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traditional Russian Islam. Only then will they be able to become a generation worthy of their ancestors who had lived for centuries in peace and mutual respect with other peoples of Russia.
A. Ryazanov, Russian expert and author, asserts that it is in the interests of the Russian state to support traditional "non-political" Sufi Islam and pursue a policy of containment with regard to its radical trends, whose aim is to seize political power (including by methods of force), and also to create Muslim states. In conclusion it would be appropriate to cite the words of one of the Haddiths: "Muslim is a man whose tongue or hands harm nobody."3
References
R. Silantyev. Islam whose followers are ready to be law-abiding citizens of their state is traditional for Russia // NG-Religii. 2011, February 2. M. Sultanayev. Wahhabism // Muslim World. Kazan: Iman, 2008, No 10, p. 10. A. Ryazanov. Ethnoconfessional Relations in Modern Russia - Integrator or Disintegrator? // Ethnoconfessional Relations in Modern Russia and CIS Countries: Essence and Role. Chelyabinsk, 2007, p. 32.
"Obozrevatel - Observer," Moskva, 2014, No 6, pp. 48-56.
M. Basnukayev,
Ph. D. (Econ.), Professor at Chechen State University THE PLACE AND ROLE OF ISLAM IN REGIONS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION, TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
The specific features of interaction of politics and religion in Russian society are conditioned by a number of historical and national circumstances. Throughout centuries there have been factors aimed either to increasing its role or alienating it from the country's sociopolitical life. During a certain period there was direct interference of the
state in the affairs of religious organizations and their submission to it. The situation in modern Russia is also of a specific nature, when social apathy and mistrust in all authorities become a regular characteristic of the behavior of many sections of the population, be there an economic crisis or socio-political instability. In the post-conflict period in the Chechen Republic, when the revival of Islamic and ethnic customs and traditions of the people is taking place, achievement of national unity and civil establishment and development of society become especially important. Islam helps achieve this aim because it is an integrating factor, but it experiences a heavy burden of various unfounded, sometimes discriminatory socio-political decisions and economic reforms, open violence and political pressure of the authorities. Perhaps, it can be said not only of Islam, but also of other religions, but we shall dwell only on Islam. Although the Constitution of the Russian Federation presupposes separation of religion from the state, this premise is difficult to implement in full measure. In my view, there is an unspoken moratorium in Chechnya on the realization of this article of the Constitution. Despite different purposes and spheres of action, religion and politics are invariably interconnected. Moreover, it seems arguable to us that they have different aims. The main aim of both is the creation of such socio-economic system which would be in line with people's wishes and aspirations.
The traditional forms of the intertwining of politics and religion in the history of Russia can be examined on the example of the Chechen Republic. Here are some aspects of their interaction. The first is the influence of religion on politics. It is felt, above all, in that religion as a definite system of world outlook, including social and ethical standards, influences the hearts and minds of its adherents, their desires, social behavior, and political actions. Naturally, this influence
is the stronger the deeper their religious faith - Islam in this case, and the greater their readiness to follow its standards in everyday life.
In Chechnya, where Islam is part of the culture of Chechen society, religion sometimes determines the political actions of the present-day authorities in the republic. As is known, the end of the 20th century in Russia was marked by radical transformations in the state and political system and modernizing changes in the economy, ideology and culture. Modern Russian society, including North Caucasian society, has for many years already been in a state of transition and systemic and structural transformation. Economic and political transformations in the country and the systemic crisis of Russian society connected with them have led to the transformation of spiritual and cultural values and ethnic entity. They have also been reflected on the state of Islam in Russia, which has been on an upgrade since the 1980s.
The revival of Islam in Russia, including the Chechen Republic, was a reaction, above all, to the internal socio-political transformations. The very process of the revival of Russian Islam was accompanied with positive and negative tendencies. Islamic renaissance in Chechnya had the most tragic consequences. Old mosques were restored and new ones built, Islamic schools and institutes were opened, religious dogmas were studied, and corresponding literature was published. Muslims' contacts with foreign brethren by religion and centers of Arab-Muslim culture were broadened. In the Chechen Republic along with all this, religious-political parties and movements were set up pursuing radical aims, right up to the change of the existing political system and spiritual and cultural identity of Russian Muslims through the forcible introduction of non-traditional religious-political and ethnocultural values. A no small role in these developments was played by the International Islamic Organization registered in Moscow and in other
cities of the country, which supported, financially and ideologically, new Muslim religious-political organizations. During that period many emissaries, who did not stay long in Moscow or other places in Russia, found themselves in the Chechen Republic, for some reason or other. The Russian-Chechen conflict which flared up at the end of the 20th century and turned into a crime against humanity had not only a political background, but also an inter-religious tint. The separatists in Chechnya, with a view to legitimizing their actions constantly resorted to religion, thus increasing interethnic and inter-religious tension.
At the beginning of the 21st century it became necessary to change the situation drastically: a new system of world outlook should have formed in Chechen society which would have asserted that religion, particularly Islam, not only did not contradict the realities of our day, moreover, contained a great potential for the development of civil society and demonstrated itself as the supreme condition ensuring the integrity of the Russian Federation. During that tragic historical period the policy of the new leader of Chechnya, Ahmad-Hajji Kadyrov, took shape on such platform. The appointment of a religious figure as head of the administration of the Chechen Republic was a clever choice of Russia's President Putin. It was aimed at stemming separatist tendencies in the region and stabilizing the socio-political situation in the country.
At present religion becomes one of the legitimate factors of the public life in the Chechen Republic. State power turns to the basic principles and values of Islam, thus emphasizing its confessional identity. We can frequently see the leadership of the republic in a mosque. Religion not only does not contradict modern realities and democracy, but also has a great potential for the development of the civil foundations of society's development. Religious-political radicalism and extremism are directly connected with the low level of
socio-economic development, which is expressed, among other things, in xenophobia, part of which is dislike of Islam, in Russian society. Islamophobia has now become part and parcel of the consciousness of a considerable section of the country's population. This is due to the inner conflict in Russia which has features of inter-religious tension, and is also connected with the international situation. Regrettably, there is a stereotype in Russian society nowadays - international terrorism is a synonym of Islamic terrorism.
For the ruling circles of many states terrorism becomes a handy instrument of pursuing domestic and foreign policies convenient for them. Many people emphasize the fact that this becomes a policy of western countries. Such ideas can be found in the policy of the Russian leadership. In this sense fight against terrorism is a convenient pretext for the creation of intrastate socio-political constructions, as well as the far-fetched foreign-policy plans and technologies.
A special place belongs to the confessional organization and the activity of religious figures themselves among the elements of the religious complex which connect religion with politics. Depending on the specific features of religion, particularly Islam, this influence can be open and comprehensive or predominating. As far as the Chechen Republic is concerned, it is important that the spiritual leaders there have always played an authoritative socio-political role. I should say that there are no discussions as to the form of Islam which should exist in the republic. It should only be traditional Islam - another trend of it is not recognized either by the authorities or politicians. Here we see that politics exerts pressure on religion. The constitutional separation of religion from the state does not deny the possibility of close interaction between religious and secular institutions. Historical experience of the activity of government institutions confirms the readiness of the state to cooperate with religious bodies, protecting the religious rights of
citizens, initiating a dialogue of Islam with Orthodox Christianity, and quite often financing the construction of mosques, churches, religious centers, etc.
Big mosques are now under construction in Chechnya, tombs of Chechen holy men and places connected with their life are taken care of. The Kunta-Hajji Russian Islamic University is functioning in Grozny, the capital of the Chechen Republic. Its students (about four hundred of them) will get specialty of imam-khatyb - teacher of Arabic and the Shariah sciences and the diploma of a higher education. The creation of this university was not an easy thing, for some of the authorities were against it. But here, too politics played its role. Moreover, President Putin has sent a message of greeting to the republican leadership on the occasion of the opening of the university.
Three schools have been opened in the republic where pupils, apart from regular curricula, will learn the Koran. Each school has one hundred boys from ten to thirteen years of age, and the term of study is three years.
Every year the Chechen Republic is the venue of the International peace forum "Islam - religion of peace and creation," in which authoritative Islamic religious figures from various countries, public and political figures, and representatives of other confessions take part. One of the aims of the forum is to step up the activity of Russian Muslims to oppose religious-political extremism and terrorism and support government bodies and public organizations in pursuing a policy of tolerance and respect for the peoples of Russia.
In the center of Grozny stands the "Heart of Chechnya" mosque which is a beautiful sight of the city. The mosque can accommodate more than ten thousand parishioners and is Europe's biggest.
Political figures of different orientations, primarily those in power, use religion in their interests. They use different means, among
which are the granting of material privileges, certain pressure on the public, appeal to common interests, etc. These means are used in modern Chechnya, too. Such form of intertwining politics and religion has a long-standing tradition in Russia, and it is widely used by modern politicians. The head of the Chechen Republic is the initiator and active proponent of work for establishing and maintaining mutual connections between the spiritual board and the government of Chechnya.
Protest sentiments are quite often expressed through religion. In modern Russia turning to religion of considerable sections of the population is conditioned, among other things, by their mistrust in the policy pursued by the authorities and statements made by state figures.
Thus, politics and religion are invariably connected with each other. Underestimation by the authorities of the religious component of their policy, just as politicization of religion lead to curtailment of systematic purposeful work on religious education of the people.
The North Caucasus is one of the most risk-contributing regions of modern Russia. Ethnic and confessional diversity of the population of the North Caucasian region aggravates the perception and effects of socio-cultural risks entailed by modernization. Global and Russian risks are increased by concrete regional ones. An important place among them is held by ethnopolitical risks, such as extremism, terrorism, nationalism, xenophobia and radicalization of young people [Astvatsaturova, 2012: 44; Avksentyev and others. 2014]. One of the prospects for overcoming them is the preservation of a dialogue on the basis of North Caucasian and Russian values, and strengthening of Russian identity.
Another category of risks is the social one - social and territorial differentiation, deterioration of living standards, unemployment, and criminalization, including among young people.
Socio-cultural risks are caused by the disintegration of the value system, destruction of group cultures, and loss of ideology by the modern generation of Russian people. In the view of O. Astafyeva, the socio-cultural risks also include risks connected with globalization, belated cultural development, loss of basic characteristics of ethnic cultures and, accordingly, transformation of models of ethnocultural identity, negative self-organization, absence of proper cultural policy, etc. [Astafyeva 2008: 183; Shadzhe 2014: 303].
Traditions and Innovations in the Context
of Socio-cultural Risks
It is known that there are two types of socio-cultural transformations: traditionalization and modernization. The former is transfer from openness to closeness or greater closeness of society by creating or strengthening the elements of culture and social structure which ensure priority of prescribed standards and rules of behavior of subjects as compared with a possible initiative of their actions. Modernization is transfer from closeness to openness of society or its greater openness by differentiating and complicating its structure which considerably broadens the freedom of choice and responsibility of subjects in accordance with a greater complex character of personality and its growing requirements.
Tradition is understood as a mechanism of the reproduction of social institutions and norms in which the maintenance and preservation of the latter are based on the very fact of their existence in the past and traditional actions and relations are oriented not to reaching a definite goal and not to realizing a specially fixed norm, but to repeating the past sample [Levada 1970: 253].
Innovation is more often understood as the introduction of something new of a technological or scientific-technical character
requiring socio-cultural interpretation. This is a specific mechanism of the formation of new models, patterns of behavior, and technologies, which become prerequisites for the renovation of society and culture.
Traditional society is opposed to modern one by a number of parameters: the form of activity of actors of social action (collectivism and individualism), distinctiveness of a social structure (diffusion and differentiation), the way of perception of reality (emotionality and rationality), the method of interaction outside (contextuality, isolation and expansion). As a result of a search for philosophical foundation of traditional society it has been determined that the main parameter of any society is openness or closeness, and differences between all forms of openness and closeness are determined by orientation to the past or to the future. From these positions traditional closed society has the following features: it opposes innovations which exceed a certain static limit. The system of relations in this society is not only a result of the reproduction of a traditional program, but also a guarantee of their preservation from the impact of the sources of unsanctioned innovations. The specifics of traditionalism lies not in the absence of innovations, but in the domination of the value of statics, which is expressed in the strict filter of innovations and the narrow step of novelty and suppression of everything which goes beyond the allowed framework.
Succession, base of support on one's own traditions are necessary for any society wishing to ensure its stability and identity. With such approach tradition as a parameter of order becomes an equal participant in a dialogue between the new and the old, which guarantees the originality of the very process of changes and development.
Such view is applicable to regions of Russia, primarily the North Caucasus, where deep-going layers of original culture still exist and are interpreted in the aspect of spiritual renovation.
The Russian scholar E. Pain believes that there are two different phenomena - socio-political traditionalism and cultural traditionalism, and there are quite a few examples of how carefully certain societies treat their ethnocultural heritage, at the same time demonstrating an active bent to economic and socio-political modernization [Pain 2003: 16].
Lectures revisited. URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith 1999/lecture3 .shtml
References
1. Russia and the Moslem World, 2008, No 8.
2. "Islamovedeniye" (Islamic Studies), Makhachkala, 2014, No 1, pp. 99-103.
3. E. Kukva, Ph. D. (Sociology), Adyge State University. Severo-Kavkazsky region kak prostranstvo sotsiokulturnykh riskov [North-Caucasian Region as an Area of Socio-cultural Risks].
This article is based on a report made at the All-Russia scientific conference "Islam at the Beginning of the 21st Century" in Makhachkala, Republic of Daghestan, on December 19-20, 2013.
E. Kukva,
Ph. D. (Sociology), Adyge State University THE NORTH CAUCASIAN REGION AS AN AREA OF SOCIO-CULTURAL RISKS. SOCIAL RISKS AT THE PRESENT DEVELOPMENT STAGE OF THE NORTH CAUCASUS
The society of risk now acquires the features of generality. An analysis of risks, including socio-cultural ones, is often actualized in the conditions of transitivity. Transitional society is characterized by
