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of the era of globalization, a potential threat of the presence of millions of foreign workers on a permanent basis in the country.
In general, the political culture and political system in Saudi Arabia have been upgraded significantly (based on the logic of internal development), experiencing the impact, but avoid borrowing from formal political structures of the Western model. It is possible to see the connection of traditional Arab and Islamic as well as the Western borrowed features, standards and elements in the political life of the kingdom. The Kingdom has managed to avoid the revolutionary disasters is, without abandoning the traditional Islamic and tribal bases.
At the same time, the growing complexity of economic life and the steady social development are generating new problems and contradictions in the Saudi society, which require resolution by political means. That is impossible without certain reformation of the political system, religious life and religious institutions in the Kingdom. Such processes are already underway, the author writes in the conclusion.
The author of the abstract - N. Ginesina
2017.01.016. E. MUZYKINA. POSITION OF RELIGIOUS COMPONENTS IN THE IRAN-SAUDI CONFLICT / "Islam v sovremennom mire", Moscow, 2016, Volume 12, № 2, P. 161-169.
Keywords: Iran, Saudi Arabia, Islam, religious conflict, the Shia-Sunni differences, regional policy.
E. Muzykina,
PhD (Philosophy), Associate Professor Department of Linguistics and Humanities and Social Sciences, Zaoksky Christian Institute of Humanities and Economics
The author believes that the 21st century in the political aspect was characterized by the fact that Islam has become
nominated at the cutting edge of modern processes more and more insistently. This trend has an ambivalent character. On the one hand, the second largest world religion often appears as a source of negative emotions in numerous media reports, representing a picture of "Islamic extremism," scourge of war in Syria, steady stream of Muslim refugees in European countries and related conflicts.
On the other hand, it is clear that the Middle Eastern countries, where the majority of the population is Muslim, are beginning to attract worldwide attention as active participants in the global processes and actors having their own agenda and strategic plans. Actions of such significant actors in the Middle East, like Iran and Saudi Arabia are proof of this.
According to the author, the views of Hans Kipenberg have to be taken into account with the respect to the Islamic world: to identify the religion as the "cause of the fire" is not true, but it is better to compare it to the role of oil, poured into the fire. It is the political, social and cultural conflicts that exacerbate religious feelings in the modern world. The author believes that it is legitimate to say that a certain type of religious community begins to mobilize its power potential if it sees a threat to their livelihood, their identity and their well-being in particular political, social and cultural development.
Thus, the roots of the modern conflict of Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia are to be found in any other dimension, but not in the religious, leaving attempts to explain the theory of regional confrontation, "the revival of religion." The author believes that it is necessary to depart from the orientalist discourse that has emerged in the modern research tradition, and pay due attention to the numerous forms of Islam as a religion, cultural traditions and socio-political system. This approach will help to evaluate the events more objectively, isolating the cause, as well as help to project the possible consequences. Consideration of the Iranian-Saudi conflict will take place in this direction.
Events in January point to the deliberate escalation of tension in the region by the Saudi authorities. The author asks a legitimate question: What was the reason? Gregory Gause sees the reason for this turn of events not in the dogmatic differences between Shiites and Sunnis, but in the fact that many governments of the Persian Gulf countries have to balance between internal and external threats.
According to Marc Lynch of George Washington University (USA), the ambivalence of the provisions of the Saudis is as follows. On the one hand, Riyadh has a strong political position in the Arab world today: the Saudi authorities could rely on the support of the UAE, is actively reaching rapprochement, the weakening of traditionally dominated in the region in the face of the forces of Egypt, Syria and Iraq. In addition, the constant enemies of the Saudis in the Sunni world, Turkey and Qatar slowed degree charges as a result of numerous failures of their own and seek to restore relations with the authorities of the kingdom.
On the other hand, the continuing war in Syria and Yemen, the emergence and vigorous activity of the Islamic State, as well as the Iranian nuclear program, make the Saudi rulers very vulnerable. They should also add the problems of domestic policy - budgetary implications of falling oil prices and the struggle of bidders for the right to inherit the throne. However, the external problems required immediate reaction, expressed in the escalation of inter-communal confrontation, in the presence of serious internal problems.
M. Lynch identifies three main foreign source of tension:
1. "Iranian issue".
2. Failure of international policy.
3. Issue of the leadership in the Sunni Muslim world. In the current conditions, the situation is further aggravated due to the media that create a social base for the continuing civil wars in the region, supporting the idea of separation.
The author comes to the following conclusions: Shiite-Sunni religious differences can not be ignored. Religious and community
component is intertwined with ethnic, tribal, regional, ethnic, class, age and social in the Middle East. Often some differences perceived as religious or doctrinal disagreements at first glance, are by-products of political repression or lack of equal access to economic resources. In addition, the Middle East represents a conglomeration of communities where the local context is particularly important: the religious dynamics in Bahrain is radically different from the dynamics in Lebanon or Syria.
Studying relationship between Iran and Saudi Arabia to date, the author believes that the religious factor is not an innovative component of modern public life to this part of the Middle East region, but continues to be an integral part of it, working in a peculiar way.
The author believes that it is impossible to speak of dogmatic differences as the root cause. Rather, actors conceal some political ambition behind them. Riyadh uses the Sunni-Shiite conflict as a habitual means to shift the attention of the parties between internal and regional problems, in which the kingdom is directly involved, but can not solve.
The author of the abstract - N. Ginesina
V. KIRICHENKO. THE SHIITE COMMUNITY IN THE POLITICAL LIFE OF KUWAIT // The article is written for the bulletin "Russia and the Moslem world".
Keywords: Shiism, the Shiite communities, ethnic religious minorities, Kuwait, the Gulf states, "Arab Spring", terrorism.
V. Kirichenko,
Ph.D. student, junior researcher, Institute of Oriental Studies of the RAS
This is analysis of the situation around the Shiite communities in a number of Arab states. Particular attention is
