State Atheism in a Muslim/Hindu-Majority Nation

Some timelines like “For All Time” have the Soviet-communist bloc include Muslim-majority nations like Iran and (the core of) Indonesia, and a few others have communist Indias.

How would state atheism in these areas work in practice? Overt belief and ceremonies can be cracked down upon and priests/gurus/sadhus etc. abolished, but say religious dietary codes like halal* or the various Hindu dietary restrictions are harder to get rid of and were in practice retained in post-Soviet Central Asia, and endogamy is harder to prevent.
 
Last edited:
Pretty hard with Muslim nations since Islam is even lesser acceptable with such thing. Yes, Albania practised that but Albanian Muslims are not really devout Muslims. Probably OTL Arab-socialism is closest what you get. Pretty secular and tolerant with other religions but Islam is still practised.
 
Same with Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan, there is something in these countries that are de-jure majority Muslim, but their governments are highly hostile against all religiosity.
I have been to Azerbaijan and our guide told us (inside the bus so noone besides us could hear it) that religion is one of the few places where people are still able to voice a dissenting opnion about the government, because the government isn't willing to completely crush islam. This is a mjor reason why Islam and specificaly radical islam is actualy growing in Azerbaijan.
 
We`d probably need to give the Soviet Union breakout success in West and South Asia.
Maybe an Axis USSR that conquers Iran and Arabia maybe even India if Japan takes Ceylon.
Islam and Hinduism would survive since Orthodoxy also survived, but I think there would definitely be an improvement in the status of women post-communism
 
In my TL, Dead By Dawn, India, excluding TTL Pakistan, is a communist nation, following a war between Indian rebels and British occupiers.
 
From :
While South Yemen had Islam as a state religion, civil laws replaced sharia law and there was a push against the religious establishment.
 
I have been to Azerbaijan and our guide told us (inside the bus so noone besides us could hear it) that religion is one of the few places where people are still able to voice a dissenting opnion about the government, because the government isn't willing to completely crush islam. This is a mjor reason why Islam and specificaly radical islam is actualy growing in Azerbaijan.
If you don't mind me asking, when did you go to Azerbaijan?
According to this 2013 report, https://www.refworld.org/docid/5534c24e4.html, the Azerbaijani government has repressed Islamism.
 
Top