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religious organizations representing a Sunni branch of Islam traditional for this part of Eurasianism, it is coordinated with similar processes in Russia. Traditional religions of Russia for a long time have tried to obtain official inclusion of theology as cross-disciplinary area of knowledge in the system of not only actually religious, but also state education. The Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation approved federal state educational standards of higher education on theology, both bachelor degree and magistracy levels. In 2016 it was appointed the Expert council of State Commission for Academic Degrees and Titles on theology among them there were experts in Islam. Heads of the highest Islamic educational institutions in the CIS countries can be guided by that their best graduates could pass PhD and doctoral defense on theological studies not only in Turkey, Egypt, Morocco subsequently, but also in Russia.
Author of the abstract - Valentina Schensnovich
2018.03.004. ZALINA SULTANAHMEDOVA. SPECIFIC CHARACTER OF ISLAMIC EXTREMISM // "Islamovedenie," Makhachkala, № 2, P. 37-54.
Keywords: extremism, fUndamentalism, radicalism, Islamic extremism, Wahhabism.
Zalina Sultanahmedova,
Senior Teacher,
Department of Philosophy and Social and Political Sciences, Daghestan State University
Zalina Sultanahmedova considers Islamic extremism as a destructive form of social radicalism. One of the most essential characteristic of extremism is the extremist ideology. The author allocates types of ideologies: political, legal, moral, philosophical, religious, esthetic. The interests of social groups are reflected in them. Most brightly it is reflected in political ideology.
The extremist ideology belongs to radical kinds of political ideologies.
It is possible to allocate the following types of extremism on cultural and social localization: regional (separatist) within certain countries or regions of the planet, national (within certain states), civilizational (within separate types of civilizations) and transnational or international. There are two main types of extremism on social organization method: elemental, unorganized and not institutionalized and institutionalized, organized, taken the form of extremist organizations with systematic activity.
The main criterion of religious extremism is the specifics of religion as a basic ideology. The key moment in understanding of the nature of religious extremism is the question of principles of connection between religion and extremism. It is obvious that religion potentially contains a possibility of extremist transformation. Especially it concerns the developed religions. But social factors or conditions are necessary for realization of this opportunity. The complex of these conditions includes both the objective moments: a social and economic and political crisis in society, radical transformations of social system, and the subjective moments: crisis of social and cultural identity and national ideology, rivalry of alternative ideologies, overaction of opposition, antigovernmental political forces, etc.
Modern religious extremism can't be understood out of its relation with political extremism. Political extremism takes the form of religious Islamic extremism in conditions which promote this transformation: weak development of democratic political institutes, social and economic crisis, spiritual disorientation and problem of social and cultural identification of society.
Religious political extremism is a use of radicalized religious ideology in political goals. On the social essence religious extremism is extremism from below which is formed as ideology of oppressed masses put in position of fringe groups. Characterizing the essence of religious extremism it is important to draw a distinction between extremism, on the one hand, and
religionism, on the other one. Extremism belongs to the religious radicalism based on fundamentalist orientation. Modern religious extremism is inseparably linked with terrorism - work method of Islamic religious extremists.
Religious extremism is qualified by two main criteria: by a form of religious organization and religious confessionalism. In the form of religious organization religious extremism is the closest to destructive totalitarian sects, however its organizational forms quite often go outside the framework of and reach the level of mass religious movements, theocratic political regimes, and transnational religious associations. By a religious confessionalism extremism is distinguished by the main world religions. There can be three forms of religious extremism: Islamic, Christian and Buddhist.
Islamic extremism in the modern world is generally localized in the countries where Islam is traditional religion. However, Islamic extremism is actively advanced together with millions of migrants to regions where Islam isn't the leading traditional religion -countries of Western Europe and the U.S. And this process goes the more actively, the stronger there is a destructive influence of the West on the Arab Muslim countries of the Middle East.
Islamic extremism has particular qualities in Russia, in those regions where a large number of Muslims traditionally lives. The main reasons generating emergence and growth of Islamic extremism in Russia, especially in the North Caucasus can be divided into three groups: social and economic, political, sociocultural or spiritual and ideological. The social and economic reasons are basic. It is possible to refer the numerous social contradictions generated by Russian reforms to the political reasons: between the robbed population of the country and its ruling establishment consisting of a narrow number of oligarchs and officials; between various groups of ruling official-oligarchical elite in struggle for power and profit; between the former federal republics in fight for redistribution of joint property; between ethnic groups of the Russian multinational state.
Political factors influencing development of extremism in Russia are the imperfection of political system, low degree of its democratic character and quality of administrative elite, political ambitions of regional leaders using religion in struggle for power and privileges, activity of foreign religious and political centers and also Western intelligence agencies. Spiritual factors of development of Islamic extremism are crisis of the Soviet, international, socialist ideology and based on it sociocultural identity of people, disintegration of a single cultural space, degradation of spiritual culture, commercialization of media. Spiritual vacuum in regions of the North Caucasus with the population put in critical conditions of existence was filled with rapidly radicalizing Islamic ideology.
In its social essence Islamic extremism becomes sharp, but natural reaction of the Islamic countries to geopolitical domination and aggression of the West. In Russia Islamic extremism is also a regular reaction of resistance of the bourgeois and liberal transformation of traditional societies happening in complex and destructive forms. Islamic extremism, in fact, is a form of a social protest of Islamic regions against Western sociocultural expansion, against globalization on the Western models.
The social base of Islamic extremism isn't limited to layers of social fringe groups or categories of the needy population. All segments of society and social groups are represented in it to different extents. It does it especially stable and creates a big personnel scope for development of various extremist Islamic organizations.
Ideology of Islamic extremism is divergent, there is a variety of competing and quite often conflicting with each other versions. In each concrete Islamic sociocultural region it is formed the specific version of Islamic extremism considering and reflecting local features. According to two main movements of Islam it is possible to allocate two ideological directions in Islamic extremism: Shia and Sunni. These both directions aggressively deal not only with general enemies - people of different faiths, but also with each other.
In Russia in the North Caucasus the fundamentalist directions of Islam - Salafism and Wahhabism became ideology of Islamic extremism. The main demands of the Wahhabites programme is coming round to Islam "Golden Age," a shariatization of public life and reconstruction of the theocratic state "Emirate of the Caucasus." Ideology of Islamic extremism isn't a coherent fundamentalism. On the contrary, Islamic extremist ideologists quite in a reformatory way, but in the spirit of extremism interpret original Islam, actually giving with it that version of ideology which expresses their extreme views.
Despite differences between forms of extremist Islamic ideology, it is possible to allocate its general ideological core and characteristics. The author refers a complex of accented ideas to an ideological core of Islamic extremism: first this is aggressive intolerance to dissentients and people of different faiths who are considered as enemies of Islam. Secondly, actualization of the idea of jihad (which is interpreted in Islamic extremism as Muslim's duty) is the same as daily namaz. Thirdly, the exclusive place in ideology of Islamic extremism is taken by idealization of social and legal norms of early, original Islam.
Akin to organizational forms modern Islamic extremism is utterly various. Among organizational forms of Islamic extremism it is possible to see both small totalitarian sects, and numerous local Muslim communities got under control of extremist religious leaders, both training centers of Islamic extremists, and extremist terrorist organizations up to the Islamic State (ISIS). A new form of the Islamic extremist organizations using possibilities of the Internet and modern means of communication are network extremist structures both regional and national, and transnational.
The researcher comes to a conclusion that fight against Islamic extremism has to be directed to elimination of social and economic, political and spiritual reasons of Islam radicalization in Muslim regions of Russia.
Author of the abstract - Valentina Schensnovich
