Page 169 - Communism in Ambush

An example of
Communism's pas-
sion for large build-
ings: the Building of
Council of Ministries
in Moscow.

communities, including women and children. . . [It is calculated] that the
overall mortality rate among the Cham was 50 percent. 126
In Albania, Enver Hoxha's dictatorship, another Communist
regime, displayed Maoism's hostility to religion. Albania came out of
World War II as a satellite of the Soviet Union, but during the Sino-
Soviet conflict of the 1960s, Albania sided with China and became the
representative of Red Chinese Maoism in Europe. Enver Hoxha closed
all places of worship (mosques as well as Catholic Churches in the north
of the country) and even forbade people from worshipping in their
homes. Declaring your belief in any religion became a crime, and those
who disobeyed the prohibition were subjected to various kinds of op-
pression and torture. Enver Hoxha, believing he could eradicate all reli-
gious belief by implementing these methods, announced that he had
founded the first State in the world that was truly atheist.