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THE CAUCASUS & GLOBALIZATION
Kenul BUNIADZADE
Ph.D. (Philos.),
senior researcher at the Institute of Philosophy and
Political-Legal Research, Azerbaijani National Academy of Sciences (Baku, Azerbaijan).
ON THE FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS THINKING IN PRESENT-DAY AZERBAIJAN
Abstract
This article looks at three areas in the formation and development of religious thinking in present-day Azerbaijan: religious thinking in the East-West context, the influence of globalization on religious thinking, and religious enlightenment. Keep-
ing in mind the recent processes in Azerbaijan’s sociocultural sphere, the author raises several issues that reveal the cause-effect relation between religious thinking and the social life of the Azerbaijani people, particularly young people.
I n t r o d u c t i o n
The scientific research studies and journalistic articles written over the past 10-15 years often present various information and commentaries about how the Azerbaijani people are becoming alienated from their religion. If we take a look at recent events, we will see that the attempts of Christianity and various religious sects to draw people into their fold are intensifying and even surpassing the calls to embrace Islam, whereby the number of followers in the first instances is increasing with each passing day. This gives rise to certain questions. If this is the case, what faith have the Azerbaijani people been alienating themselves from over so many years and what religion do they wish to study at present? What effect will the import of Islam from such countries as Turkey, Iran, and Saudi Arabia have on the morality of the Azerbaijani people? Is Azerbaijan not faced with the danger of being blinded again after it emerges from the darkness into the light, but this time by the light, and not by the darkness it was in for such a long time?
Before answering these questions, we must clarify that by religious thinking we mean thinking formed on the basis of correct ideas about religion which people have a spiritual need for and which they preach, as well as on the basis of their striving for freedom, purity, and perfection. When talking about correct ideas, we mean an understanding of the fact that, first, Allah created man free, perfect, and with an understanding of the unity between the spiritual and corporeal origins, and, second, that man is a social being and a member of the society in which he lives. Here it is worth emphasizing several important points that play an important role in forming the religious outlook of today’s Azerbaijani and in determining its development in the future.
First: Azerbaijan is geographically located at the crossroads between the East and the West. The people of Azerbaijan, who are of an indigenous Eastern nationality, are becoming orient-
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ed today toward the West, and this disconnection from their roots is apparent not only in social life, but also in the formation of religious thinking.
■ Second: the present-day Azerbaijani state is cooperating and exchanging scientific, political, and economic experience with the world’s leading countries (to be more precise, it is assimilating and incorporating their experience), that is, it is participating in globalization. This process, which is unfolding quite dynamically, has also had an effect on spirituality and religious thinking.
■ Finally, third, religious enlightenment in Azerbaijan is at a very low level, and in some cases is absent altogether. Consequently, unenlightened Azerbaijanis, whose faith is at the level of superstition, easily fall under the influence of foreign missionaries and are used as potential “raw material” by various religious groups.
Taking into account the pertinence and, most important, the important role of these logically interrelated circumstances in the formation and development of the religious outlook of today’s Azerbaijani, we should take a look at each of them separately.
Religious Thinking in Azerbaijan in the East-West Context
If we take a look at the history of philosophy, we can conclude that the territorial division of human thinking largely began in recent times and has intensified today. It is interesting that in antiquity and the Middle Ages, knowledge was not related to countries, when the talk turned to its being acquired in far-off regions. The Prophet Muhammad, who recommended going even as far as China in the quest for knowledge, was talking about true knowledge that cannot belong to one country in particular. Europeans studied the philosophy of Avicenna and Abu Hamid al-Ghazali not as Eastern thinking or an Eastern interpretation of Western science, but as wisdom leading to the truth. Z. Kuli-zade, who studied the laws governing the development of Eastern and Western philosophy in the Middle Ages, writes: “The specifics seen in the countries of the East and West can in no way hinder scientific attempts to comprehend the history of mankind, despite all of its diversity, as something integrated, or attempts to identify common laws governing this single process...”1 The researcher adds that these governing laws can be related not only to the economic, but also to the cultural development of the world.
Today it is an undeniable fact that there are indeed some differences in the way Eastern and Western philosophers express their thoughts and even in what they choose to think about. For example, as S. Khalilov notes, “in the East, man’s attitude toward the world is largely axiological in nature, outside events are assessed through the prism of individual morality, man forms a good or bad attitude toward them, after which this attitude is expressed either poetically (by means of eulogy or derision), or even less systemically and more impulsively at the level of ordinary consciousness.”2
This means that a person who lives in the East prefers to merely observe all that goes on around him and from such a great distance that he does not even notice how the East is trying to wrap itself up in Western clothing that is too tight for it, while the West, having deprived it of its spirit, forces it to deny itself.
1 Z.A. Kulizade, Zakonomernosti razvitiia vostochnoi filosofii XIII-XVI vekov i problema Zapad-Vostok, Baku, 1983, p. 181.
2 S.S. Khalilov, Education, Learning, Upbringing, Baku, 2005, p. 411 (in Azerbaijani).
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What about the situation in the West? As Wilfred J. Smith notes, one of the three things that amazed Muhammad Iqbal in the West was the disdain for humanity, de-humanization.3 When analyzing the thoughts of present-day Western philosophers, A. Ozturk writes: “Western materialist and liberal thinking, which promised to resolve the problems of mankind and ensure it economic and social prosperity, fulfilled its promise, on the one hand, and led to the appearance of greedy, purposeless, and insatiable types of people, on the other.”4
People from both worlds are rapidly moving away from each other toward opposite poles: in the East, toward super individualism, and in the West, toward super liberalism, post-modernism, and other “isms.” In the East, each person wants to begin his own path from scratch, without taking heed of the fact that the West is already rich in such “brilliant,” but incomplete paths.5 There is no way people can become alienated from their inner world in order to become social beings, and they do not see the need to engage in material problems. Whereas Western people have become so social that they forget about the interconnection between the body and the soul and about the truth that defines their essence. But the saddest thing is that many see the consensus in these questions as “Westernization” or “Europeanization.”
But what is the situation in Azerbaijan? With its ancient history and culture, Azerbaijan has played an important role in the development and prosperity of culture throughout the East, especially the Muslim. Many of its philosophers and thinkers have made a contribution to the flourishing of Eastern philosophical thought, which became a source of ideas for the West. Nevertheless, all that has been said has long become history and is part of the past. Today the East, which has become a symbol of backwardness and ignorance, is becoming increasingly like the name it has been given with each passing day. The solution or path to development in everything, beginning with everyday issues and ending with academic problems, is being sought in “Westernization”: in borrowing Western culture, socialization, family ... thinking. The first three are already being introduced in various ways and in some sense have already achieved success in music, films, and architecture. Even traditional family standards are being increasingly replaced with “free” principles. The latter, that is, Western thinking, really does form the basis of the previous transformations and is a decisive factor, but will we be able to form this type of thinking? Let us direct our attention to an important fact: no matter how often we wear Western clothes and speak in Western languages, we will nevertheless remain Eastern people in the eyes of the West, who, to boot, are ashamed of belonging to the East and are blindly enraptured by their opponent.
Let us turn to Islam. The fact that the Quran contains ayats relating to several scientific discoveries has been repeatedly confirmed. We are far from believing that the Quran is a scientific work. Nevertheless, the above-mentioned fact shows that the Islamic religion is not only on the same level as scientific development, but also emphasizes its necessity. And so the attempt to accuse Islam of having a hostile attitude toward science can only be described as plain ignorance.
According to the Quran, Allah taught man all the names (sciences) that no one knew of apart from Him, and made him a caliph in the earth (Quran, 2:30). People share such qualities as justice, charity, and reason with Allah, and they are the only creation empowered by Allah to retain these qualities: “Surely We offered the trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, but they refused to be unfaithful to it and feared from it, and man has turned unfaithful to it; surely he is unjust,
3 See: M. Fakhri, History of Islamic Philosophy, Istanbul, 1998, p. 352 (in Turkish).
4 From the World of Mevlana's Reflections, Compiled by N. Shimshekler, Konya, 2005, p. 227 (in Turkish).
5 Nor can the spirit of collectivism in the East be denied, although it is temporary: during prayers, rituals, and protection from enemies, it can in some cases even be raised to a high level. But in lengthier processes, like the development of science and culture, unification of the creative force of the nation, etc., this spirit is unfortunately manifested very weakly. Even in religion, when the matter concerns universal issues, each prefers to keep to his own path and convictions.
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ignorant” (Quran, 33:72). Only man has been given the ability to think, reach perfection based on his own thinking, and help his people and society. Allah reminds people of this in almost every ayat: “Do you not think?” In other words, the Quran calls on every person to think and find his own development path, study his religion, and live in harmony with it: “why should not then a company from every party from among them go forth that they may apply themselves to obtain understanding in religion, and that they may warn their people when they come back to them that they may be cautious?” (Quran, 9:122).
Another issue I wish to address is the West’s negative attitude toward Islam. In many cases, the supporters of Westernization in Azerbaijan have a negative attitude toward Islam, juxtaposing the latter against the West. But if we take a closer look at Western thinking, we find an interesting contradiction. On the one hand, the West, which to some extent is going through a period of stagnation, is turning to the East again, particularly to the Muslim East. Western researchers are trying to carry out a more in-depth study of and understand the teaching of the Muslim philosophers, especially Sufism, which embraces the principles of love and perfection in Islam.6 On the other hand, the West is indeed very disdainful of Islam and the Prophet Muhammad. When analyzing the international events of recent years (political, military, economic, and cultural), as well as the attitude toward Islam in the Muslim countries, the conclusion can be drawn that the more the West studies Islam and discovers its supremacy and advantages, the more the Muslim is criticized for having an injudicious attitude toward his religion and the inability to make use of the perfect means he possesses. Indians come unwittingly to mind who, as the only landlords of the American continent, were happy to exchange gold and precious stones for the trinkets (matches, buttons, watches, etc.) brought in by Europeans, and today they are likened to “museum exhibits.”
Religious Thinking in Azerbaijan and Globalization
One of the important factors of Europeanization is involvement in the globalization process, and Azerbaijan is one of the countries to face this process. For the purpose of our article, two questions arise (in fact, there are scores of them ): what is globalization and how does this process influence religious thinking in Azerbaijan?
The conclusions drawn on the basis of encyclopedic dictionaries and several fundamental research studies show that the spheres of impact of globalization and universalization, which encompass different spheres of human life (politics, economics, culture), are expanding. As S. Khalilov writes: “Globalization is trying to have an impact not only on universal human values—science and technology—but also on cultural and spiritual factors that define national uniqueness.”7 This means that globalization is influencing not only the external aspects of human life, but is also “encroaching” on man’s inner world, which plays an important role in forming the individual and even claims the right to govern him. But this process has its shortcoming: globalization, which proceeds from the material, social, and political position of man, influences his morality, that is, the material factor is taking the upper hand once more.
Today the world is turning into a vast market, and man, in the direct and indirect sense, is becoming the object of buy-sell transactions. Hegemonic countries, which rely on economic and mate-
6 Despite the fact that such statements are frequently exotic in nature, the number of philosophical and scientific studies is constantly increasing.
7 S.S. Khalilov, op. cit., p. 406.
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rial prosperity, are forgetting about moral values and suppressing weak states, forcing them to “voluntarily” humiliate themselves and lose their human dignity.
It cannot be denied that globalization and universalization are irreversible processes, and we do not intend to fight this or discuss only the negative aspects. But I would like to remind you of one forgotten but important fact: society has not only material and social aspects, MAN created it and participates in it. This means that he should be drawn wholly, that is, both spiritually and materially, into the globalization process. Universal ideals of mankind and morality must be found, and man himself should stand at the peak of the globalization process.
How does globalization influence morality and religious thinking in Azerbaijan?
■ First, as was noted above, today we are assimilating the experience of other countries under the guise of exchanging experience.8 As a result of this, nationalism and a national mentality are presented as negative characteristics. In the states of the Far East (China, Japan, and Malaysia), national roots are not the reason for backwardness but, on the contrary, act as the main factor in preserving a nation’s specific characteristics and uniqueness. In other words, these nations are developing without dissolving into others.
■ Second, in keeping with the requirements of globalization, Azerbaijan was forced to look at its citizens’ problems not from the inside, but from the outside, turning a blind eye to the local specifics of any problems. This means that the number of people behind each factor that is not within the field of vision is not taken into consideration: they have to subordinate themselves to demands they do not fully understand, which leads to perturbation in their inner world and to blind imitation. As a result, the number of post-modernists, nihilists, and cosmopolitans who have no understanding of national history and philosophy, but categorically reject them, is increasing. This means that the citizens of Azerbaijan, which recently acquired its independence, are trying to resolve the problems of states with a high level of development, by explicating them onto their own country, instead of resolving their own problems. As a result, young Azeris are unconsciously beginning to follow ideas and ideals which Europe is consciously trying to deny.
These conditions, which are taken as an indicator of high development, are also having a strong influence on the formation of religious outlook. Along with these actions, religion itself cannot remain on the sidelines of globalization, and the inter-religious dialog is an example of this. But an important fact should be emphasized here: a productive dialog can only take place between equal sides. Otherwise, this will lead once more to one side dissolving into the other. When we talk about equal, we do not mean the superiority of a religion or the country that represents it, but its representation, since in this respect Islam is inferior to the other religions, at least in Azerbaijan.
Religious Enlightenment in Azerbaijan
As we mentioned above, enlightenment is the first prerequisite of the correct formation and development of religious outlook. In Azerbaijan, which has an ancient history and recently acquired its independence, certain work is being carried out and planned in this area. Our analysis encompasses a few contradictory questions relating to the present day and near future.
! We do not have any information about foreign states using Azerbaijan’s experience.
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In order to understand the religious and enlightenment work being carried out in Azerbaijan at present, let us divide it into three areas:
(1) the activity of non-Islamic organizations;
(2) the activity of Islamic, mainly nontraditional, organizations;
(3) public awareness about Islam at the academic level.
Before analyzing each of them separately, it should be noted that religious enlightenment is being carried out in different forms and at different levels and can be classified as follows:
(a) open religious enlightenment, including at the academic level;
(b) organized missionary activity under the guise of other legal activity;
(c) unorganized individual activity (in reality, it is possible that a system might exist behind the individuals carrying it out);
(d) illegal activity.
Now we will turn to a more in-depth discussion of each of the three above-mentioned areas.
■ The first area consists of non-Islamic organizations. In Azerbaijan, the activity of non-Is-lamic groups, both legal and illegal, is well known and often at the center of society’s attention. The spread of nontraditional religious ideas in a state that guarantees freedom of conscience and confession is a normal phenomenon. In this article, we are not aiming to analyze the positive and negative aspects of the activity of missionary organizations, we are only trying to describe its influence on religious consciousness.
As noted above, at present non-Islamic organizations are becoming more widespread and developing at a faster rate in Azerbaijan than in Muslim communities. These structures sometimes act illegally, but more often are registered with the state as religious communities or operate under the cover of other types of activity. Their influence on public consciousness can be divided into several stages.
—At the first stage, various kinds of social projects are carried out which ensure sectarian organizations the support of the masses and expand their social base. As a rule, the ranks of their adepts are filled with poor people or young people from wealthy families who have not found their place in society.
—At the second stage, religious and enlightenment work is carried out: the dissemination of printed, audio, and video material, the showing of feature and documentary films, mass meetings, and individual talks. An important aspect of missionary activity is to get the audience to understand the exclusivity of their teaching and the importance of their organization. As spiritual ties stimulated by additional factors (material aid, job assistance, and so on) are established, the organization leaders carry out screening among the local followers in order to further expand and intensify their activity.
— The third stage is carried out clandestinely and involves adepts who have the necessary psychic traits and intellectual abilities and have been able to demonstrate these abilities and prove their loyalty to the organization’s ideals. They are taught the organization’s fundamentals and methods of activity and are set specific goals and tasks. This type of missionary activity is usually not aimed at forming a rational attitude toward religion, but at indoctrinating fanatically-minded religious masses to be used as a political tool.
■ The second area of religious enlightenment is the activity of Islamic trends, primarily of radical Shi‘ites, Wahhabis, Nur followers, and various Sufi Tariqahs. Learning the tradition-
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al forms of Islam is not systemic due to the low enlightenment activity of the clergy and the state’s lack of interest in this issue. The methods used by nontraditional Islamic groups have a lot in common with those of non-Islamic organizations, although they also have certain specific traits of their own. The central and most important of them is propaganda of the system-forming postulate of Islam—worshipping Allah alone. In addition, the end political goal of some Islamic organizations, particularly those financed from abroad, is to gain political power, build an Islamic state, and establish Shari‘a laws.
When comparing the political aspect of the activity of Islamic and non-Islamic groups, it can be concluded that the first are focused on spreading religious and political ideas among the broad masses, while the second are satisfied with lobbying their own interests in political and economic circles and supporting the politicians loyal to them. Religion is used for political aims in the first and second cases, and in this respect the activity of Islamic groups is of no less threat to the spiritual and cultural uniqueness of Azerbaijan’s people than the missionary activity of non-Islamic organizations. We will show several aspects of the negative influence of nontraditional Islamic organizations.
— First, they restrict the universal values of Islam to certain temporary, historical, or ethnocultural frameworks, subordinating the universal mission of this religion to the interests of individual groups. In the final analysis, this leads to the distortion of Islam and its transformation into a tool used for political, military, and other purposes. It stands to reason that the enlightenment activity of most nontraditional Islamic groups concentrates on explaining religious rituals and the importance of the religious institutions that have developed within a specific trend, and not on the spiritual or moral-ethical aspect of religion.
— Second, the information they spread about Islam is biased. While asserting the exclusivity of their own interpretation of religious ideas, practice, and social teaching, the spiritual leaders of these trends categorically deny all other possible interpretations. In so doing, they hinder the development of religious thought and provoke opposition among the different Islamic trends.
— Third, such organizations are fomenting a split within the Islamic world and hindering political, economic, cultural, and spiritual rapprochement among Muslim people in the provinces. The sectarian nature of their activity is aggravating the weakness of Muslim communities and making them more vulnerable in the face of economic, cultural, and other types of foreign expansion. It is obvious that precisely this understanding is the reason why many Azeris are less tolerant of nontraditional Islamic groups than the followers of other faiths.
— Fourth, the idea of exclusivity that is promulgated by nontraditional trends prompts their followers to reject the world around them and show aggression toward everything “alien.” Consequently, the religious environment becomes fertile ground for spreading extremist ideologies. The Assassins are a good example of this type of Islam in history. This organization was created “in the name of Allah” and later became a threat to the religion itself. Although religious terrorism did not become widespread in Azerbaijan, certain of the country’s citizens became involved in terrorist activity.
So neither the Islamic nor the non-Islamic missionary organizations have the aim of developing religious consciousness or promoting any deep and conscientious assimilation by the masses of universal human ideals, but are bent on promulgating religious views that are limited to specific political or economic (material) interests.
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The third area of religious enlightenment in Azerbaijan covers programs carried out at the academic level (scientific research, dissertations, monographs, and periodicals). We will note that the enlightenment activity of both non-Islamic and Islamic organizations at this level is gradually intensifying and is already yielding its first fruits. Since systemic knowledge about religion as a whole and Islam in particular is not given due attention at secondary and higher educational institutions, and the education level at Baku State University, which has the only theological department in the country, is not high, scientific research in religion is limited and carried out with great difficulty. The main shortcoming in this area is the shortage of qualified specialists and the absence of a systemic approach to the study and teaching of religion.
C o n c l u s i o n
So religious consciousness in Azerbaijan has mainly been developing over the past two decades under the influence of nontraditional ideas that are not in harmony with the Azerbaijani mentality and the centuries-long spiritual-cultural traditions of the country’s people. Systemizing and establishing “gentle” control over this issue is impossible without an efficient system of religious enlightenment, including at the academic level. In our opinion, the following recommendations should be taken into account to solve this task:
—cultural-religious enlightenment must begin at a young age using cartoons, children’s books, and other educational means that instill in the young generation a spirit of respect for national spiritual values and universal human ideals;
—textbooks for secondary and higher educational institutions must be prepared keeping in mind the historical and cultural features of the spread of religions, particularly Islam, in Azerbaijan. This goal can only be reached if specialists are involved who are capable not only of selecting learning material that meets didactic requirements, but who also keep in mind the specifics of the religious sphere. Books written in other countries can be used to prepare these textbooks, but they should not define the content of the curriculum and general trends of the learning process;
—several valuable sources on Quran studies, Hadith studies, and Islamic jurisprudence, as well as the works of outstanding Muslim thinkers, should be translated into Azeri. The value of such translations is growing as the Islamic library in Azeri becomes replenished with fundamental religious works that have a nontraditional ideological nature and can be distributed using the resources of foreign funds;
—research work in religious studies and theology should be expanded, the writing of dissertations and monographs on pertinent topics encouraged, the prestige of Azerbaijan’s theological and religious studies school raised, and jobs for religious study experts and theologians found.
