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THE MOSLEM WORLD: THEORETICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEMS
2016.12.011. V. TSIBENKO. HEZBOLLAH AND DEBATE ABOUT RADICAL ISLAM IN TURKEY // "Islamovedenie", Makhachkala, 2014, № 3, P. 19-29.
Keywords: radical Islam, Islamism, a terrorist organization, Turkey.
V. Tsibenko (Ivanova)
Senior Researcher, North -Caucasian scientific center of high school of the Southern Federal University
The author notes that today Turkey offers a model of democratic Islam as an alternative to a radical one for the international community. This perception of Turkish Islam was formed relatively recently and it does not cover all the diversity of the Turkish religious life. The secular elites in Turkey consider any combination of Islam and politics as a radical and assuming it dangerous to the constitutional system and a threat to political stability, following the precepts of the first president, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (1881-1938). Throughout the existence of the republican system in the country, they have made efforts to prevent the development of political Islam. However, the democratization of the country has led to a gradual weakening of the prohibitions and re-Islamization of Turkish society. As a consequence, in the 21st century, the Islamic opposition turned into the ruling majority and the secular elite underwent marginalization.
The authorities called exclusively the activities of Kurdish and communist organizations as a terror for decades, and the word "reaction" (irtica) was used for the activity of Islamic groups, reflecting the idea of the reactionary character of religion. Fight with the reaction in the Turkish Republic was not only in the numerous bans on the activities of religious groups and organizations.
There have been regular incidents of detection secret Muslim societies, intending to change the constitutional order and to introduce Sharia law in the country, trails were carried out against their leaders and ordinary members. However, the word "terror" (terer) began to apply for Islamist groups only when a wave of religious violence swept the country and the society was shaken by a series of high-profile murders secular intellectuals in the 1990s.
Gradually, such definitions as "Islamic / Islamist terrorist organizations" and "Islamic / Islamist terror" fell out of use. The use of these terms has become a sign of Islamophobia and the "anti-Islamic paranoia and R. Erdogan points to the incompatibility of Islam and terrorism, and calls racists and discriminators those who combine these two concepts together.
The presence of radical Islamist groups in Turkey attributed to external factors mainly, primarily to the influence of Iran. The Shiite religious propaganda, the export of revolutionary ideas as well as the direct participation of the Iranian leadership and intelligence services are considered to be the way of spreading the radical Islamist ideas. The tradition to accuse the Shiite Iran of supporting the Sunni religious dissent in Turkey is rooted back in the Ottoman past. The author stresses that radical Islam is introduced from the outside, in opposition to the traditional Turkish Islam - moderate, tolerant and democratic. The author notes the widespread use of the Islamic factor in the election campaign after the end of the Second World War during the introduction of a multiparty system. The Democratic Party,
which came to power in 1950, held a number of pro-Islamic laws. Members of banned Sufi brotherhoods have begun to seep into the policy.
The turning point in the formation of an organized Islamist movement took place in the military coup in 1980. Radically-minded youth was fascinated by the ideas of Islamism after the defeat of the nationalist and left-wing movement. The radical Islamist group Hizbullah was established at this time. Not only the main stages of development of radical Islam from the 1980s through the first decade of the 21st century, inclusive, and the change of the understanding of Islam can be traced back to its example. There was only one Islamic organization of Kurds before occurrence Hezbollah - the Islamic Party of Kurdistan. It announced a holy war (jihad) for the barbaric and tyrannical regimes under the influence of the Egyptian "Muslim Brotherhood". The negative image of Hezbollah was advantageous to several forces in the socio-political environment in Turkey at the same time: the secular wing has used the charge of having links with Hezbollah against religious wing and the religious -against the secular, as well as to contrast the moderate and radical Islam.
The official focus began to shift from Islamic radicalism in the country to foreign Islamic radicalism from the coming to power Justice and Development Party. George Bush called Turkey as a front line in the war against international terrorism when al-Qaeda in Turkey terrorist cell was discovered in 2003. Turkish intelligence data on the presence of 47 armed Islamist groups linked to al-Qaeda in the opposition camp were immediately released when the protracted Syrian conflict has led to a partial revision of the Turkish position on the support of the opposition in that country. The European Parliament notes the intensification of radical Islamists in the Turkish segment of the Internet and urges Turkey, as a candidate for accession to the EU, to carry out the proper operation on the limitation and
prohibition of their activity engaging in systematic fight against terrorism.
The growing Islamization of the country has led not only to the transformation of the Islamic opposition in the ruling majority and the radicalization of the secular part of the society, but to strengthening intra-Islamic competition. It denotes Islamic elites split that occurred between R. Erdogan and F. Gülen. The criticism of radical Islam in Turkey has been simmering. Conservative policy of the ruling party began to be exposed to harsh criticism as a radical Islamist. The progressive Islamization of the country is perceived painfully. The term "Islamofascism" has been put into circulation. The struggle for the image of the representatives of the democratic Islam developed between the two leaders. The paradoxical merging of religious and secular social forces in opposition to the government has happened accumulated mood of protest in mass anti-government demonstrations.
Although Hezbollah is not participating in the current political events openly it ceased to exist as a terrorist organization, and passed into the legal field, but its role is still quite significant. It has become the archetype of Islamic radicalism and a kind of measure of radical Islam in Turkey.
The author of the abstract - N. Ginesina
