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uprisings took place in the town of Oktyabrsky in 2009 and 2010 staged by mojahed units numbering over 50 men. The republican special force captured a group of militants headed by "Emir Bashkirsky", the leader of the local terrorist underground. His real name was Bashir Pliyev. According to information available to the special service, he has traveled to the North Caucasus where he met the head of the Chechen terrorists Doku Umarov, who appointed him "Emir of Bashkortostan and Samara region."
In early 2011 the construction of a huge Islamic complex began in Ufa. It will include a mosque, Islamic university and offices of Islamic organizations. Its activity will definitely be aimed, among other things, to opposing extremism and terrorism.
"Strany Vostoka: sotsialno-politicheskiye problemy v kontekste globalizatsii". Moscow, 2012, pp. 197-217.
B. Aksyumov,
D. Sc. (Phil.),
D. Lavrinenko,
Cand. Sc. (Pol.)
THE ETHNO-POLITICAL PREREQUISITES
FOR EXTREMISM IN THE NORTH CAUCASUS
For the whole post-Soviet period the North Caucasus (NC) represented a clearly pronounced zone of ethno-political and socio-cultural turbulence. In many sectors of social reality the intensity of conflicts either raises or reduces but remains rather high for the whole time. Thus, at the present time, the re-politicization of ethnicity goes on after the period of the relative de-politicization in the middle of the first decade of the XXI century. One other trend is the continued process of religious rebirth and politicization of religious processes in the region.
These two factors play greater role in the socio-cultural and political processes in the South of Russia (SR), while religion is often used as an instrument of raising ethno-political tension. The acute ethno-political problems of the NC region, the general and a rather high level of conflicts' generation of its socio-cultural area represent a favorable ground for emergence and development of extremism in various expressions starting with mental predisposition to extremist activities and finishing with terrorist acts. Evidently, today the rise of extremism and terrorism is the most significant and the most painful problem of NC, the problem, which has an essential influence on the situation not only within the region itself but also in the Russian Federation (RF) as a whole.
The federal law on the counteraction against extremist activities regards as extremist activities the following actions: propaganda, public appeals and financing directed to the forceful change of the foundations of the Constitutional order and violation of integrity of the RF, undermining of security of RF, seizure or embezzlement of powers, creation of illegal armed groups and carrying out of terrorist activities. It is said in the law that the subjects of extremist activities may be organizations, mass media, groups of persons, individuals, while the objects of extremist activities may be the state and social groups, as well as their representatives (officials, representatives of the law enforcement bodies and citizens).
The significant characteristic of extremism is rejection of existing social and political conditions. This characteristic is not the only one for the analyzed notion, since otherwise practically any conflicting reciprocal action might be considered as a display of extremism. R.Abdulatipov considers that any form of extremism is enforcement of your own ideas and values related to violation of human rights, personal dignity, rights and dignity of peoples or other social
societies. "Enforcement" is not the most significant and final objective of extremist activities. To the authors' mind, it is a stage related to any form of conflicting reciprocal action, but use of force does not take place always in case of conflict. The passage from radicalism to extremism is realized by means of fixing the objective and by selecting means of the objective's achievement. One party in the conflict may doubt in the system's ability to propose the acceptable decision or regard it as an objective obstacle. Finally, it may lead to fixing of such targets and to selection of such means, which will threaten existence of the system and security of the citizens. For instance, the demand to change radically the principles of migration policy (for instance, to restrict essentially arrival to the region's territory of labor migrants from other regions of the country for the reasons not directly connected with their social belonging) is a display of radicalism.
On the other side, the attempts to eject migrants without assistance, application of psychological and physical forceful action against them as representatives of the certain social group is a display of extremism. In the first case radicalism is not necessarily connected with nationalism, and, on the contrary, the question is such changes in migration policy, which are directed to protection of the rights of the labor migrants belonging to one or other ethnic group. And what is more, it is possible to think about the situation, when one or other political force seeking to arrange a pressure against the authorities in the interests of migrants in its activities crosses the framework of legislation and takes forceful measures. Thus, any political group, irrespective of the values proclaimed by it, is an extremist group, if it fixes extreme aims and uses extreme means.
Analyzing the main approaches to definition of extremism as well as the Russian legislation relating to this matter, the authors regard extremism as a form of conflict. At the same time, the main indication,
which distinguishes extremism from radicalism and moderate conflicting situation, will be the attitude of subjects of a political or socio-cultural conflict to the social system in the broad sense and to the use of force as an instrument of realization of the fixed aims and tasks. E. Ulezko, the author of article "Extremism and Terrorism" published in magazine "Philosophy of Law" (2009, N 5), considers that as extremist may be called only such actions, which surpasses the needed rate of action irrespective of the used means: physical force, moral enforcement, economic pressure etc. He writes that extremism, aggravating the situation, directs it to the extremes and radial contradictions, and therefore the constructive solution of the problem, as a rule, becomes impossible. If extremism is the extreme, terrorism is the last extreme presenting itself rather as the logical but not obligatory development of extremism. Extremism potentially may transform itself into terrorism. At the same time, extremism may be limited with the sphere of ideological abstractions, while terrorism is a phenomenon coming out of the social-political practice with its own ideology, though. Extremism may be the ground (as ideology, social basis etc.) for terrorism. In the same way, the "softer" definition - radicalism may potentially outgrow into extremism. It is possible to consider terrorism as a method of solving contradictions emerging between the social groups (communities) and the state and supposing offence against the health or life of people as an action of influence on the state. Terrorism is a form of conflict, which is characterized by the offence or a threat of offence against health or life of the people directed to formation of discourse about the lack of protection with the view of compulsion to fulfill demands of certain social groups by society and the authorities.
The information disseminated by the persons affiliated with extremist and terrorist organizations is directed to formation of the discourse, which considers extremist and terrorist activities as "struggle
for justice" and "struggle for the rights of the oppressed". The terrorists are proclaimed to be heroes, while the negative image of their antagonist is formed, regarding its position as "demonic" and making it subject to disparagement. These assertions may be justified on the basis of political and religious ideas of different orientations, which characterize the level of this conflicting process. According to the opinion of some experts (V. Chulanov and V. Gurba), the idea of justice is the most significant factor of legitimization and of public support given to terrorism. They pointed out that from the ancient times justice was considered as the most significant virtue and the main principle of the world order. The norms of justice correspond to the ideal of social system and are accepted by the majority of the population, since they promise every person the requital according to the deserts. The ideal of justice includes the principles letting the person form the space of free realization of his own interests with due account of interests of all others. However, the principles of justice are not quite universal - they proceed from the universal nature of man, but historic conditions, social rules and the way of living of the social group, of the community have an impact on the contents of the principles.
Thus, there shapes each person's own scale of appraising justice, which makes the person in a specific way evaluate his own and the other's deeds. To the authors' view, the values, phenomena of the social environment and the social system as a whole may be subject to such subjective appraisal. As a result, the formula snaps into action: "what is terrorism for someone, the other one considers as a struggle for freedom". A. Omarov, the official representative of the Republic of Dagestan in Stavropol krai, shares this point of view. In his interview to magazine "Expertise of Power" he said as follows: "The photos of fighters are stuck around the city of Stavropol. There is among them the
twenty years man born in village Aigurski of the Apanasenkovski district. Eight years ago the families of shepherds were evicted from the district. Probably, the family of this fighter was victim of injustice on the part of the authorities, and the sun escaped to the forest exactly due to this injustice? And at present we again come back to this practice of injustice..."
The mentioned above religious rebirth for the post-Soviet period became one of the most important trends of the socio-cultural transformation of the North-Caucasian region. At present, religion as a logical consequence of this process is the dominant of the identification process in the space of NC. At the same time, the relations among some ethno-confessional groups in the region aggravated greatly creating prerequisites for development of conflicting reciprocal actions. The significance of religion for residents of NC is shown by the results of the research arranged in 2009 on the territory of four subjects of the former SFD: in Stavropol krai, Krasnodar krai, the Karachay-Cherkessia republic and Kabardino-Balkaria republic. The confessional identity is very important for young residents of the South of Russia. As "very important" or "important" it was appraised by 76% of respondents. The Christian part of the South of Russia is secularized to a rather large extent, and this fact had its impact on "the rating of identities" of the youth of the South of Russia, fixing it at the third place.
The rapid rise of importance of religious identity contributed to the fact that the extremist-terrorist underground in NC started actively to use religion as an instrument in political and ideological struggle. For religious terrorists the forceful action (or terrorism) is a sacred duty, justified by Holy Writ (either Bible or Koran). The forceful action legitimized by religion becomes a self-supported act, since the forceful actions by themselves are regarded as "sanctioned" by God. However
this assertion made by RAND Corporation (http://rand.org) lets make different conclusions on the influence of the religious factor: numerous analyses of biographies of the known members of religious terrorist organizations showed that these people did not get a thorough religious education and most of them by origin are members of the families with moderate religious views. These conclusions correspond quite well with the position taken by A. Khloponin, the Political Representative of the President in the North Caucasian Federal District, who thinks that at present, Islam is not comprehended even by those, who take refuge in it. However, at the same time, it is impossible to ignore the fact that many terrorists justify by religion their activities and very often use some or other provisions of Islam as an ideological foundation of terrorism.
According to some researchers, comprehension by Muslims of their religious identity demanded its consolidation as well in political life of society. The politicization of Islam went on at different levels and in various forms. On the one side, the attempts were made to include Islam in the political system by creation of Muslim public-political organizations, some kind of attempts to form new "pure Islam", and, on the other side, the spontaneous politicization was going on, including radicalization of Islam in small social groups. It was noted as well, that as a result of uncontrolled processes of religious rebirth the society in NC became very quick on the uptake of religious ideas interpreted often in the radical sense. As a result, there shaped favorable conditions for development in the North Caucasian region of the radical Islamic underground.
One of the prerequisites for the spread of Islamic radicalism is, first of all, the national-territorial arrangement: the principle itself of the territorial-administrative separation according to the national reason contradicts the history of peoples of NC. Two peoples of the North
Caucasus turned out to be separated by inter-state borders - the Ossetians and the Lezgins. A considerable number of the North Caucasian peoples are separated by internal (inter-republican) borders. This factor disunited the peoples of trans-border regions and lets Islamists use the opposition among peoples of NC for intensification of their activities.
Second, the so-called "Asian" or traditional structure of employment is characteristic for employment. The aboriginal population is engaged mainly in agriculture and trade, and "new comers" (mainly Slavonic people) are employed in industry. The region is marked by excess of labor force, and unemployment is characteristic primarily for the rural districts, where the main part of the indigenous population is settled. Exactly the traditional rural way of living of the indigenous population, as some researchers think, promotes dissemination in these districts of radical Islamic ideas and in this way raises the general level of conflicts' generation. The absolute and relative overpopulation of NC and at the same time the impossibility of the main part of indigenous residents to participate in industrial production engender the social tension. Many inter-national conflicts in NC emerged due to the territories fit for agriculture - they are the so called "agricultural conflicts". It is easy to explain why the authorities of two mountainous republics (North Ossetia and Ingushetia) quarrel so stubbornly for a long period of dispute about territorial belonging of the Prigorodny district. The flat country, agricultural Prigorodny district was the main granary for the Ingushis, who lost it, and is one of the most fertile zones in North Ossetia, which acquired it.
The third reason of dissemination of Islamic radicalism in NC lies in attractiveness of some ideas of religious fundamentalism for rather large groups of the population confining themselves to traditional Islamic values. For instance, the neo-wahhabies regard subordination of
Muslims to the authorities as inappropriate for them and come forward for creation of the Islamic state (existing according to the laws of shariat). These ideas are shared mainly in the regions of wide dissemination of neo-wahhabism, where about 70% of the residents live, in essence, in the traditional society in a way practically unchanged for the times of the Soviet power. It is significant to note that the ideas of religious radicalism and extremism find the broadest response in the environment of the young people. As R.G. Landa mentions, the main secret of success of fundamentalists (rather relative almost in the whole post-Soviet space) consists in their count on the youth. The main pre-requisite of radicalization of the youth in the North Caucasus is the deep religiousness of young people implanted in them since the childhood. According to the data of the sociological opinion poll, the basis of the world outlook of the emerged new generation is religion. The great majority of the participants of the contemporary terrorist underground in NC consist of young (15-20 years old) people, who differ much in their ideological directions from the generation of the 25-30 years people, who confine themselves to more secular and moderate views.
Fourth, the inefficiency of the state power and legal nihilism, characteristic practically for all Muslim regions of the former USSR, promote the social basis of Islamic radicals. For instance, at present in Dagestan the state power is actually divided in two strata of society -the former party nomenclature and the so called "new Dagestanians", i.e. the criminal authorities possessing their own armed groups. The conflict of wahhabies of the village of Karamakhi in Dagestan with the authorities of official Makhachkala appeared after their refusal to pay contribution to the local criminality. In this situation many Muslims lose faith in the efficiency of the secular authorities' actions and come
round to the view that it is possible to overcome lawlessness only in the case, if society lives according the norms of shariat.
Fifth, the financial might of fundamentalists to a rather great extent promotes their influence.
In conclusion, it should be said that the ideology of contemporary terrorism, as a rule, consists of radical religiously determined views and of the count on forceful action and extremism in solving public contradictions and carrying out social reforms. The complex of contradictions of social development is changed for simplified schemes of social dynamics greatly bearing resemblance to social Darwinism. In this case, they recognize "revolutionary type" of development but not development as an evolutionary transformation. The world outlook within the framework of binary opposition "we -they" is a display of the extreme intolerance to heterodoxy and doubts. The adherence to the group comes forward as a founding value, and the norms of groups are idealized, while the given society is considered as a hostile environment. The common human values, primarily the human right for life are repudiated. As a rule, the responsive actions on the part of society are marked by the opposite result - they consolidate the preservation of the group, diminish differences in the group and create moral alibi. At present, there has been formed in NC the discourse, which asserts intolerance to the civil secular society, has as its aim creation of the state with legal norms based on religion - the theocratic state of the so called "Caucasian Imarat". At the same time, the activities of terrorist groups are not reduced to the separatist trend relating to Russia, since the question is the involvement of the whole Islamic ummah in the struggle against "the unfaithful" on the territory of Russia and outside it. The appeal of religious radicals to senses and faith promote consolidation of such political and religious views.
Extremism and terrorism represent the continued display of ideas of radicalism based on the rebirth of religion.
"Nauchnaya mysl Kavkaza", Rostov na Donu, 2012, N1, pp 35-39.
Rustam Khaidarov, Independent expert (Tajikistan) INTERACTION OF RELIGION AND THE STATE IN TAJIKISTAN: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS
In the Central Asian countries, particularly Tajikistan, the population's interest in Islam, especially among young people, has grown considerably in recent years. This is due, above all, to a difficult socio-economic situation and the ideological and spiritual vacuum in Tajik society. The ideas of a secular, law-abiding and democratic state proclaimed by the Constitution of Tajikistan are not fully implemented in society. Proceeding from this, the population, especially young people, turn to religion, namely, to Islam ever more frequently in search of truth and justice.
Meanwhile, in the absence of well-developed and high-quality secular education most young people grow up illiterate, with narrow spiritual horizon, and this is why, while visiting mosques, they can possibly become objects of manipulations on the part of religious figures of various kind. This is one of the most serious problems in modern Tajik society.
Another serious problem in Tajikistan at present is a shortage of high-quality religious education. It is the latter that can become the basis for the development of tolerant Islam in Tajik society. The growing influence of Islam in many transition societies of Central Asia is not prevented by anyone or anything at present. A question arises
