In a book approved as a university textbook, a deputy Ukrainian education minister defends his criticism of the United States by citing Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and the recently slain al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
In his book entitled “Globalistika,” Yevhen Sulima quotes both men – considered to be mass murderers by many people, inspiring leaders to others – portraying America as a bullying global power that seeks to divide and conquer by exploiting religious divides, extremists and through other means.
Sulima works under the leadership of the Education Minister Dmytro Tabachnyk, criticized for his alleged pro-Russian and Ukrainophobe views.
President Viktor Yanukovych has long been pressured by opposition forces and allies within his own Party of Regions camp to oust Tabachnyk, but has so far refused to do so.
Sulima co-authored the text book with Maksimilian Shepelev, a university teacher from Dnipropetrovsk’s Oles Honchar National University.
The authors wrote: “It is worth noticing that Osama bin Laden made certain changes to the concept of clashes between civilizations when he said that American civilization in its fight with Islam is not a genuine Christian civilization in the real meaning of this word. It is actually a Judaic civilization under the cover of old and worn out Christian clothing.”
Globalistika by Yevhen Sulima
They go on to quote Gaddafi, who “appropriately points out that global politics, based on hypocrisy and double standards, is a favorable environment for terrorism battles.”
According to Sulima’s book, the “U.S. did everything possible to radicalize Islam, to strengthen its extremist movements, only to later exploit this against all global competitors … against the U.S.S.R. in Afghanistan, against Europe in Yugoslavia” and against China and India by reinforcing separatists movements.
“Now they (the U.S.) are trying to pull Eurasia into a conflict between Christianity and Islam. This is, foremost, directed against Russia and is potentially dangerous for Ukraine,” the authors conclude.
In the book, the deputy Ukrainian education minister takes a pro-Russia view on history when he and his co-author touch upon the sensitive historical relations between Ukraine and Russia. They suggest that Russia, not Ukraine, is the principle decedent of the 1,000 year old Kyiv Rus Empire which had its capital in current day Kyiv, Ukraine.
According to the authors, Orthodox Christianity is pursuing a global mission of uniting mankind, ending the divisions based on distribution of wealth. And on page 509 of the book, they argue that Russia, as the true historical decedent of “Rus,” should lead this mission.
The authors appear to have also plagiarized some pieces of the book. Olesia Orobets, a lawmaker in the Our Ukraine Self Defense faction, published in her blog May 17 several excerpts from the book that were previously published by two Russian authors and were copied in the “Globalistika” textbook without proper citation.
Neither Sulima, nor the book’s co-author Shepelev responded to Kyiv Post inquiries.
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Kyiv Post staff writer Yuriy Onyshkiv can be reached at onyshkiv@kyivpost.com.
