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3. The globalization process of the modern world requires new approaches to the formation of personality and its self-identification in contemporary society. This is why one of the key directions of the upbringing of a modern-type personality should be the formation of tolerance, and its principle should creatively be applied to all social relations, including in the educational process. Special significance is attached to the formation of religious tolerance, which is a sine qua non of intercultural and inter-confessional dialogue without which such region as the Autonomous Republic of Crimea will not be able to exist.
"Obshchestvenniye nauki v sovremennom mire: voprosy sotsiologii, politologii, filosofii, istorii," Novosibirsk, 2013, pp. 70-78.
M. Yahyaev,
D. Sc. (Philosophy), Daghestan State University
REASONS FOR RADICALIZATION
OF ISLAM IN THE MODERN WORLD
Islamic radicalism is an ideology and political activity based on it, which is characterized by the consolidation of the standards of "pure Islam" as related to the world of "untrue faith" within Islam itself, and also to the world of the "infidels" outside Islam. It is important that such radical Islam is a distorted form of Islam. It should not be identified with Islam as a world religion, or its any concrete trend or current.
Nevertheless, today radical Islam is a real important factor of the socio-political life of the world, and a serious opposition ideological and political force. The radically-minded sections of devout Muslims are an effective social force which considers it appropriate to use terror and illegitimate violence as a means to achieve the political aims it sets
itself. This force has a powerful potential aimed at spreading its extreme ideological tenets and extensively using political violence.
Radical Islam is spearheaded against the secularized societies of the western type. It despises and ignores the generally accepted norms of international law and does not recognize such standards as territorial integrity, state sovereignty, state borders, human rights and freedoms, and non-use of force to achieve political or social aims. The extremist wing of radical Islam presents the greatest threat to society and individuals because its activity today is the key factor undermining the socio-political situation as a whole and confessional situation in each region.
The main aim of Islamic radicalism is the change of the place and role of Islamic religion in the life of modern society. Its adherents and followers reject the values dominating in society and the political practice of a secular state structure and management as not conforming to the standards of Muslim religion. The radically-minded believers represent the most active, though a smaller, part of Muslim umma. Young people predominate in this social group as the most super active part of it. It is young people that imbibe radical ideas and translate them into life much easier and more rapidly than other sections of society.
Inasmuch as contemporary Muslim radicalism regards the West as the main enemy of Islamic civilization, it is ready to fight everything western. As asserted by many Russian analysts, Islamic radicalism is a "reaction to the policy of forcing the social order, way of life, culture and ethical standards of bourgeois Europe on other nations."
The anti-western orientation of Islamic radicalism revealed itself in the political doctrine of the "Moslem Brothers" association, which was set up in Egypt in the 1920s by Hasan Al-Banna (1906-1949). This schoolteacher, who later became a prominent theologian, is regarded one of the first theorists of politicized Islam. The religious political
force he organized, which had opposed the traditional Egyptian monarchy, was oriented to the sufficiently educated but poor sections of the urban population, petty bourgeoisie, intellectuals, junior army and navy officers, individual clerics, students and senior-form school pupils.
Hasan Al-Banna saw the main task of his organization in protecting Islamic religion from atheism and secularism, and spiritual and moral degradation of Muslims which was taking place under the pernicious influence of the West and its values. He proceeded from the fact that Islam was the "faith and cult, the Motherland and nation, religion and the state, and the spirit and body of every Muslim." He considered the political unification of the world of Islam in a single whole - "al-watan al-Islam" to be the crucial task and the major sphere of activity for the organization he set up. He believed that for the purpose it was necessary to carry out complete Islamization of social, state and personal life, Islamization based on returning to the initial precepts of Islamic religion. At the same time he allowed a possibility to interpret certain premises of the Koran and Sunna in the spirit of times.
In his view, all this should have strengthened the role of Islamic religion and Muslim umma in the modern world. The slogan of the "Moslem Brothers" was "God is our aim. The Prophet is our guide, death in the name of God is our supreme desire." In the 1940s - 1950s the Egyptian "Muslim Brothers" association had a militant organization and committed terrorist acts against the country's authorities.
The extremist wing of the Egyptian "Muslim Brothers" was represented by Al-Banna's follower, one of the most outstanding ideologists of Islamic radicalism Seyid Kutb (1906-1965), who made a substantial contribution to the ideological concept "at-taqfir wa-l'-hijra." He divided mankind into Muslims strictly adhering to the Sharia
law and "infidels" or "quffar," but not into Muslims and non-Muslims, as traditionally accepted.
In his book "Social Justice in Islam" Kutb asserted that all social problems could be solved only on the basis of the Koran.
Islamic radicalism today is far from the basic development course of Islamic civilization. It is against any economic and sociopolitical modernization of Islamic society. It actively opposes any combinations of traditional Islamic values with socio-political and other doctrines in the West.
Radicalization of modern Islam began after the end of World War I when the creation of the colonial and semi-colonial systems in the Muslim world had ended. Islamic terrorism based on a radical ideological doctrine connected with Islamic religion was the answer to the forcible repartition of the territories inhabited by Muslims between the Entente countries.
At that time, the activity of the religious-political organizations opposing the colonial authorities was stepped up. They propagated radical ideology and actions and systematically resorted to violence and terror as a means to achieve their political aims. The "Muslim Brothers" organization was distinguished by the fanatical idea of restoring caliphate as a theocratic socio-political system based on the premises of the Koran and the Sharia law.
The Palestine problem is today a major factor of the politicization and radicalization of Islam. Radical religious organizations have begun to appear one by one among Muslims in the Middle East after the formation of the state of Israel, which set as their aim the destruction of that state and the creation of the Arab state of Palestine. These organizations use terrorist methods and means and are supported by many Muslim and Arab countries which regard the
existence of Israel as "penetration of Zionism in Palestine and a challenge to the Arab nation and Islam."
The American expansion in the Middle East has exerted a great influence on radicalization of Islam. From the 1920s the United States has been expanding its presence in the region, which has turned into one of the major world center of oil extraction. U.S. strategic partnership with Israel increases radical anti-American sentiments and stirs fanatical hatred for everything western among Muslims. World War II and its consequences for the Arab world have led to the emergence of new reasons for radicalization of Islamic political organizations and the stepping up of their terrorist activity. Among them the socio-economic problems and their consequences (social stratification of Muslim umma, growing unemployment accompanied with a high birthrate, rampage of crime and corruption, increasing migration processes, etc.). All this created favorable ground for the development of the terrorist activity of extremist organizations.
The proclamation of the Islamic Republic in Iran in February 1979 provoked the emergence of radical religious-political movements in a number of Arab countries bent on the creation of a "world caliphate" and the "export" of the ideals of Islamic revolution. The senseless war unleashed by the Soviet Union in Afghanistan (19791989) has contributed to the strengthening of politicized Islam, provoked strong anti-Soviet sentiments among Muslims, and turned radical Islamist organizations into a powerful military-political force.
Among the most significant reasons for the intensification of Islamic radicalism, and the expansion of the sphere of its terrorist activity are the processes caused by the collapse of the world socialist system and the disintegration of the U.S.S.R. Above all, it is the bankruptcy of the ideas of socialism, which certain countries of the Middle East were oriented to. Besides, there has been the rapid
Islamization of countries of the socialist camp, republics of the former Soviet Union, and traditionally Muslim regions of the Russian Federation. All this has led to the rapid filling of the ideological vacuum formed after the collapse of communism with Islam of radical trends.
Thus, Islam of fundamentalist trends lying at the base of radicalism and contributing to growing terrorist activity has brought about the wide distribution and popularity of various destructive ideologies in the post-Soviet area. Radical Islamic theories and currents, particularly Salafism-Wahhabism, are based, among other things, on the idea of jihad, that is, the sacred war for faith.
The radical trends of politicized Islam today are supported by the increased military-political expansion of the United States in the regions possessing enormous oil reserves inhabited by Muslims and proclaimed the "zone of vital interests of America." The military operation in Afghanistan, the removal of Saddam Hussein and his country's occupation, the "Arab spring" of 2011, and the continuing "democratic processes in Arab states," as well as other actions of the United States and its allies result in stepped-up terrorist activity of radical Islamic organizations all over the world.
Radicalization of politicized Islam in the modern world can largely be explained by the negative attitude of Muslim umma to many political, cultural and moral values of western civilization. The "creeping" westernization is causing a powerful protest of millions of Muslims, which is spearheaded not only against the West, but also against their own ruling regimes loyal to it. The onslaught of the West in the economic and political spheres, in science and technology, introduction of alien mores and morals and non-traditional social connections shatter and undermine the traditional values and customs and habits of Muslim umma. They lead to the painful break-up of the
traditional structures of Muslim society which is trying to adapt itself to the requirements of the present-day economic life and globalization processes with great difficulties.
The growing number of people drawn in radical religious movements is also due to the inner processes going on in many Muslim countries. Modernization of the economy and globalization American-style have resulted in the rapid impoverishment of the urban population and marginalization of the peasantry in Eastern countries. In recent decades most traditionally agrarian Arab countries have ceased to be such as a result of urbanization. Today, over 40 percent of the urban population is unemployed. In Egypt alone, according to the data of the Arab foundation of socio-economic development, there are about two million people without a job, mostly young with a secondary of higher education.
The situation in Southeast Asian countries (Indonesia, Malaysia), where Islam is more flexible in the conditions of a "globalized" and "capitalized" multi-confessional society, is much more favorable. Whereas in the countries of the Middle East, North Africa, South and Central Asia, in a vast area from Bangladesh and Pakistan to Morocco and West Africa, the situation is absolutely different.
The impoverished and desponded people tend to use the extreme means of expressing their social protest and more often turn to archaic egalitarianism and certain principles of the early Muslim community. Politically immature and inexperienced people hear speeches of their leaders who are inspired by destructive radicalism and tell them that the roots of all their misfortunes and poverty lie in neglect and oblivion of the Koran, the Sharia law, the behests of the Prophet, and the true precepts of Islam. A no small role in provoking such developments is played by the ideas of nationalism.
Confessional groups interested in the conservation or revival of the Sharia form of governance are the most active proponents of radical ideologies.
Islamic radicalism plays a definite role in the life of Russian society, too, nowadays. It is widespread in several regions of Russia with predominantly Muslim population, and different social sections are influenced by it. Islamic young people in the North Caucasus are distinguished by the most radical religious consciousness.
The reasons for their radicalization lie in the economic, political, social, ethnic and confessional processes characteristic of postperestroika Russia. Radicalization of Islam was conditioned, to a great extent, by the destruction of many well-established social institutions and civil and family traditions, which took place in the 1990s, and the ideological and moral vacuum formed after the disintegration of the U.S.S.R. Social instability and everyday disarray poisoned the hearts and minds of believers. It was enhanced by the two "Chechen wars" and the following flare-up of extremist and terrorist activity in the North Caucasus.
However, we should note that radicalization of the consciousness of the Muslim population of Russia is taking place not according to the classical scheme when exacerbation of socio-economic problems brings to life ideology, then this ideology is accepted by the popular masses and is later expressed in radical practice. The logic of the emergence and confirmation of radical consciousness in the Islamic medium is somewhat different: in the situation of "ideological vacuum" propaganda of radical ideas in the form of salafism and wahhabism has resulted in radicalization of consciousness of part of Muslims who used the unfavorable socio-economic and political situation for undertaking attempts to implement radical ideas in public and everyday life.
At first, radical ideas of politicized Islam emerged in the North Caucasus, then slowly but surely they began to spread in other regions of Russia. Islamic radicalism became widespread among dissatisfied and marginalized sections of the population, criminal elements, and even representatives of government bodies. Its influence covered an ever greater geographical and socio-cultural area. Today radically-minded adherents of Islam can be met even among ethnic Russians, and the law-enforcement agencies find them in the Volga area, beyond the Urals and in the Russian Far East. Apparently, spiritual-ethical closeness and similarity of the socio-economic living conditions in many regions of Russia proved a favorable medium for radicalization of consciousness.
Previously, radicalization touched the consciousness of representatives of the marginal sections of society, criminal elements, drug addicts, and other persons "in hot water," whereas subsequently the social base of radicalism became much broader. Today one can meet scientists and scholars, government and municipal officials, employees of law-enforcement agencies, and many others among radically-minded Muslim believers. Their appearance in this medium is widely used by ideologists of Islamic radicalism for propaganda purposes.
In this situation some intellectuals, near-sighted officials and certain mass media deny the fact that radicalism is determined by socioeconomic, political and confessional reasons. They see the reasons for radicalization of Islam and the growth of Islamic extremism and terrorism in foreign financial and ideological influence, drawbacks in upbringing and education of children and young people, weakness of institutions of civil society, etc. No one would deny the significance of these factors. However, it is not they that determine radicalism of the consciousness of Muslim believers, but the causes of the economic,
social and political character. This is why deradicalization of Islamic consciousness requires complex solution of all these problems. But the authorities who proved unable to pursue a well-thought-out and consistent economic and social policy found nothing better than to switch over public opinion to the external factors and causes of secondary importance.
The reasons for radicalization of the religious consciousness of young Muslims in the North Caucasian region are many and varied, but the main ones are socio-economic and political. It is a well-known fact that the region has an excess working population, mass unemployment, property inequality, corruption, clan structure, and nepotism of enormous dimensions. Elections and appointments have long turned into buy and sell. Arbitrariness of government officials and representatives of the law-enforcement agencies have reached such dimensions that people prefer to protect their interests by illegitimate means, often using fire arms. These conditions are favorable for radicalization of the consciousness of Islamic young people who are being told to step on to the path of an armed struggle with the authorities and the constitutional pillars of a democratic secular state.
The concrete measures undertaken by the authorities for solving the problem of deradicalization of consciousness seem not only haphazard, but definitely insufficient. For example, it is planned to create 400,000 new jobs in the region with a view to providing employment to those who need it by 2025. But this figure is definitely too small even for just one republic - Daghestan. According to official data, more than 200,000 able-bodied people leave it for other regions of Russia annually in search for jobs. In some 15 years this figure will double due to natural population growth. And the unresolved employment problem will turn part of these people into the social base of religious radicalism.
Another factor radicalizing the consciousness of Islamic young people in the region is preference of the authorities to use forcible methods in combating people propagating radical ideas. Politicians and special force commanders determining strategy and tactics to oppose radicalism identify the problem of overcoming extremism as a social phenomenon with the struggle against individual extremists and combatants, thus demonstrating the absence of knowledge about the real state of affairs. Radicalism and extremism as social phenomena can only be overcome by comprehensive solution of the ripe economic, social and political problems, whereas concrete persons who have stepped on this slippery path and are not subject to correctional education should be eliminated by force.
The Russian state and its authorities lack understanding that pinpoint strikes and special operations against extremists, abductions and torture will not destroy the ideas of radicalism. Forcible opposition is, of course, necessary, but no less important is preventive measures to turn young people away from radical ideas. But the genuine struggle against and prevention of extremism and terrorism will only be effective if the causes of the emergence and spreading of radicalism as ideology and social practice are eliminated. If the activity of the state is oriented not to systemic qualitative changes of society working to overcome radicalism as a social phenomenon, but only to liquidation of extremists, the place of killed combatants will be taken by other fighters.
Evidently, radicalism in Islam is one of the global threats to human civilization as a whole, and to Russia in particular. Modern innovation technologies give radicals powerful means of destruction. Today, radical organizations, in contrast to previous epochs, can deal colossal damage to, and even completely destroy, the entire human civilization in accordance with their mad ideas and utopian programs.
This is why, apart from studying the essence and analyzing the sources, reasons and specific features of radicalism in the modern world, it is necessary to modernize society systematically and comprehensively, lending it new humanistic qualities.
"Islamovedeniye," Makhachkala, 2012, pp. 4-14.
C. Olimova, M. Olimov,
Heads of the "SHARKH" Research Center (Tajikistan)
PROBLEM OF 2014:
A VIEW FROM CENTRAL ASIA
Generally accepted, that Afghanistan is a major threat to security in Central Asia.
Experts contend that the Taliban will return to Kabul once again after the withdrawal of the NATO forces, and with the support of their collaborators will fight against the existing regimes of Central Asia. It is assumed that the increase of drug trafficking and export of religious extremism will lead to greater chaos and violence in Central Asian countries. Based on this premise, the U.S., Russia, the European Union and to a lesser extent China believe that it is necessary to bolster up Central Asian security.
However, it is necessary to examine the situation in Afghanistan. First of all, the immediate danger of the Taliban invasion does not threaten Central Asia, as NATO will keep its military presence in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of troops, scheduled for 2014. The new NATO mission, aimed at training the Afghan forces, will consist of a military contingent about 10-15 thousand people in 2014. A forthcoming Afghan-American security agreement will define the format of the deployment of the U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
