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In Iraq, the opposing sides have not reached the ceasefire regime yet and the military situation has not become simpler, although terrorist organizations are losing the initiative more and more. In Yemen, there is a long process of negotiations between the opposing Yemeni Sunnis and Shiites with the participation of an international coalition led by Saudi Arabia. However, the parties have not reached reconciliation yet.
The author concludes that the conflict between Sunnis and Shiites in the Middle East are more political than religious in total. The political interests of various social elites, defending their power priorities, act as agents of conflict and interstate contradictions. The provocative activity of the external forces (primarily the Western special services) which, at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, facilitated the acquisition of force by Muslim sectarianism to conduct an armed struggle for power in the region against regimes unsuitable for the West, have played a large role in the emergence of the conflict situation in the Greater Middle East.
Author of the abstract - B. Mahmudov.
2017.02.020. DILYARA BRILYOVA. THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASPECT OF INSIDER AND OUTSIDER IN ISLAMIC STUDIES //
"Islamovedenie", Makhachkala, 2016, Vol. 7, № 4, P. 46-57.
Keywords: the anthropology of Islam, the methodology of Islamic studies, the insider, the outsider, the principle of objectivity.
Dilyara Brilyova,
PhD (History), Assistant of the Department of Religious Studies, ISFN MK and CFU, Kazan
The author asserts that the problem of insider and outsider approaches in religious studies is an important methodological issue, previously based on the criteria of objectivity and
informative content of the received knowledge. The objectivity of the muslim researchers studying issues of Islam became relevant after the events of September 11, 2001 and in connection with the growing nationalism in the former Soviet republics, when Islam began to be considered as a part of the national heritage, that freed apologetic potential insiders researchers. At the same time, the problem of the objectivity may be typical not only for insiders, but also for outsiders who can be burdened with their own religious or ideological position, with an impact on the objectivity of the scientist.
The author believes that it is possible to talk about the gradation of insiders, using an anthropological approach in Islamic studies, which implies a multi-level involvement of researchers in the communities they study. It seems important to the author that there is a coincidence of the identity of the researcher with the identity of a specific muslim community, and also the degree of this coincidence in a number of factors: religiously proper, on the basis of belonging to a particular religious group, national, territorial, temporal, socioeconomic, gender, ideological, by degree, as well as the nature of the influence of one or another Islamic tradition.
The author writes that one can talk about the absolute insiderism when identities coincide in all factors or in the most significant of them, and about the conditional or relative insiderism with incomplete coincidence of the identities of the researcher and the studied muslim community. The problem of insider and outsider approaches in humanitarian science in general, and in religious studies in particular, is often considered in the context of the ratio of objectivity and subjectivity of the researcher. At the same time, whether the research, performed by an outsider, can be considered really objective by default?
The objectivity of scientific judgments is a conditionally existing category. One of the main problems of modern science is the problem of the ratio of objectivity and subjectivity of the researcher, which manifests itself in insider and outsider
approaches both in religious studies in general and in Islamic studies in particular. Since the anthropological approach in Islamic studies (as in religious studies in general) breaks Islam into smaller local forms, the muslim researcher is not always an absolute insider, only partially correlating with the community studied by him.
A new period in the history of muslims around the world began on September 11, 2001. Since that moment, every terrorist act and bloody clash with the participation of muslims and Islamic slogans inevitably lead to attacks on all muslims in general or on the very idea of Islam on the part of the world community. The society is divided into two unequal groups: the superior believes that terrorism is the quintessence of "true" Islam, leading to the denial of everything that is different from it, the primacy of rigid (Sharia) norms and militant jihadism. The second, a small group consisting of muslims and participants in the anti-racist movement, declares that true Islam is a peaceful, tolerant religion and that muslims should not be to blame.
In this regard, there are studies in the field of Islamic studies, in which the apologetics of Islam is read to some extent. There are researchers who accept Islam in the process of studying, becoming insiders, and whose neophytes are reflected in their scientific works. Researchers-outsiders also face a choice of how to present Islam and muslims to those who are interested, and whose number has risen sharply since the events of the eleventh of September. Some anthropologists began to explain to the public that muslims living in the West are connected not only with the life of the rest of the Islamic world, but also to the West also.
The same reaction is a characteristic of that part of muslim researchers who perceive themselves as representatives of the certain currents. The 1990s were marked by nationalism for the peoples of the post-Soviet space. The former Soviet republics, left alone with their history, turned to their past. In this regard, the religion was often perceived as a part of the glorious past of the people. Therefore, apologetics did not concern only the formation
of a positive image of Islam, but rather the creation of a positive image of a specific people professing Islam, and, at the same time, Islam as a part of the cultural heritage of that people.
The basic approaches in religious studies to the research of a particular religion are the approaches of the so-called insider and outsider. In other words, these are approaches that require answering the question: a particular religion is studied "from within" by one of the adherents of this religious system or "from outside" by representatives of other religious systems or worldviews. It is not possible to avoid one of these approaches: religion will be considered "from within" or "from the outside" in any case.
At the same time, it is possible to use these approaches in parallel in the study of the same subject matter. Insider and outsider positions impose certain features both on the very process of studying the subject of research, and on the conclusions made in the course of the work of an insider or an outsider. In other words, the main problem associated with these approaches is the problem of the objectivity of research.
The author shares the opinion of some researchers that the problem of insider and outsider approaches is not a problem, but the choice of the position of a scientist. Continuing this idea, the author believes that both the insider and the outsider face the risk of bias in their investigations, it is only a special kind of bias - a bias based on the study of Oneself and the Other. Similar difficulties are proposed to be solved by abstracting from the subject of study.
The problem of the correlation between the universal and the local, the general and the particular in Islam (as well as in other religious systems) is a matter of dispute not only for the muslims themselves, but also for all researchers dealing with the issues of Islam. What is it - "Islam itself", "real", "universal", "classical", "pure" Islam and where is it? There are various approaches that ensure a different attitude of the researcher to different forms of existence of Islam.
The problem of the approach of an insider and an outsider becomes an important methodological issue also when applying an anthropological approach in Islamic studies, namely the consideration of a specific community tied to a specific time and to a specific territory. The author believes that it is possible to talk about the multi-level involvement of the researcher in the studied community. In this connection, the identity of the researcher with the identity of a specific muslim community, and also the degree of this coincidence is important.
The author identifies several factors influencing the correlation of the researcher with the typical representative of the particular studied community: the religious factor, belonging to a particular religious group within Islam; national; territorial; temporal; socio-economic; ideological; according to the degree / nature of impact of a particular Islamic tradition; gender.
The author believes that it is possible to speak of a conditional or relative insider if there is an incomplete coincidence of the identities of the researcher and the studied muslim community. The researcher may not live in the same territorial or temporal boundaries as the group he is studying, may not coincide with it according to nationality, belong to another socioeconomic group, may be a supporter of another ideology, be influenced by another religious tradition.
Some of the above factors may be critical and some may not be of particular interest depending on the flow within Islam. Part of the above factors can not affect the formation of group identity in cases with some muslim communities. The discrepancy of the identity of the researcher with non-critical factors with the identity of the studied group does not lead to a distance from the subject of research in such cases.
At the same time, it is possible to talk about the transitional status of an outsider as an insider, when the researcher relates himself to these people emotionally, not being a member of the studied community, which makes it possible to talk about a kind of "acquired insider". This, on the one hand, inevitably informs
the researcher of the emotional involvement of the scientist in the subject of his research, which is the main condition for trying to move from an outsider / conditional insider to an "insider in spirit." On the other hand, this transition may not affect the expansion of access to internal information (which is typically characteristic of an absolute insider), since the internal self-identification of the researcher may be unnoticed or invaluable to the particular community studied.
The anthropological approach of Islamic studies allows one to see various local forms of existence in a single Islam, which makes it possible to see the difference between the Islam of the modern Tatar community of Russia and between the Islam of the muslim population of Uzbekistan, between the Islam of the followers of the F. Gulen movement and the Islam of Hizb ut-Tahrir members. The concrete society of people becomes the minimum indivisible part and, at the same time, the unit of measurement of Islam.
This approach imposes an impact on the problem of insider and outsider. It is not enough for a scientist to belong to Islam, in order to be a full-fledged insider when using an anthropological approach in Islamic studies. In this connection, it seems important to correlate the researcher's identity with the identity of a particular muslim community, and also the degree of this correlation on a number of factors: religious, based on belonging to a particular religious group, national, territorial, temporal, socio-economic, gender, ideological, the degree / nature of the influence of one or another Islamic tradition. The coincidence of identities for all factors or for the most significant of them indicates absolute insider. Incomplete coincidence of the identities of the researcher and the studied muslim community may indicate conditional or relative insider.
The author writes in conclusion that the view of religion "from within" and "from without" inevitably remains one of the basic methodological issues of religious studies in general, primarily on the problems of objectivity and information content
of the received knowledge. The anthropological approach allows for the gradation of insiders, and to see different levels of inclusion of the researcher in the studied community.
Author of the abstract - N. Ginesina
2017.02.021. AZIZ NIYAZI. IDEALS OF "AL-VASATYIA" EXERCISE FOR THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT // "Islam v Sovremennom Mire", Moscow, 2016, Vol. 12, № 3, P. 235-252.
Keywords: al-vasatyia, globalism, Islamic economy, world system crisis, neoliberalism, Russia, social and environmental problems, sustainable development, economic security.
Aziz Niyazi,
PhD (History), Senior Researcher, Center for the Study of Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Ural-Volga Region, Institute of Oriental Studies, RAS
The author analyzes the trends in the formation of advanced ideas and practices of economic, social, environmental and cultural nature through the prism of the fundamental problems of global development. He believes that, first of all, these trends are formed within the framework of the concept of sustainable development, created by UNDP specialists (the United Nations Development Program), as well as in the theory of Islamic economics, based on the Koranic Covenant on justice and moderation in all human relations. These models are alternative to the radical postulates of the neoliberal system of capitalism in many respects and provide guidance for the establishment of a new development paradigm.
The author notes that the manifestations of the global systemic crisis began to be traced back in the last century. It was then, that the world system of the consumer society was formed,
