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state and government bureaucracy is growing in the economic system, because most of the privatized corporations become natural monopolies functioning outside the framework of public control. These natural monopolies can successfully function only in a tandem with the state. Big business receives privileges and investments, openly lobbies its interests and often delegates its representatives to bodies of power, thus becoming a powerful political pillar for the state and government. Such close alliance of the governing bureaucracy and corporate business, in the view of A. Kochetkov, is a serious obstacle for the completion of the formation of a democratic society in Russia, because these segments of the political class more often than not act in their own interests, but not in the interests of society.
Author of the abstract - V. Schensnovich
2017.02.004. SAIDA SIRAZHUDINOVA. CONVERTS TO ISLAM IN THE STRUCTURE OF RADICAL ISLAM / / "Informatsionnnye voiny. Nauchno-practicheskii mezhdistsiplinarnyi jurnal", Yubileinyi, 2015, № 4 (36), P. 94-99.
Keywords: Russian neophytes, new converts, Islam, radicalism, Salafism.
Saida Sirazhudinova,
PhD (Political), doctoral student,
South-Russian Institute of Management,
Branch of the Russian Academy of National Economy
And Civil Service under the President of the Russian Federation
The author of the article focuses on Russian non-ethnic Muslims, because attention to the neophytes or new converts to Islam has increased in recent years, as a result of changes in the religion and the conditions for its radicalization, increasing threat from Islamic radicals and the emergence of the Islamic State.
The converts are attracting close attention to many Western countries. Their number is growing steadily. The problem of neophytes is particularly relevant, especially among representatives of the Islamic faith, for the post-Soviet Russian Federation, where a sudden rise in religiosity has occurred. In recent years, the names of converts are often in the criminal chronicle associated with terrorist activity and with the militants of the Islamic state. Since 2000, much attention has been drawn again to neophyte terrorists of Slavic origin as a result of numerous terrorist attacks in Moscow, Volgograd and Daghestan.
The author believes, it is possible to understand and prevent the radicalization of these modern converts only after studying what they are, their heterogeneity, their reasons for the change of religion. The question remains open so far: why do new Muslims show a greater propensity for radicalization than those who were born Muslims.
There are few scientific works on this issue, and publications in the media, as always, are speculative and represent the convert Muslims as a terrorist threat, ignoring the fact that the majority of newly converted Muslims do not have a relationship to terrorism. The author tried to address comprehensively the problem of neophytes, examining the existing domestic and foreign sources through the methods of sociology - a method of content analysis, questionnaires, interviews with neophytes, expert interviews.
The neophytes in religion are a phenomenon that counts thousands of years. The change of religions and their transformation is a natural process. The struggle for the spiritual sphere has always been a priority. Missionary activity of all the world religions has played and is playing now an important role. In Islam (especially fundamental) proselytism has become more active in recent years and especially the invasion of new trends is active, rapidly spreading around the world. Those who accept a new religion are usually considered as the neophytes or converts, but it was revealed during a survey of the spiritual leaders of the North Caucasus that many people believed that the so-called neophytes
were the Salafis, who have become followers of the new Islamic currents in the region.
The number of fundamentalist and radical Islamist networks has been growing since the early 1990s. The overwhelming majority of the latest terrorist attacks in the world have one thing in common: the involvement of newly converted Muslims. This process is similar in many countries - in Russia, the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Philippines, etc. Islamic radicalism and militant Jihad spread throughout the world quickly.
The active participation of neophytes in the activities of the Islamic state gave rise to the question: why are more and more young people ready to sacrifice their lives for Islam of a radical direction? Young European (including Russian and North Caucasian) Muslims are trying to join the radical Islamist groups (IGIL, ISIS, ISIL) more and more often, fighting for the establishment of caliphates in Syria and Iraq, and there are a large number of young women among them, seeking to fight, or become wives of militants. The largest number of Western recruits came from France and Britain, less from Austria, Belgium and Spain. Many Russian neophytes are seeking refuge in the North Caucasus republics, being involved in the activities of terrorist structures.
The reasons for encouraging the neophytes to change religious beliefs are social and personal. Objective social reasons are caused by globalization processes, that is, by intensifying the confrontation between the West and the East, secular and religious, losing oneself and alienation, the rapidly decreasing spirituality of society and the remoteness of society from religion and religious norms. Also, one must not forget about adolescent radicalism, the attractiveness of radical and bright for young people. Adopting Islam often acts as a way to find oneself and one's place in the Muslim community, to bring religious values back to life. The neophytes in this case oppose modernity, globalization and secular society, in any case generating radicalization in self-isolation.
The author notes that there are neophyte sites and groups in social networks. Social welfare and the existence of a goal in life are also one of the decisive factors, since the most radical forms of religion are common among slum youth and are oriented toward those who have nothing to lose. Mutual support, charitable actions, assistance to members of the group, fundraising through social networks - all this prove to be effective.
There are three groups of neophytes: 1) guided by "motivated experience"; 2) travelers; 3) spiritual seekers. All these are small groups of people who discovered Islam after going through several other religious traditions, movements and cults, and they study and analyze the texts themselves. This classification is also relevant for Russian neophytes.
The author connects the acceptance of Islam with stressfull tension of a person (both internal and in relations with the external environment), and believes that the impetus to the change of religion is often the life in the Muslim environment.
The most frequent change in faith is for the sake of marriage with a Muslim partner. It is often formal and neophytes seldom show interest in practice, much depends on the direction of Islam the partner belongs to.
The author notes, that the largest group of converts are women who are married to a Muslim. Young Muslim women are usually more radical than men. Women make up about 25% of the members of terrorist organizations, the age of most of them between 18 and 25 years. They are prone to fanaticism and idealization and very often their ideal dreams are crumbling, but too late. The spread of radical forms of Islam in the world, the increase in the followers of new forms of "nontraditional" Islam for the Russian regions, contribute to the emergence of an increasing number of neophytes, both Muslim and non-Muslim.
Salafism attracts an increasing number of young people since the early 1990s. Everything new is always more categorical, radical and fanatical. Growing religiosity became more
demanding and rigid after the atheistic Soviet period, and the prescriptions and practices of the new currents are more strict and demanding, supported by sayings from the Koran and Sunnah.
A growing group of neophytes consider themselves strictly related to faith and following the path of "pure" Islam, they often identify themselves as Salafis. Converts often show fanaticism, which is expressed by extremely ritualized behavior, a strict dress code and concern about what haram ("forbidden") and halal ("allowed") is. Also, the feeling of being chosen and feeling the truth of religious beliefs is characteristic of neophytes. They consider the infidels to be deluded.
The author attracts attention to penitentiary institutions as an environment for recruiting neophyte extremists, stressing that one of the priority tasks for religious extremists is the ideological treatment of neophytes that is why they are attracted and, with all-round assistance, influence the psyche. "Charity" in correctional institutions is one of the priority social tasks, according to religious leaders. The neophytes are attracted by the simplicity of understanding religion, mutual aid, monotheism, the relationship of ethnic Muslims among themselves. Most Islamic experts of Daghestan perceive the converts with caution, referring to them as radical.
Modern neophytes are quite heterogeneous. There are several types of neophytes in Russia, but the most common is "marriage neophytes" and "convinced neophytes". There have always been numerous cases of marriage with representatives of the Islamic faith, but they have never talked about their radicalization before. The reason for the change of religion is usually the spiritual search, social problems, the atomicity of modern society and individualization. Radical preachers are more active, they promote the involvement of neophytes in the radical currents of Islam, attracting them into their structure through greater openness, solidarity and organization. At the same time, traditional currents, closely related to ethnic
community, are almost not ready to accept a representative of another ethnic group.
The spread and popularity of radical Islam contributes to the radicalization of the society. Therefore, it is important to prevent the radicalization of neophytes.
Author of the abstract - N. Ginesina
2017.02.005. RINAT PATEEV. THE CONCEPTUAL PROBLEMS OF CONTEMPORARY ISLAMIC STUDIES: SEARCHING THE PARADIGM OF ISLAMIC COMMUNITIES TRANSFORMATION // "Islamovedenie", Makhachkala, 2016, V. 7, № 4, P. 110-123.
Keywords: Islamic studies, fundamentalism, modernization, reformation, transformation.
Rinat Pateev,
PhD (Political), Director in the Centre for Research on Islamic studies, Academy of Science, Republic of Tatarstan
In this article the status of Islamic studies is analyzed as a research area. It is pointed out that modern Islamic studies are centered on historiographic agenda and consideration of ideological context of Islam. In the author's opinion, the main problem associated with a concept development of Islamic communities transformation is the absence of the common frameworks for understanding of the Islamic civilization history. And the central problem is an insight of religious and political institutions interaction for transformation in Islamic communities. It is also emphasized the significance of Muslim communities secularization process, which causes composite reaction up to excess radicalism.
