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ISLAM IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES
2018.03.009. ROMAN SILANTIEV. COOPERATION OF RUSSIA AND IRAN ON THE ISSUE OF COMBATING RELIGIOUS-MOTIVATED EXTREMISM AND TERRORISM - PROMISING DIRECTIONS // " Sotrudnichestvo Rossii i Irana v politicheskoy, ehkonomicheskoy i kulturnoy oblastyah kak faktor ukrepleniya mira i bezopasnosti v Evrazii: Materialy Mezhdunarodnoy nauchno-prakticheskaya konferentsii. 19 oktyabrya 2016," Moscow, FGBOU VO MGLU, 2017, P. 43-48.
Keywords: Russia, Iran, cooperation, extremism, terrorism, Wahhabism, anti-Shiite moods.
Roman Silantiev,
Dr.Sc.(Hist.), Professor, Chair of World Culture, MSLU
The second decade of the 21st century is marked by the unprecedented growth of the influence of terrorist organizations in world history, whose adherents are tens of millions of people, the scientist writes. Terrorists came out of the underground, established control over vast territories, acquired the latest weapons and the possibility of conducting combat operations at the level of armored divisions. Supporters of ISIS, Al-Nusra and the Taliban have created their quasi-states with the management apparatus, powerful propaganda units and special services. They were so strengthened in some cases, that they moved from terrorism to terror, arranging the genocide of entire peoples and ethno-confessional groups. Modern religiously-motivated terrorism with all its diversity has a single foundation - the "Wahhabi sect of
the Hanbalt madhhab of Sunnism." All the most dangerous terrorist organizations of our time are either classical Wahhabi Salafis or their offshoots, such as the Muslim Brotherhood or Hizb ut-Tahrir. In general, it can be asserted with full confidence that terrorist organizations will be constantly reproduced and developed if there are countries spreading the Wahhabi ideology. The Islamic Republic of Iran occupies a special place in the current situation.
The ideology of its official religion, Shiism, is incompatible with the destructive ideology of the Wahhabis, and demonstrates another face of the Islamic religion to the world, which causes particular hatred among the Wahhabis. The victory of Wahhabism is impossible in the Islamic world without the destruction of Shiism and the country that is the main defender of this Islamic trend. Wahhabi terrorists call themselves the Sunni strike group in the "holy war" against "Rafidite" Shiites, they increasingly deny the latter's right to be called Muslims. Anti-Shiite propaganda intensified after the escalation of Saudi-Iranian relations especially, when the authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran decided to suspend the participation of their citizens in the Hajj after another mass death of Iranian pilgrims. Saudi theologians openly call Iranians not Muslims, but hidden Zoroastrian dualists. At the same time, Shiite theologians began to be executed in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Unfortunately, the growth of anti-Shiite sentiment is also taking place in Russia. Some problems in Sunni-Shiite relations in Russia have been noted for a long time, but became public and acute in 2016. It all began when members of the Moscow Shiite community "Ahli-Beit" ceased to be allowed to namaz in the renovated complex of the Moscow Cathedral Mosque. The leadership of the mosque was afraid of provocations from anti-Shiite-minded parishioners and forbade them to perform prayers until relations improve. The Shiites historically considered themselves parishioners of this mosque, because it was the only one operating in Moscow 30 years ago and housed Muslims of
different currents. After the first scandal in March 2016, connected with the Shiites' denial of access to the mosque, the situation was repeated in early October, when members of the "Ahli-Beit" began to hold religious events preceding the day of Ashura (Shahsei-Vakhseya).
On 4 October 2016, the Shiites were attacked in the mosque building, where they were allowed to pray in the basement after long negotiations. The OMON soldiers (Special Purpose Police Unit) had to be brought in to resolve the conflict, after the main Imam of the mosque Ildar Alyautdinov made a statement that the leadership of the Cathedral mosque always met the Shiite community, providing the opportunity to freely visit temporary prayer rooms on the territory of the complex during the construction of the new building. An agreement was reached with representatives of the Shiite community that rituals demonstrating the peculiarities of their cult practices would not be held in the new building of the Moscow Cathedral Mosque, in order to avoid further conflicts. However, on Monday, when the month of Muharram came, in the early days of which the Shiites accepted mourning, there was a conflict because the worship was performed too loudly, which caused discontent from other parishioners.
In turn, the society "Ahli-Beit" appealed to the chairman of the Russian Spiritual Service of the Russian Federation Ravil Gaynutdin, for permission to hold mourning events on the day of Ashura in the Moscow Cathedral Mosque, and also to conduct their activities on Fridays, as before. In response, Ildar Alyautdinov refused them and said that the only solution to the problem could be the allocation of a separate room or area for the construction of the Shiite mosque in Moscow. Mufti Ravil Gaynutdin appealed to the government of Moscow to allocate a room for rituals for the community of "Ahli-Beit." He noted that the government reacted with understanding.
In 1999, mufti Ravil Gainutdin protested the construction of the mosque in Otradnoye, stating that the mosques had always
been centers of unity of believers regardless of the division of Muslims into Shiites and Sunnis, and therefore the construction of the "Shiite" mosque in Otradnoye next to the already existing mosque could become a hotbed of tension and intra-religious confrontation in the future. The Shiites wrote a letter to Vladimir Putin, in which they expressed indignation that they were advised to seek help for a new place in the Iranian embassy. Thus, there is an acute Sunni-Shiite conflict, in which the leadership of the Moscow Cathedral Mosque took the side of the parishioners who were dissatisfied with the Shiite rites, sacrificing good relations with Azerbaijanis at the same time and provoking the bewilderment of the authorities. The Shiites prayed for decades in this mosque, without disturbing anyone, but now the composition of its Sunni parishioners has changed not for the better, apparently. Radical anti-Shiites are Wahhabis who threaten in this mosque not only the Shiites, but also the anti-ISIS Sunni preacher Abdullah Hayirdin.
The author concludes that successful Russian-Iranian cooperation in Syria can be observed at the moment, where our specialists destroy terrorists by joint efforts. But this is not enough. Struggling against specific terrorist structures, we cut out "metastases of a cancerous tumor," which name is Wahhabism. But while this "tumor" is intact, new "metastases" will arise and a new terrorist super-organization will replace ISIS, which will be even more dangerous. A full-fledged fight against terrorism and extremism generated by religion is possible only through the denial of Wahhabism ideology and the destruction of all its derivatives. Thus, the main goal of Russian-Iranian cooperation in this field is identified by the researcher as fighting against Wahhabi ideology. He formulates the priorities for achieving this g°al:
- Support and promotion of traditional Islamic movements. Optimization of educational programs;
- Ideological opposition to Wahhabi ideology. Creation of new multilingual media, primarily network. The de-romanticization
of Wahhabi terrorists is considered especially effective; - Direct joint military operations against Wahhabi terrorists.
Author of the abstract - Elena Dmitrieva
2018.03.010. RUSLAN SHANGARAEV. IDEOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF TURKISH FOREIGN POLICY // "Obozrevatel-Observer," Moscow, 2017, № 11, P. 73-82.
Keywords: "soft power," pan-Islamism, pan-Turkism, kemalism, Turkey, Russia, CIS.
Ruslan Shangaraev,
PhD(Economics), Senior Lecturer,
Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Russian Federation
In the article the author considers issues related to the ideological component of Turkey's foreign policy, which is largely determined by its history, culture and geographical location. The countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus entered the sphere of influence of Turkey after the collapse of the USSR, it was the first to establish diplomatic relations with them.
Turkey tried to emphasize a similar ethnic and cultural component towards the peoples of the Caucasus, but this approach did not always work because of frozen conflicts and historically disagreements (for example, in relations between Turkey and Armenia).
Turkey has reached a certain socio-political and economic balance in domestic politics, which resulted in the spread of its influence on the surrounding areas through the establishment of institutions of "soft power." These non-governmental organizations have become channels for Turkish public diplomacy, strategic communication and expanding Turkey's influence in the region, receiving state support.
