conscientious supporter of armed struggle. Armed struggle is a commitment imposed by circumstances. Anything that can be done without violence should be done without violence.
Believe me Fidel killed more people than me.
Hugo Chavez - unique revolutionary leader. But he came to power through a democratic vote, and this explains some of the weaknesses of his regime.
I believe in democracy but not in a democracy of elections, but in a democracy in which people are active - they interfere and criticize.
During the revolution fear should be only in the camp of counter-revolutionaries.
Opposition is always necessary in order not to fall into Soviet deviations.
Vladimir Putin - a former KGB officer, which means that he was being prepared to be included in the elite of the USSR. The fact that he is now at the head of Russia is normal. I wish his political project to be crowned with success. After all, the world needs strong Russia based on three pillars: communism, Orthodoxy, Pan-Slavism.
I am a communist. Jean-Marie Le Pen is an anti-communist and an old fascist. But I often have a liking for him. He behaves shockingly, does not know compromises, and he speaks the truth without looking around. Once upon a time, real communists were just like that.
The first thing I do is when by God's grace I leave prison, - well, honeymoon, which I have postponed for many, many years. And I will also go to pray at the grave of Simon Bolivar, the great liberator.
From long years of wandering and fighting I endured a special affection for the cities marked for me with the sign of great passion: London, Moscow, Budapest, Amman, Damascus, Beirut and Paris.
My heart still hurts because of my mother, for whose arrest a warrant was issued in 1970 - only because she was ill and could not appear for questioning by the French police.
I donated his family life... I didn't have the opportunity to raise my sons, and I was a husband who was never around. I'm sorry about that, but this is the price I had to pay.
Love flame every time he is born again - even stronger, even more burning, disinterested, generous and devoted.
It's not hard to kill living with it is harder.
Revolution cannot suit everyone.
This autobiographical book by one of the greatest revolutionary leaders of the 20th century, Ilyich Ramirez Sanchez, whom many people know simply as Carlos Jackal, never saw the light of day in Russian. The book was translated by Ilya Kormiltsev's "Ultra.Kultura" publishing house of radical literature. Carlos's book was supposed to go to print in 2007, but tragic death Ilya Kormiltseva on February 4 strongly shook the plans of the publishing house. More precisely, she simply destroyed them. Soon after the death of Kormiltsev, the publishing house was closed.
The life of Ilyich Ramirez is the story of a real radical, in which religion and revolution were intertwined in the most elementary way. Ilyich Ramirez Sanchez is the clearest example of a bearer of radical consciousness: Unsere Geschichte ist eine Geschichte der Kaempfen zwischen die Klassen![Our story is a story of a struggle between classes.]
This is the universal formula of human history, derived from the Communist Manifesto. Change the word "classes" to "gods" and you get pure pagan religious metaphysics.
Consciousness, class, caste (call it what you want) of Carlos is absolutely radical and does not tolerate any compromises either with the metaphysical or with the political being of the era in which the great revolutionary had to create. Since ancient times, the carriers of such class consciousness have challenged this reality, feeling with their own hearts its falsity, even when the political itself (including tyranny) was not as obvious as it is now. Therefore, the carriers of radical consciousness not only, according to Marx, think ideas at their root (radicus - "root"), but metaphysically feel the incompleteness of this world, something outside of it, which is deliberately hidden from man by society.
The radical is not a psychopath, not a sociopath, or a misanthrope. Behind all these terms, society hides something that has always challenged it, society. The radical is the damned poet, the avant-garde artist, the underachieved student-terrorist, the radical consciousness everywhere, in every home, in every school, institute, office. Sometimes the radical can be seen in the mirror.
The path of Ilyich Ramirez is a political struggle to which he devoted his entire life. The radical speaks the language of the era in which he was destined to live. Therefore, Carlos changed the language of leftist communist radicalism to the language of radical Islam.
"I was and remain a revolutionary fighter, and the revolution today speaks the language of the Koran."
And yet, this book will be published in the near future, but for now we suggest reading what came out of the pen of Carlos, but has not yet seen the light of day.
Preface to the Russian edition from the author, Ilyich Ramirez Sanchez (Carlos "The Jackal")
I arrived in Moscow in 1968, a few days before my birthday, October 12th. I was about to turn nineteen. I entered the Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University. That was the time of revolutionary fermentation: movements in support of Che Guevara, Mao, Vietnam, anti-colonial, anti-Zionist and anti-imperialist actions, severe crises of bipolar equilibrium, from which the common people benefited, as well as outbreaks of subversive activities in the countries of "real socialism."
I arrived in Moscow as a young communist and as a communist, I left it on July 20, 1970. During this time, I began to understand more clearly those internal contradictions that, twenty years later, led to the collapse of the USSR and the collapse of the socialist camp - the posthumous triumph of Lavrenty Beria ...
It is rightly said about Mikhail Gorbachev that he is the father of "glasnost" and "perestroika." Both of these measures were necessary to bring to its logical conclusion the cultural transformation of decrepit "real socialism". However, at the same time, unfortunately, they forget that Gorbachev was the first secretary of the Stavropol Regional Committee of the CPSU, that is, he headed the Russian colonialization North Caucasus... He was nominated for this post by Yuri Andropov, a loyal follower of Beria, not a pervert psychopath, but a staunch anti-communist. The same Andropov, who in 1956 vehemently opposed the seizure of power in Hungary by Janos Kadar and his comrades, true communists, heroes of resistance to the first fascist regime in history.
Yuri Andropov regularly went hunting near Essentuki. He stayed with the father of Natasha Naymunshina, an actress who speaks many foreign languages, and a good friend of mine. Natasha was born in Berlin during the Great Patriotic War. Her parents were sent to Germany as scouts. Father, Hero of the Soviet Union, served as an officer of the General Staff of the Third Reich throughout the war. In the summer of 1969, Natasha invited me for a vacation to the mountains, to a dacha where the cream of the Soviet party nomenklatura was pouring into. There I met Sonya, my first big love ...
From confidential conversations, I gradually realized that a crisis in the system was inevitable. There were economic reasons for this (Aganbegyan's visionary report), ideological (I studied Lenin's secret archives in the Lenin Library), political (reports of the Central Committee on the parties of the Warsaw Pact countries), military (complete confusion in the Air Force department in charge of the development of jet engines) and strategic (explosive situation on the Ussuriysk "front", alienation of armies stationed on the territory of fraternal republics) ...
All this had to somehow fit into the head of an active teenager who enjoyed dolce vita with might and main to the “Moscow Nights”, but at the same time had to carry out the “special assignment” of the Venezuelan guerrilla. The KGB and the GRU with might and main wool the elite of the youth, selecting those who were to become either the best or the worst citizens of their countries, who secretly contributed to the victory of Beria. This victory turned into a catastrophe not only for the peoples of the Soviet Union, for it deprived them of their common socialist property, but also for the rest of humanity - it was abandoned to the mercy of the predatory hegemony of the Yankees. For the first time, the world acquired a pronounced unipolarity.
What to do? Re-nationalize the mining and energy sectors, ensuring profitable investments from foreign capital. Socialize utilities and all transport again, but give more independence to the regions in this regard. Free primary education - for everyone, free higher education - depending on success. Free medical care. General social security. The land - to those who cultivate it, but do not use it as a meager help for survival, but treat it like the peasants in the American Midwest. In this case, one should rely on the historical tradition of peasant collective land use. There is an urgent need to guarantee equality for all peoples Russian Federation... The terrible Chechen conflict is not just a provocation by the West, not just a manipulation organized by plutocrats-Zionists, not just a feeding trough for Moscow politicians, not just a bridge thrown by al-Qaeda, it is primarily a national liberation war of historical significance. Freedom fighters are fighting this battle with their last bit of strength.
Of all the writers of the 19th century, so generous in Russia for great world-class authors, I love Lermontov the most. But no matter how much I honor this "hero of our time" who died in a duel at the age of 27, I still rebel against the Chechen massacre.
When a democratic peace is established in Chechnya, when Chechen Muslims can freely choose their fate, this will mean that Russia has entered a new century and has embraced its liberating impulse.
On November 17, 2004, Vladimir Putin announced the creation of the latest strategic weapons. Those who have already despaired of waiting for the revival of eternal Russia have perked up. Moscow Russia, the Third Rome, will rise from the dust on three historical foundations: Pan-Slavism, Orthodox Christianity and communism. The rest of the peoples inhabiting the vast expanses of the Russian Federation will share with the Russians their historical mission: to create a counterbalance to the hegemonic imperialism of the Yankees - with the indispensable condition that their national, religious and social rights are respected.
Islam, the second largest religion in the Russian Federation, should play a huge role in this revival. Indeed, in the moral decline in which Russia is now (defeated without a fight), in the conditions of a natural demographic crisis, the number of my co-religionists is increasing, and their faith is constantly growing.
I hope that this collection of my notes will help the peoples of the Russian Federation and the former Soviet Union better understand Islam, assess its revolutionary potential - in the case when it does not lose touch with its origins, does not become an instrument in the hands of the exploiters, as well as its so urgent now conflict, involvement in violent confrontation.
Ilyich Ramirez Sanchez (Carlos)
Ilyich Ramirez Carlos in the 1970s-1980s was better known as the terrorist Carlos "Jackal". The acts carried out or organized by Carlos were directed against Israel, Western European states, the United States and "moderate" Arab regimes. At various times, Carlos collaborated with Assad, Gaddafi, Hussein and Castro. It was rumored that he was supported by the intelligence services of the socialist countries, including the USSR, where he studied at the Peoples' Friendship University. Carlos carried out terrorist operations in the interests of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Red Brigades, the Colombian organization M-19, RAF, ETA, the Red Army of Japan, the PLO and others.
In the late 1980s, Carlos retired from active struggle. After the collapse of the socialist camp, he became uncomfortable for his former friends. In August 1994, he was captured by French intelligence services in Sudan. Carlos's trial took place in 1997, and Carlos was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of two secret agents and a Lebanese man in 1975. At the trial, Carlos declared himself a "professional revolutionary" and after the verdict was announced, he raised his fist in the air and left the courtroom with the words "Long live the revolution!"
ISLAM - SUBMISSION TO THE WILL OF THE LORD
Islam is based on five pillars. On five ordered requirements: a symbol of faith - a clear proof of belonging to the Muslim community, - a daily five-fold prayer, zakat - a compulsory donation, fasting and a great pilgrimage to Mecca, which it is desirable to make at least once in a lifetime. Another pillar, the sixth, is jihad, which means "effort."
The meaning of jihad is, first of all, to defeat evil in one's soul. It is mainly about the effort of spiritual self-improvement. Secondly, it is a fight with an external enemy. The idea that jihad as a form of defending the faith is a fundamental duty of a Muslim is not new: it was defended back in the 13th century by Ibn Taymiyyah. I myself do not consider myself a jihad warrior, a soldier of faith, and my activity, by the will of circumstances and the era, is now forced to be reduced to reflection and theoretical constructions.
A distinctive feature of Islam, which constitutes its strength as a universal religion in comparison with all other confessions, is that every Muslim is charged with the obligation to spread his faith. Proselytism is a religious duty, but contrary to popular belief, people are not forced to convert to Islam. This is not a totalitarian religion in which a person is deprived of freedom, independent choice. For us Muslims, someone who converted to Islam under pressure will be a believer only outwardly, and the insincerity of his faith will weaken the community as a whole. I think it is extremely important to emphasize this point if we want to understand something in the relationship between Islam and Western culture - the heritage of Christianity.
I say "heritage", because Western society is now so de-Christianized, shows a spectacle of such a moral and spiritual emptiness that it would be absurd to be surprised at the consistent spread and strengthening of Islam. In France, hundreds of thousands of people have already become Muslims. This, by the way, is one of the reasons why the discussion about the spread of Islam cannot be conducted in the mainstream of opposing the North to the South or the East to the West. This is an internal question for all secular "democracies", which, by the way, in my opinion, are no longer secular for a long time, so intolerant, militant atheism has taken root in them.
The same general education theorists who yesterday fiercely opposed the wearing of the Muslim headscarf in school (and continue to do so) today are looking for the best way to introduce religious education into the school curriculum. True, under the guise of studying the history of religions, but this does not fool anyone.
Fanatical supporters of secularism throughout the twentieth century fiercely fought against Catholicism, not disdaining by any means. They humiliated him in every possible way, defamed and reviled him. To this day, Christians who want to remain faithful to the ancient traditions of their faith are even subjected to legal persecution at every opportunity.
Thanks to the influx of immigrants that followed colonization and neocolonization, France has been a dar al-Islam country for several decades. In this country settled six million newcomers, men and women - Arabs, immigrants from Africa and Asia. Meanwhile, Islam is a religion based on immutable rules, there is no room for doubt in it, and the Muslim faith has never shied away from preaching and converting.
Everywhere, in spite of administrative obstacles and the hostility of the authorities, mosques and prayer houses are being built. Christian churches are peacefully converted into prayer houses.
One of the largest mosques was built in Rome. This spiritual conquest is not associated with violence: it is also a reason to think and understand how wrong the idea of a clash of civilizations is.
Monotheistic religions are already intertwined; Islam does not threaten anyone. Examples of people sacrificing their lives for the sake of faith, the decline of Christianity, mixed marriages, the rejection of the immorality inherent in the commerce society, the corruption of morality - all this sufficiently explains why Islam is steadily rooted in the very heart of Western society. The "clash" of cultures and religions implies some kind of externality, but it does not exist, no longer exists, at least in Europe. This is not the case in Puritan Judeo-Christian America.
Nature, as the physicist Lavoisier said, shuns emptiness; human nature is even more so, and spiritual emptiness is undoubtedly the most terrible of emptiness. The limitations of Marxism revealed itself in the absence of a saint, since, in essence, Marxism as such is a religion in which a deity is a man. If the dimension of transcendence had appeared in Marxism at a relatively early stage, then, with a high probability, it would now dominate almost everywhere. But how it happened, it happened. It was not the ideas that turned out to be untenable, but the people. Unfortunately, not all of them are giants. Ideals are lofty, but rarely do anyone manage to live up to them. Most people, having seized power, quickly become corrupted by it. The same can be said about most of the bright dreams of justice, which have remained dreams ...
Islam is spreading all the more quickly because the authority of the church is dwindling, and real socialism has failed. Islam is a chance for Europe. The Muslim diaspora is still marginalized, but it is gradually gaining weight. Demographic changes are also contributing to this. Some chain stores have already realized the benefits they can bring to their Muslim shoppers, and have begun to consider the fasting of the month of Ramadan in their annual sales planning. Of course, in political terms, the influence of the Muslim peoples is still insignificant. But in this area, as in many others, the changes will be rapid and unexpected. They are accumulating gradually, imperceptibly, but the day will come when a revolution will break out in the political space. I can still hear the bourgeoisie yelling, on the left, on the right, but it will have nothing to do but ratify social evolution.
In the United States, Islam is also taking its first steps so far, but it already represents an organized force that the authorities have to reckon with, especially if its influence among the black population grows, a significant part of which is increasingly relegated to the position of a sub-proletariat or even a lumpen proletariat. living outside of society. In these circles, Islam is a renewal of revolutionary hope, and the war now ending will strengthen faith and strengthen the inner unity of the American community of believers - the leaven of the coming revolutions ...
Islam, as the pinnacle of divine Revelation, was originally a "revolution", a Revolution of revolutions. And the geopolitical and geocultural upheavals that are brewing in the near future, unparalleled in history, will not hesitate to discover this. In less than two centuries, lands from Africa to Central Asia, from the Indian subcontinent to the Atlantic will become Muslim. The rapid spread of Islam testifies to the power of the Word, its ability to inflame the minds and hearts of people, inspire them to fight for the truth and justice of the divine order ...
The last Europeans - those men and women who have retained pride in their ancestry and remained faithful to the heritage of their ancestors - will embrace Islam in their hearts. It will become the only way to protect their values, the spiritual heritage of many centuries, from destruction, for those who will be able to maintain respect for themselves and, above all, refuse to slavishly submit to materialistic fetishism.
From this point of view, the war that Islam has to wage against imperialism is, I repeat, not a war against any people, nation, or state. We are fighting against the system, and this system imperceptibly, but inexorably pushes a person to corruption and to ontological death. She not only alienates him (in the Marxist sense of the word), does not allow him to become himself, to realize his potential, in a word, to take place - but also, worse than that, perverts his nature and thereby blocks his path to the formation of Humanity. Capitalism is a dead end. The world is languishing under the yoke of a predatory economy, no matter how much the alarm is sounded. Nobody wants to look for the true reasons. The only way out is the spiritual revolution of mankind, which will break the iron circle of the logic of capitalism ...
Resistance to this oskotinization will be the decisive argument that will force the Europeans, who are still true to their traditions and history, to convert to Islam. This also applies to those Muslim boys and girls who have succumbed to the false charm of "modernity." In other words, the revolutionary effort should also be directed inside the Muslim community, for which there is always a danger of turning into the cult of the Golden Calf, renouncing the faith for the sake of all forms of idolatry of our days: hedonism, individualism, thirst for artificial pleasures and ghostly power. The world that you call "modern" has alienated man from himself, has given rise to the unrestrained shamelessness of morals. Every time I am amazed when I see how tired and disappointed a significant part of Western youth looks. In the faces of so many girls, there is a reflection of the world in which true feeling and ideal are daily devalued. And on the contrary, an unheard-of outburst of resistance to the American war united the Europeans with the inhabitants of the rest of the continents - and a breath of hope seemed to sweep over the world ...
Islam is a "middle way" religion. Intolerance is contrary to the spirit of Revelation. The prophet, this perfect and most humane person, should become a role model for every true believer. Although it is unattainable for an ordinary mortal to become like the Prophet in his life and deeds. I sincerely believe that the Quran is the Word of Allah given to us in Revelation. The Koran, Al-Karim, is its most faithful record, a "statement" composed of fragments of the Word in the transmission of the Prophet Muhammad at the initiative of the second caliph of Rashidi, Omar ibn al-Khattab, from the testimonies of the Prophet's contemporaries, and then recorded at the behest of the third caliph Rashidi, Otmana ibn Affan. A little later, the philologist Al Hajjad, the governor of the Umayyads in the city of Kufa (the territory of present-day Iraq), invented special signs - diacritics and introduced them into the sacred text. However, the Word itself should be read and re-read very carefully, depending on the specific, specific conditions of the present moment.
The world is changing and changing, this is, of course, a commonplace, but it means that the language, and ideas, and a person's view of the world around have also changed. Therefore, it is fundamentally important to give a new life to the divine Verb every day, interpreting it in accordance with the reality of the present. Of course, the words of the Narrative, Koran, remained the same. For fourteen centuries, the Arabic letters have not changed, in which the Word was fixed once and for all. This is the guarantee of stability and adequate transmission of the Word, which distinguishes it from the New and Old Testaments, which have been repeatedly distorted in the mouths of translators. Therefore, speaking of interpretation, I use this term in the same sense in which they say about a musician, that when he performs a piece, he interprets it, that is, every time he reads the score anew and fills it with life.
I read the Qur'an when I feel the need for it, when I seek an answer to theological, metaphysical or existential questions ... The Qur'an, the supreme consummation of Revelation, the receptacle of wisdom in its unsurpassed fullness ... He is the Mirror of the battle that the Prophet waged to strengthen divine institutions on earth and subordinate people to the will of the Almighty.
I have followed the debate around the teachings of Islam as closely as possible and am absolutely convinced that it is necessary to open the doors of ijtihad, which, historically, have remained closed since the 11th century. For the conditions of our time, the transformation of society, culture and mentality require that the controversy around the interpretation of sacred texts become the property of the public, so that it can be conducted by all believers, and not become the work of several movements, brotherhoods or sects that will redefine the meaning of the divine Word as they please, but sometimes for opportunistic purposes.
Moreover: there is not and cannot be a selective reading of Revelation. The Medina sermon does not exclude or negate the Meccan one. The Koran is not a book of anger or hatred, it is not an instrument of enslavement and suppression that serves to justify what our enemies blame us for. The duty of the faithful is to wage a stubborn and merciless struggle for the faith; But the word of the Lord is full of love and mercy. Therefore, I am convinced of the advisability of ijtihad as the bearer of the truth and the driving force of the Islamic Revolution.
As for the people of the Book, if they do not want to completely disappear from the face of the earth, they will have to rebuild their society on the basis of Truth. The truth that Muslim education will reveal to them, the truth as such. Truth, or that which answers it as fully as possible, must gain access to the media, even if it has to go through the enslavement of thought by the deceitful, controlled, biased media, which all somehow carry out covert suggestion. It will be necessary to return to the Christian principle of giving everyone what he deserves in order to revive the intellectual honesty that made science and technology flourish. Indeed: there is no place for lies in scientific and technical knowledge. Everything is either so or not so. You cannot agree with the truth of matter, with the laws of physics. If we do not want civilization to end, we must submit to this requirement objectivity and information. Communicate facts evenly, forgetting about double standards of weight and magnitude, with an open mind and impartiality. That is, simply follow the principles of universality and equality under any circumstances, in relation to any events without exception and discrimination. In general, it's enough to be cunning with the truth, it's time to look her in the face - if only those for whom, in common misfortune, there is no high morality, are capable of it ...
Likewise, education should, first and foremost, develop the capacity for critical judgment in children - and do not tell me that this is incompatible with the Muslim faith, quite the opposite. This is an extra way to teach a child to be a free person, to relate consciously to himself and to understand what place you occupy in Creation ... A society claiming the status of a democratic one can only overcome its internal contradictions, ideological and worldview, if it returns to the logic of living life, the one that, according to the laws of nature, lies at the basis of everything that exists and which modern man - a depraved animal that has lost its natural appearance - has completely forgotten. To grow deeper into reality - only at this cost will we be able to preserve the light of truth in our souls and carry out a democratic revolution in the name and with the help of faith. Lying in all its manifestations, starting with silence and concealment, is an endless evil for humanity. Lies fuel war. Lies feed hate. And often a lie is more attractive than the truth, it is simpler, and we love that which is simple, which, alas, does not require either effort or determination from us ...
Muslim society, therefore, needs ijtihad to resist abuse and temptation and to resist the temptation of selective, sometimes distorting, reading of the Qur'an. Ijtihad must be incessant, so as not to leave a chance for backwardness and all those regressive tendencies that manifest themselves in a selective or too fanatical interpretation of the Word. Teaching is a living organism, it must be renewed every second, thought needs to be irrigated with the life-giving moisture of reality; otherwise, the thought contained in the text becomes a dead letter, becomes numb and turns to stone. Faith is a continuous exercise, asceticism, as they would say earlier, and the exercise of the spirit, as Jesuit Ignatius Loyola understood it, is not an artificial limitation of faith, but, on the contrary, bringing it to its highest point. Lord There is also a direct experience of action - that is why for us Muslims, the daily performance of the rituals is so important. A person must every day be re-molded into the form of divine will, every day he must restore his humanity in the Lord. That is why the divine Word should be re-read and re-interpreted at each dawn, filled with new life. That is why Islam - and it is impossible otherwise - is a constant Revolution.
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, merciful, merciful!
I come from a well-to-do family, where it is customary, having reached a certain position, to move to the capital. My mother was a devoted wife and an exemplary mistress of the house, my father, Doctor of Law, poet, intellectual, politician, tribune and ardent revolutionary. My childhood was spent in a petty-bourgeois environment, but imbued with revolutionary mysticism.
This explains the name given to me, the eldest child in the family, - Ilyich. My brother Lenin and I named our younger brother Vladimir. In the context of that era, such a choice was, perhaps, a daring challenge to society, but the father was hardly
whether he took a serious risk, he was always close to the circles of military and civil politicians in power - comrades-in-arms in the struggle, old friends, relatives ...
Our names loudly and clearly declared the family's attitude to the iconic figures of the revolutionary struggle. All the great people enrolled in my personal pantheon devoted themselves to the struggle for the liberation of man: Lenin, Stalin, Gaitan - the head of the Liberal Party of Colombia, Cipriano Castro - the President of Venezuela in 1899, a convinced nationalist, Mao Zedong, Morasan - the unifier of Central America, Gustavo Machado is the legendary head of the Venezuelan Communist Party, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Fidel Castro, Che Guevara ... And, of course, my father!
My father's worldview influenced the formation of my political consciousness, I was brought up on the examples of the life of great people - the rulers of thoughts and symbols of the revolutionary struggle in the 19th-20th centuries. These people were a role model for me, because their plans and deeds went beyond the life of one, separately taken country and influenced the whole world.
I must note that at a certain stage I became an ardent anti-Nazi and, the only one of my fellow Fedayeen, did not mourn his death in September 1970. Only much later did I understand and appreciate all the true greatness of Gamal Abdel Nasser, who managed to win a place for the Arabs in modern history, and made them active participants.
We haven't seen my father for about thirty years. I naively reproached him for his unwillingness to really participate in the revolutionary process, but he unsuccessfully tried to reconcile me with some political realities that had long lost their romantic halo. We drifted apart, our relations became mostly "epistolary", then sometimes we met on neutral territory. But, despite the time and distance, the connection between us has always remained strong, the relationship was imbued with warmth and love.
My father was always, in any circumstances, very proud that I had chosen the path of a professional revolutionary and remained faithful to my cause, although he perceived revolutionary violence as something purely theoretical. He was convinced that in a historical perspective, violence can and should take the form of military coups d'etats and putsches designed to destroy the bourgeois system. I want to emphasize that the choice in favor of armed struggle was imposed on me by circumstances, including the cruelty of the enemies of the revolution.
I certainly wanted to go beyond my father in my struggle. Eliminating the past, parting with the ideals and ideas inherent in the family, became for me one of the main factors in choosing the path - the path of political protest of a whole generation, reflecting the demands and moods of the historical moment.
As a student, I excelled in the humanities - history, geography, literature, and especially in psychology. In July 1966, I received my BA in Caracas. Arriving in London in August of the same 1966, a year later I became a bachelor in ordinary levels at the London University Board, and in 1968 I passed the advanced levels exams.
Almost all of my so-called biographies (printed and oral) are full of mistakes, and some of the authors did not shun fiction, so I consider it necessary to describe some turning points in my life, which will help readers understand my ideological and spiritual path of a fighter for freedom and dignity. man for the revolution.
Of the other events that left an indelible impression, I will name the general strike of 1952 - the response to the military coup, who tried to cancel the elections to the Constituent Assembly, the divorce of my parents, the popular uprising of January 23, 1958 against the junta in power, the Cuban revolution, the national liberation war in Algeria. Several more personal episodes also deeply influenced my life, including my expulsion in November 1969 from the Venezuelan Organization of Young Communists, expulsion from the Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University of Moscow for refusing to return to the Venezuelan Komsomol, and a passionate affair with a woman who became a mother. my son…
I made my political choice early. Already in my youth I followed in my father's footsteps, although in the end it is not the person himself who decides whether to be a revolutionary or not - the Revolution makes the choice for us! In January 1964, I joined the secret organization of the Venezuelan Communist Youth. The conviction of the correctness of the chosen path grew stronger throughout my life, and the disappointment associated with the collapse of the Soviet system only strengthened my revolutionary faith.
In June 1970, along with sixteen other students, I was expelled from the Patrice Lumumba University at the request of the Venezuelan Communist Party. Leaving Soviet Union In July of the same year, I arrived in Beirut, from where I moved to Jordan, where the active period of my life began as a fighter for the liberation of the Palestinian people in the ranks of the National Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
I will tell you more about my departure from Moscow, which played a decisive role in my combat biography. If the KGB had managed to attract me to cooperate then, I might never have become a member of the Palestinian resistance. The ways of the Lord are inscrutable ... In July 1970, an official representative of the PFLP persuaded me to meet with one of the vice-rectors of the PFUR. This worthy man asked in a friendly way why brother Lenin and I and fifteen other Venezuelan students wanted to leave the USSR, saying that there were no more problems with extending our stay in the country. The ears of the ubiquitous KGB were sticking out from everywhere!
I replied that it was time for me, as a real communist, to move from theory to practice. Then the vice-rector inquired about my age - “twenty years” - and ended the conversation with the following phrase: “The address of the university is well known to you. You can study with us up to thirty-five years, so you just have to write to the rector - and you will immediately receive a visa and a ticket, wherever you are! " So - in five minutes, with old-fashioned politeness and fatherly warmth, in pure Russian, briefly and clearly, without the slightest threat - absolutely everything was said. Hats off to the KGB!
In Moscow, by the way, it was not only the Committee that tempted me. One of my acquaintances - a man of respectable age who was finishing his postgraduate studies in Moscow - intended to introduce me to the "golden" mafia. He, of course, did not trust anyone, but he wanted me to be in contact with one old Jew (he was a prominent figure in the Moscow thieves' world). At that time, gold bullion on the black market in Moscow cost twelve times more in ruble terms than in Geneva (of course, in dollars!), And in Tashkent this price doubled! For me, this story had no political continuation, but then I found out - quite by accident! - that the majority of the members of the "golden" network were pro-Zionist.
I mentioned these episodes of my life in Moscow, wanting to make it clear to everyone that already in our youth we highly valued our independence and firmly defended it. In the future, I always adhered to the same position, and neither the GRU nor the KGB ever obstructed me, but I, for my part, always tried to avoid any conflicts with these organizations. Many in the KGB did not trust me too much, but there were also those who were openly "pro-Carlossian" - and they did not hide this in private conversations. The same was the case in the border troops subordinate to the KGB: officers more than once showed "international" solidarity.
It is believed that the Sudan handed over to France a fatigued alcoholic mercenary and even possibly a drug addict. In reality, the French correctional system, mired in its own contradictions, is holding a lion in chains. I’m afraid if I had gained freedom today, I would have been killed immediately without any trial, or maybe they would have been kidnapped and made to disappear forever.
Today I am a prisoner of the French state, which does not respect its own laws. The situation could be changed either by intervention
Venezuela, or an armed action by patriotic internationalists. I continue to oppose the judicial machine and do it for pleasure and for reasons of principle.
Since September 1994, almost immediately after arriving in France, I have been persuaded many times to escape ... I think no special explanations are required! AK-47 assault rifles, automatic pistols, explosives, detonators and grenades ... What was not offered to me! Enough to arm a dozen of Sante prisoners and try to break through. The "Messengers of Death" acted ostensibly on behalf of the Algerian general Smail Lamari. These attempts looked completely ridiculous - everyone knows the fierce efficiency of the Algerian special services! Provocations followed one after another, and the most dangerous one was undertaken on December 26, 2000: it can hardly be called an accident or a coincidence that either "especially dangerous" prisoners were sitting in the cells adjacent to mine (they tried to escape many times, took hostages, demanded provide them with a helicopter), or psychopaths, sex maniacs, people infected with AIDS, desperate poor people who are ready to go to any extreme to avoid life imprisonment.
I want to state immediately and unequivocally: I will never, under any circumstances, try to escape, even if politicians want to "help" me. I have no right, out of personal egoism, to fall alive into the hands of the enemy and speak. The whole world knows how the "experts" of the American special services treat prisoners of war at the base in Guantanamo today. I was and remain a revolutionary fighter, and today the revolution speaks the language of the Koran ...
I converted to Islam in early October 1975 at the Palestine Liberation Movement's training camp in Yemen near Haar in Abiyan province. I remember it so clearly, as if everything happened yesterday and not twenty-seven years ago. I was preparing for the ceremony among my comrades in arms - the Arabs, whom I was to command during a dangerous military operation in West Africa. They were all Muslims and asked me to share their faith, so that - in case of death in battle - I would lead them to Paradise. Brotherhood in arms became one of the main - deep - reasons for conversion to Islam, which played a decisive role in my destiny. The inevitability of the warrior's eternal companion - death - did not frighten me. I perceived it as something natural, without melancholy and despair, because accidents in a revolutionary war waged by any professional ideological fighter are inevitable.
I took the initiation ceremony that day almost lightly, driven by camaraderie rather than mature reflection. But then in my life I met a courageous seer, the Iranian mullah Abu Akram - he was close to the Iranian mujahideen (later they had to hide in Iraq). Today these people are forced to exercise extreme caution - the Americans have written them down as terrorists. Abu Akram was subordinate to me, which did not prevent him from reprimanding us for our frivolity. In juicy and flowery Arabic - do not forget, he was Iranian, that is, non-Arab - Abu Akram gave us many theological explanations and commentaries, after which he made us read the Fatiha-vow of faith again, this time with full awareness of the importance of what was happening. Thus, I performed the conversion ritual twice, and it gave rise to a long journey of moral and spiritual maturation. This path is not over, and I do not intend to turn off it. I want to refute some biographers who claim that I converted to Islam in Algeria: there was no religious component in my relations with the government of this country, despite my close friendship with Abdelaziz Bouteflika (I have never been to any Algerian mosque).
I am not a "warrior of Allah" in the literal sense of the word - my faith lacks mysticism. I am a Muslim, but my struggle is more political than religious. I will note that, contrary to the Bolshevik tradition, I have never treated Marxism as a religion. My connection with communism is intellectual, rational. At the heart of my political choice was reason, and not an idealistic passion, like a mystic father, almost a fanatic. He received his first education in Venezuela, in a small seminary of the Eudist fathers, where teaching was in French, and his father retained the best memories of the teachers. Having lost faith in God, he in a sense transposed it onto Marx and Lenin.
As for my "disbelief" in political dogma, it was undoubtedly a reaction to my father's spiritual extremism; his deep religiosity practically did not affect my future spiritual development and religious conversion. My relationship with Marxism has never been dogmatic or religious, and let no one think that I have mechanically replaced materialistic "religion" with Muslim faith.
The concept of "political religion" is not fully applicable to Marxism: if it engendered fanaticism of all stripes, initially there was nothing confessional or eschatological in it. One can die or be killed for any deed - the most just and infinitely vile - and in this there will be neither overcoming oneself, nor the tangible presence of God.
I mastered Marxism from a critical standpoint; this is what every true communist should have done, for theory is a living substance, which in no case should be allowed to solidify. The theory develops, lives, changes. Otherwise, everything instantly comes down to solemn dogmas, and then thought, devotion to ideals and readiness for revolutionary action die.
There is no development without criticism, but if materialism in a historical perspective loses its positions, then dialectical materialism as a method of analysis and research is relevant today. Who of the most ardent detractors would dare to claim that they do not take it into account? Communism is still alive in
China, Vietnam, North Korea, Cuba, Laos and Cambodia, he permeated all Western culture, changed the vision of the world and society for many, many generations.
One of the greatest merits of Marx is that he revealed the full fruitfulness of dialectics as a method of cognition, which was already used by the great materialists of antiquity. But only Marx turned dialectics into a tool for analysis and social development. For Hegel, dialectics was a tool for cognizing theory, while Marx was able to turn it into a method for analyzing social reality.
I was amazed to realize that many - if not all - of the leaders of the Communist parties who were in power in the late 1980s turned Marxism-Leninism into an auxiliary political tool. The ideology of Marxism, using the dogmatic "oak language", strove for a single goal - to secure the power of the bureaucratic caste of the nomenklatura and to justify its political opportunism. Marxism-Leninism has become a convenient tool in the hands of people who have long lost their revolutionary ideals (if they ever had any!).
At that stage, the Marxist doctrine was the ideological shaping of power, whose only goal was self-preservation, the desire to ensure continuity and nothing more. The communist leaders ceased to be the conductors of Marxist ideals, but Marxism gave them a magic wand, with which they manipulated the masses, channeling the energy of the people into the implementation of false theories. The apparatchiks had in their hands the power that rulers had only at the dawn of human history. And what did they use it for?
It was the loss of ideals and faith in a just future, the betrayal of the hopes of huge masses of people, and an open, open-ended deception that, in my opinion, became those underwater reefs that communist regimes ran into. The Americans, of course, are much more pleased to think that the fall of the Berlin Wall the world owes to the superiority of their strategic vision, the Afghan trap and SDI, the notorious plan " star wars". All this, taken together, undermined the voluntaristic, artificial economy of the socialist camp, which was on its last legs, unable to withstand the costs of the war in Afghanistan or competition with the latest American technologies.
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| Photo to father from prison |
Dialectical materialism - if it is used consciously, without squalid rhetoric, from sharply critical positions - can be infinitely productive as a method. We are talking about the need to honestly and pragmatically state all the mistakes and dead ends of historical materialism - a system that claimed to be all-encompassing, which could neither explain everything, nor foresee everything. If you combine this approach with the light of faith, you will have a powerful weapon in your hands, very effective in the battle for justice ...
This theoretical, scientific method can go hand in hand with the great battle for spiritual self-improvement. Nothing is established once and for all, it is necessary to fight for oneself again and again, while simultaneously participating in the revolutionary improvement of society: only in this way can a person get out of the cocoon of his own egoism, renounce the murderous aspirations to conquer and suppress other people.
Overcoming the mistakes of Marx in the Leninist doctrine, on the one hand, and the use of dialectics as a method of scientific analysis, coupled with a righteous spiritual life, on the other, is the recipe for a person to fulfill his own destiny, at least mine.
Modern man has also convinced himself that he can do without God, without this useless component of being! He has incredible stupidity to declare that he controls his own destiny and that he owes his own success only to himself! All of this, of course, the purest water absurd. Faith is the supreme act of development, and not vice versa. However, it was only here, in Europe, that atheism took on such brazenly militant forms. Americans - they even try to cover up their low goals with the Bible ...
God is a living, concrete and even material experience. God is not an abstraction, not a spirit; a believer is convinced of this every day. The West, unfortunately, has forgotten this truth, it does not remember that both orders - natural and Divine - are one and the same. To violate one means to violate the other. Is it possible to violate physical laws with impunity?
My conversion to Islam did not have an immediate and immediate impact on my life habits, including the diet. The idea of sin for me is separated from the original understanding of evil, the knowledge of the latter goes hand in hand with the acquisition of a person's life experience. Evil has an "ontological" side, it is present in the world, it acts, exerting a tangible material and spiritual influence on people. Sin is another matter, it lacks the aspect of the absolute. It is very often found after the fact, experiencing an instant prick of conscience.
Passing the way spiritual development, I became more and more clearly aware of the transcendental nature of my own actions and acquired the habit of silently crying out to the Lord, saying thanksgiving prayers: I asked God to show me the way, to protect and enlighten. While in captivity, I am forced to abstain from alcohol, but this does not oppress me at all. I hate drunkenness. The habit of drinking wine with food was for me rather a part of a "cultural" ritual that took root in the countries of Latin America.
My vision of the world and the forces acting in it did not change much after the adoption of Islam, it became simpler, because I found in the Quran and faith logical, healthy answers to my own questions and those of other people. Faith strengthened my conviction and fighting spirit. I fight against active material and non-material forces, against people and ideas, against institutions, although my battle is intellectual in nature. I believe that pioneers should be able to pass on their experience to those who tomorrow life will send to the forefront ... We must show them the way to Faith, justice and the fight for truth, knowing how hard the path to the Almighty is ...
Today I find it funny that anti-religious Manichaeism, which once, before turning to the Divine Principle, inspired me and my comrades. Then I repeatedly noted for myself how important role clergy-warriors played in national liberation and revolutionary battles. In the context of Palestinian resistance, the role of religion is steadily increasing. I was struck by the conviction of the fedayeen, and I was imbued with their faith. I find ridiculous the absurd struggle against God, against the very idea that in this low world there can be Something that surpasses our understanding and is inaccessible to our imagination. The malicious and senseless prejudice, which many defenders of the proletarian revolution brandished like a banner, was in great fashion in those days. I was at a dead end - now I understand it, thanks to Heaven, I found a way out, and my new one - no, renewed! - faith only confirmed the former obligations in relation to the Revolution and the new human order, obeying the Divine plan.
Vera has provided me with invaluable help in understanding the combination of psychological and sociological factors in human relations and the importance of the religious factor in historical development in the past, present and future. The purpose of history is to anticipate; in retrospective analysis, forward-looking is important. This is a hackneyed truth, but it is useful to remember it from time to time. It allows me to decipher the nature of internal and interstate clashes in the countries of the so-called South.
How to understand the conflicts and clashes of today exclusively from materialistic positions? Now that the twelve-year embargo has been lifted, the scribbled journalists, as if by magic, have suddenly realized how important the oil factor is in explaining the current crisis and American politics.
Control over energy resources is a defining, but not the only parameter, far from the only one. It would be strange and unnatural to dwell on one aspect - undoubtedly dominant, but which is only a part of the whole, trying to explain the complexity of the situation to the public, who understands absolutely nothing about geopolitics.
They are either naive donkeys, or - and this version seems to me the most plausible - they repeat how faithful dogs, that which trumpets the voice of its master. To pedal the oil component of the conflict means to obscure other, equally - if not more - important sides of the ongoing war. The fate of Palestine is also at stake, but only a few initiates in the West understand this, all the rest - the media and their clients - do not even ask this question.
The eight-year imprisonment did not change me one iota - I was and remain a revolutionary and a communist. I will fight by all acceptable means for the liberation of the world from imperialist exploitation, and Palestine from the Zionist occupation. Believe it or not, these aren't the dreams of an out-of-mind idealist or the bragging rights of an ex.
Anti-globalism today is stronger than any current and past political and ideological divisions. On the agenda is the question of the survival of the human species: if we continue to destroy the planet at the same pace as we are doing it now for the needs of the imperialist Moloch, then very soon we will return to primitive times and completely run wild. Fighting against imperialism means fighting for man and civilization, and not for one religion taken separately.
I believe that the deep spiritual power of Islam helps us return to a natural and at the same time divine relationship with the human community and nature. It seems that Malraux wrote that "the XXI century will be the century of religions, or it will not be at all." All reasonable people should realize how serious the challenge thrown down to us is, since the future looks far from cloudless - despite all the boundless demagogy of the leaders who preach peace in the name of making it more convenient to wage wars. Thunderclouds have already covered the sky over the head of the "democracies". Great America, under the pretext of fighting terrorism, is robbing the entire planet. "Big Sister America" is already on the march, her war machine is fine-tuned. Do you think you can stop her? As for me, I know what my duty is, but I won't take up arms! Years have passed, the conditions of the struggle have changed. There remains a political struggle, which I will not give up under any circumstances.
I must admit that I harbor contempt for the moral uncleanliness and low feelings of some people with whom I am forced to communicate against my own will. To judge the vices of society? This does not mean to condemn those who are subject to them. All of them sooner or later become victims of their own weaknesses. Some are guilty more than others, and there can be no question of complete absolution, it would look vile connivance. Perhaps eight years of prosecution and complete isolation from the world to some extent explains the lack of impartiality of my assessments. However, I also do not feel much bitterness, my faith is too strong and deep, and, no matter how paradoxical it may seem, it makes me free.
I have been married three times and have been married to Isabelle Cutan, Magdalena Kopp, and Lana Harrar according to Sharia law. My Palestinian wife took it upon herself to teach me prayer and watched me perform the rituals with gentle meekness. Her mother explained to me exactly how to abstain from food - it is not much different from the fast that was forgotten by the Catholics. In Ramadan, Muslims must strictly abide by all the rules, the law does not tolerate approximation. Islam is demanding, but when a person goes to God, much is asked of him and he must give even more.
I have boundless respect for my responsibilities as a husband and head of the family, respecting the rights of women as the most important component of life. In contrast to the ridiculous and even caricatured idea of the position of Muslim women that has developed in the West, their rights are reflected in the spiritual law. Anyone in Afghanistan will tell you that the establishment of Sharia courts - tribunals where people are judged according to Sharia law - brought into the country the laws hitherto unknown to it Nushtuwali, the ancestral code of the titular nation - the Pashtuns.
Everyone, of course, remembers the spectacle of the execution of women at a stadium in Kabul - enemy military propaganda broadcast the picture to the whole world, causing an explosion of public outrage. Anglo-American Peter Bergen of CNN, who met with Sheikh Osama bin Laden at the end of 1999, had to admit that soccer fields in Afghanistan there are only sports grounds, nothing more. Public executions under the Taliban were carried out in exceptional cases, so only the most serious crimes were punished. But for some reason no one told the world about this.
Also, "accidentally" no one paid attention to the figures that Amnesty International made public. I wonder if anyone has compared the number of those executed in Afghanistan and in America? The comparison would not be in favor of the latter. Nobody there acted out of ignorance or innocence. The war was programmed, public opinion had to not only agree to it - they wanted to force people to demand the start of hostilities. A year after the fall of Kabul, the position of the Afghans did not change one grain, despite the formation of a puppet government: the West could not allow the chaos to be associated with the so-called liberation of Afghanistan.
I want to note that none of the laws adopted in your wonderful "democratic" states at the instigation of feminists can protect unhappy wives from the abuse of bad husbands. As for the position of a woman and respect for her - we can talk about this for a long time! I don’t know which is worse for women: to wear, in compliance with Muslim law, deaf clothes that protect them from the criminal lust of men, or to see a woman’s body exposed without any shame or respect for all to see, like a piece of meat on the counter, in the name of the disgusting cult of purchase -sales.
My mother, dona Elba, is a Catholic believer and a parishioner of the Apostolic Roman Catholic Church. I named my youngest daughter Elba Rosa after her grandmothers. By becoming a Muslim, I managed to overcome my animosity towards the Catholic Church. Love for Jesus and His Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, arose in my heart (people very often do not know that devout Muslims honor both the Son and the Mother). There is a whole religious Islamist literature about the Virgin Mary and her home near Ephesus in Turkey: part of it has been turned into a mosque, and Muslim women come there to pray to the Blessed Virgin.
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| With his mother in London (1969) |
The theological disagreements that exist today between Islam and Christianity are certainly very serious, and it will be impossible to overcome them for a very long time. The only undeniable fact is that we all believe in the One God. For the Lord, each person is unique, and all true believers - be they Muslims, Christians or Judaists - constitute a single community, of course, if they honor the Covenant! Ultimately, I am absolutely convinced that all who are committed to Scripture are called to unite. This is our destiny, this is our destiny. Today we are going along different paths, but we have one goal.
I very strongly condemn the moral and spiritual decline of the so-called "democracies" - powerless, dying out, unable to control themselves, bewildered, depraved and corrupted by an excess of material wealth. Slaves of low-grade pleasures, they shamelessly indulge in sexual excesses, feeding their brains with images of unthinkable cruelty, with what Pope John Paul II calls "the culture of death." You are so insane that you allow your children to consume all this telenoyness every night. Your society hasn't strayed too far from the Brave New World described by Aldous Huxley in the 1930s, although you may be a little less inhuman. The inevitable infantilism of dying socialism is manifested in the best possible way in public broadcasts, competing with each other in stupidity. I’m unlikely to be overly pessimistic. Many, without admitting this to themselves, gradually come to the same conclusions.
Let's dot the i's: I am absolutely sure of the degeneration and decline of Western societies, but I have neither bitterness nor hatred in me. Conversion to Islam helped me to get rid of haste in judgments, made my feelings simple and clear. I just state and lament. I am aware of the enormity of the task before me. Faith made my view of the surrounding reality sharper, but also more principled and softer, which, however, has nothing to do with tolerance or connivance; the line separating these phenomena from complicity - active or passive - is practically imperceptible.
Tolerance seems to me a suspicious concept, there is too much, on the one hand, indifference, and on the other hand, a tendency to introspection. To be tolerant means compassion, sharing the suffering and confusion that comes from an unnatural and inhuman world. Faith helped me to understand, discover and feel the main thing: a monstrous rift that struck modern countries, has a spiritual and moral origin, societies are ruled by a depraved minority that has no shame or conscience. But without the guiding star of Faith and morality, any undertaking fails, any person goes astray. The words about wandering in the dark is not an image or a figure of speech - it is a concrete and momentary reality that each person can experience for himself until he finds the path of light and truth in God.
The moral plague of the West has also hit the ruins of socialism. I have already explained the disintegration of the Soviet Union by the moral decay of the majority of its elites (the fish rots from the head!), Which gradually lost all interest in the Revolution. Over the years, the ideas of the Revolution and socialism have become for the bureaucratic caste, which values their power and privileges, simply ideological clichés that serve to deceive society. The collapse of the socialist camp, the transition of the economy of the former Soviet Union to market rails, the subordination of all life to the interests of sale and purchase finally and irrevocably changed the life of those countries that the Soviet Union defended for a long time, at the same time undermining their foundations. The leaderships of the countries of the so-called socialist camp did not have enough time to develop immunity against "wild" capitalism and its consequences - "ultra-liberalism." In modern Western states, there are (or are forming) centers of resistance to the negative consequences of the post-Soviet development of Russia and the countries of Eastern Europe.
The peoples of the former Soviet empire paid a dear price for the "openness" of political and economic modernization. How many young women from the newly formed states went to the Mediterranean West and the Gulf countries to become prostitutes there, much to the delight of the nabobs from the oil states? Oildollars for petrocurtizans ... but these hypocrites enthusiastically punish their women according to the outdated and cruel Sharia law, and American humanitarian organizations rarely speak about it at the top of their voice - after all, we are talking about their allies. This kind of law enforcement should be abolished immediately because it gives a distorted view of Islam.
I was and remain a professional revolutionary, soldier, fighter in the Leninist sense of the word. The revolution simply could not have happened without its vanguard - the fighters who plan, prepare and begin it. I led the battles both in the field, leading the airborne sabotage groups, and from the operational headquarters. Nevertheless, in essence, I am more of a politician and organizer, and I consider the analysis of the correlation between strategic and tactical, opportunistic and standing armed forces to be the best method for determining the timeliness and characteristics of a revolutionary action, its scope and nature, up to and including an armed action.
Theorizing is inversely proportional to the intensity of the real struggle and the level of involvement of the masses in it, however complete rejection from it is impossible - otherwise the meaning and ultimate goals of the struggle will be lost. It is necessary to constantly adjust the vector of actions based on short-term, medium-term and long-term tactical and strategic goals. Just as a believer returns every day to the Holy Scriptures, and a priest reads a prayer book every day, so the politician must constantly adjust his actions in accordance with the goals set. A posteriori analysis of various situations and events underlies the activities of any politician, military leader and revolutionary planning the further course of events.
At fourteen, I dedicated my life to the Revolution. In January 1964, I joined the Communist Party, but happily escaped the temptation to become a functionary and continue to be a communist and an unyielding revolutionary. Perhaps it is this intransigence that irritates my opponents the most. When I was twenty, events took place that radically changed my life and determined my future fate: the World Revolution and the struggle of the Palestinian people merged into one in my mind. I confess that my political choice and my close spiritual connection with Palestine have been further strengthened after meeting with Lana Harrar.
For me, struggle is synonymous with self-sacrifice in the name of a chosen cause. Having converted to Islam in October 1975, I became neither a mystic nor a saint. I am just trying to find the light of Faith and not flinch in the harsh trials of life, communicating with God directly, without intermediaries.
My communist ideals have survived in all the sorrows and torments of life, they do not in the least contradict the belief in the One God. Faith has enriched and expanded my vision of the world, giving additional and very compelling reasons not to retreat from the positions I have chosen. Faith not only confirmed me in the righteousness of the cause to which I dedicated my life, but also helped to correct many mistakes and abandon incorrect assessments and delusions. Islam strengthened my revolutionary views, it refined them, giving at the same time a new - sublime - meaning.
Today my isolation ends - it lasted eight years and 63 days, counting since August 1994, when the Sudanese government, bribed with American petrodollars, turned me over to DST.
By isolation, I mean the complete absence of any contact with people - even with the inmates of my own prison! The position of the French administration clearly testifies to the attitude towards me not as a “terrorist”, but as a political prisoner, from whom, if possible, it would be nice to get rid of. I think today I am the only prisoner in French prisons who is not allowed to visit. The pettiness of the judiciary and the prison administration reaches the point that I am forbidden to learn French - my only textbook is the dictionary.
What are they afraid of? That I can speak their language and express myself well? What would I embarrass the judges by making comments that were unpleasant for them in French, pointing out gaps in the case materials, exposing shortcomings in the work of the investigators? What are they so afraid of? That I will make compromising statements the mighty of the world this, or will I expose the inconsistency of the judicial system? That my arguments will not leave stone after stone from the established system of ideological views of respectable petty bourgeois - these cogs of the state machine who, dressed in judicial robes, allow themselves to trample on the laws they have written? Or maybe they are afraid that such obvious, egregious contradictions will remind them of their own incompetence and worthlessness? These lawyers violate the judicial procedure, infringe on my rights, fearing that I will use language as a weapon to defend the rights of a political prisoner and denounce their system, and even set a bad Islamic revolutionary example to others.
For me, prison is also a family tradition that I am proud of. I belong to the fourth generation of the Ramirez and Sancheses, who were arrested and imprisoned for defending a just cause, guided by political ideals. Let's not forget that the choice of weapons on us, the revolutionary fighters, was imposed by the enemy, by the disproportionality of the opposing forces. Today it is called "asymmetric" conflicts, explained by the unstable, explosive international situation, characteristic of the "hot" years of the Cold War.
Today I am a political hostage, handed over to the secular authorities on August 15, 1994, on the airfield at Villacuble airport. No one will convince me that the people who organized my “withdrawal” from Sudan, who know perfectly well what kind of mud politicians are wallowing in and how many crimes were committed in the name of “freedom” and so-called “democratic” values, will not do this to me, how does the mediacracy, feeding public opinion with descriptions of atoning sacrifices and willingly profiting from it! Woe to the unfortunate one who dared to go against state interests - this is the law that rules Western society, but I reject this law.
French prisons are far from being a resort. Most of all here I miss the warmth of human communication, the opportunity to exchange at least a word with someone. I read daily newspapers, books about our struggles, write at a rickety plastic table - they replaced the old wooden table that served me for the first six years of imprisonment. In Paris, I listened to Radio Orient, watched the news, switching from program to program (for television, the prison administration charges me a monthly fee equal to a tenth of its cost).
tranquilizers - otherwise they will not endure a miserable existence without ideals, without perspective, without hope, or themselves.
I am in prison, but my mind and my soul are free. Prison is a critical test in the fulfillment of my destiny. In a sense, I, a prisoner, are freer than many and many people living in freedom: these slaves of false needs are pumped with tranquilizers every evening - otherwise they will not endure a miserable existence without ideals, without perspective, without hope, or themselves.
The prison gave me the last great love, bestowing unearthly wealth. Many may envy such luck. I live this love, fervently hoping to return as soon as possible to the land of my ancestors, to Venezuela. But I could live in Lebanon - I love this country and its people. I say “live” because I have never felt like an exile anywhere, neither in Sudan, nor behind the dull gray prison walls of Sante and Saint-Maur, where they are trying to isolate me even more from the outside world ...
Why Isabelle? Why me? Today, the law of the Koran, the precepts of the Sunnah and the Prophet Muhammad bound us to the end of our days. What to say about such love - sublime, disinterested, honest? It is a miracle and a mystery. For a single moment, stupid vanity did not make me believe that I owe our meeting exclusively to my own merits, because I believe in God, and He alone puts our destinies on the map of life. I remain an incorrigible optimist, for I am led through life by the merged ideals and Faith. Sooner or later I will come out of captivity, I am convinced of this, even if, having become free, I will be silent forever. I finished writing Memoirs in November 1992 in Amman. If Allah wills, they will see the light in twenty years - in any case, after my death.
I submit to the will of the Almighty. Praise be to Allah!
