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Expansion of the markets is impossible any longer. Consequently, the further division of labor is not possible either within the framework of the existing economic model. Hence, the conclusion that modern capitalism has come to an end. The present crisis is the crisis of its end. It has no resources for further development. The world cannot develop in the grip of capitalist ideology.
But this is not the gravest tragedy. In Europe alone two basic models of economic development have changed during the past two millennia. So what if another change will take place?
It seems to us that today the key thing is search for a new mechanism and a new language to describe this new development. He who will be able to cope with this task will become the champion of civilization for the next 200 to 300 years. From the above-said it follows that this can only be done beyond the bounds of the western world.
"Druzhba narodov", Moscow, 2012, No 7, pp. 149-165.
Rashid Emirov,
Political analyst
THE ISLAMIC TANGLE IN THE CONTEXT
OF THE NATIONAL SECURITY OF RUSSIA
Historical experience shows that religion has a powerful ideological potential capable to promote social, economic, political, ethnic-national, socio-cultural and other conflicts. Under certain conditions religion can easily acquire radical and even extremist forms. This fact is of special significance for the North Caucasus because its confessional variety is one of the crucial factors determining this region as an important geopolitical area of the Russian Federation.
Various branches of Christianity - Orthodox Christianity, Catholicism and Protestantism, as well as Judaism and Buddhism have existed side by side with Sunna and Shia Islam for many centuries. This situation has become much more complex in our days, which is shown by rapid religious revival in the region, which began during the period of perestroika in the latter half of the 1980s. During these years hundreds of Orthodox Christian and Armenian-Gregorian churches, synagogues, and Roman Catholic churches were built and thousands of parishes and communities were registered. Many religious traditions and Orthodox and Islamic festivals were revived, and hundreds of religious schools of various types were opened, including Orthodox Christian seminaries and Islamic universities. Apart from that, periodic publications of religious content appeared, and quite a few people began to observe religious rites and rituals regularly, and clergymen take an active part in public life, thus having an influence on political processes.
Islam is of principal importance in the North Caucasus. This theme has been thoroughly discussed here and abroad in religious, political, historical, sociological and philosophical works devoted to various problems of the modern world - from socio-economic development to extremism and terrorism. In this article we shall dwell on the aspects directly bearing on the specific features of the North Caucasus as an internal geopolitical region of the Russian Federation.
The place and role of Islam in the North Caucasian geopolitical area. In the Middle Ages and New time Islam was a very important factor in the spiritual development of the peoples of the region. It has played, and continues to play, the key role in the formation of the socio-cultural and civilization image of the Caucasian peoples. Islam, just as any other religion, becomes especially important during the critical periods of the historical development of some or
other countries and peoples. Besides, as historical experience shows, religion can easily take radical and extremist forms during such periods. In this context, it is important that the North Caucasus is part of the so-called Muslim North, which, in its turn, is part of a much broader Muslim world.
According to the available data, at present there are from 12 to 15 million, or about 12 to 15 percent of the population of the Russian Federation, who are Muslims. A considerable part of them lives in the North Caucasus. The overwhelming majority of the population of Azerbaijan are Muslims, about 30 percent of the people of Abkhazia are also Muslims, as well as part of Ossetians, most people of Adjaria and about half a million of Azerbaijanis living in Georgia. This shows that the religious boundaries of the North Caucasus are far beyond the borders of the Russian Federation, in the Trans-Caucasus, and further on to the Middle East.
The revival of Islam and its ideological, political and social activation are of a global character and embrace many countries of the world. Naturally, the central place in this process is taken by the countries of the Middle East, which is reflected, directly and indirectly, in the state of affairs in the Caucasus. This is shown by the fact that after the disintegration of the U.S.S.R. many representatives of the peoples of the newly-emerged post-Soviet states, as well as Muslim republics within the Russian Federation, began to respond to currents and trends coming from the Islamic world.
The influence of the Middle East countries on the situation in the Muslim republics of the North Caucasus and Azerbaijan tends to grow, and it is also felt in the relations of the Russian Federation with the Caucasus and the rest of the Islamic world. Consequently, the internal and external threats to national security are intertwined and form a complex tangle. This is why one can agree with analysts who regard
Islam as one of the most crucial factors determining the geopolitical situation in the southern direction and posing the problem of ensuring the national security of Russia.
This trend acquired an ever greater significance for the foreign-policy strategy of Russia against the backdrop of the further aggravation of the social, economic, political, and, accordingly, geopolitical situation in the region. Naturally, the two Chechen wars were a major stumbling block in this direction. The Islamic component of the foreign-policy course of certain Muslim countries toward Russia is now causing definite apprehension among certain scholars, researchers, political circles and state power bodies of the Russian Federation. Naturally, the processes going on in Russian Islam, and also in the Muslim communities of Azerbaijan and the Trans-Caucasia as a whole have been in the field of vision not only of the foreign-policy ministries and departments of Muslim countries, but also among representatives of religious circles, outstanding religious figures and theologians of the Muslim East, who are interested in spreading their influence on the Russian Islamic community.
In other words, Russian Islam has not avoided the general world tendencies. The latter half of the last century was marked by the steadily growing politicization of Islam and the emergence and formation of the ideology of Islamic fundamentalism. For the first time the growth of radical ideas in Islam of the Soviet period began to be traced during the war in Afghanistan. The collapse of communism and the disintegration of the U.S.S.R. have given rise to an outburst of Islamic radicalism practically all over the Muslim North. Just as in the rest of the Islamic world, radicalism in the North Caucasus has taken the form of different variants of politicized fundamentalism. Its adherents and supporters have found a broad financial and intellectual support on the part of numerous foreign Islamic organizations behind
which stood the geopolitical interests of various states of the Islamic world and western powers. In the conditions of political instability in certain districts of the North Caucasus, the followers of radical Islam have turned into the factor of instability and aggression toward other peoples. As Alexei Malashenko justly noted, "in the conditions of the aggravating conflict situation and tense relations between Moscow and the North Caucasus, the radicalization of Islamic ideology, politicization of Islam, and purposeful appeal to it by local radically-minded persons definitely make it a factor of destabilization. Ethnic separatism sponges on Islam. And last, but not least, North Caucasian Islam can become a lever of bringing pressure to bear on Russia by foreign communities, both Muslim and Western."
One can single out several trends or channels of outside influence of the Muslim countries of the Middle and Near East on the sociopolitical and spiritual situation in the Caucasus as a whole, and in the North Caucasus in particular. This is, above all, the broader ties of the Islamic clergy between regions along the line of spiritual, educational and cultural exchanges. For the entire post-Soviet period a constant growth of contacts in these spheres has been observed. The training of priests from among Russian citizens at educational institutions of Muslim countries and the work of teachers from these countries at schools and universities in Azerbaijan and in the North Caucasus merit positive attention. In the 1980s the Islamic educational institutions founded with direct participation or material assistance of representatives of foreign Muslim countries, including the leading Islamic universities Al-Azhar (Egypt), Az-Zeituna (Tunisia), and others played an important role in training Muslim priests from among citizens of Russia and Azerbaijan. Quite a few Russian priests who have received Islamic education in Muslim countries of the East have
taken important and influential positions in religious organizations of the region.
International Muslim organizations functioning at both governmental and non-governmental levels play an important role in this sphere. A multitude of charity, educational, cultural and other organizations have been set up in the North Caucasus and in Muslim national republics and other regions of the Russian Federation with their assistance.
Their aim, as they officially claim, is to spread the ideas and principles of Islam among the inhabitants of a given region. A no small role has been played in this respect by the branches of international Islamic humanitarian organizations, like the World Islamic Charity organization with its headquarters in Kuwait, which is engaged in rendering material and moral assistance to Muslims and their organizations, publishing business, financing of construction of mosques, organization of international Islamic forums, etc.; the Moscow branch of the charity organization "International Humanitarian appeal," and others. They render humanitarian assistance to people suffering from poverty and disease, natural disasters, social and ethnic conflicts, etc.
During the 1990s Muslim charity, educational, cultural and political organizations were set up in the Caucasus. In those years the activity of such Islamic organizations as the International Islamic Organization "Salvation," "Benevolence International Foundation," "Jamaat Yihya At-Turas Al-Islami," "Lashkar Taiba," "Al-Hairiya," "Al-Haramein," "Qatar," "Ikraa," Ibrahim ben Ibrahim," and others, financed and directed by Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Kuwait, stepped up their activity. These organizations were distinguished by practically open propaganda of pan-Islamic ideas of uniting all Muslims of the region for ousting Russia from the North Caucasus, creating an Islamic
state in the region, and establishing close ties of Azerbaijan and North Caucasus with such Muslim countries as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran, Jordan, Pakistan, etc.
Yet, the scope and character of the influence of external factors on the radicalization of Islam in the Muslim regions of Russia seem rather exaggerated in a number of cases, inasmuch as the main factors determining the real situation in this sphere are those of socioeconomic, political, spiritual and ideological character. In this respect faith is not the principal factor, but one of them. Nevertheless, one cannot but admit the evident fact that in the conditions of a new geopolitical situation in the world in general, and in the Caucasian -Middle East region in particular, politicized, or political, Islam poses a serious threat to the national security of Russia; this Islam is viewed by many Russian and foreign scholars and analysts as, perhaps, the principal conflictogenic factor in the North Caucasus. Special danger is posed by a merger of ethnic separatist tendencies and religious fundamentalism.
Islam is the second largest world religion in the number of believers. According to some estimates, their number reaches from 1.2 to 1.5 billion people in various countries at present. As Professor Georgy Mirsky, an outstanding Russian scholar of the Arab East, writes, "Islam can be called the strongest and most viable religion of our time. Not a single religion has so many adepts who are passionately and sincerely devoted to their faith. Islam for them is the foundation of their very life and measure of everything. It draws more and more adherents, and there are many cases of conversion to Islam, which is in sharp contrast with practically negligible number of people who converted to other religions from Islam. Simplicity and coherence of this religion, its ability to give believers a wholesome and
understandable picture of the world, society and universe make Islam so attractive to new adepts."
The correct understanding of the place and role of Islam at both the global and national levels is impossible without renouncing its negative interpretations and assessments, which have become widespread in the West, as well in Russian society, in the past several decades. The central place in critical remarks concerning Islam is taken by ideas about the forthcoming global Islamic revolution and the impending "Islamic threat" to the rest of the "civilized world." The Muslims regard their religion as highly tolerant and spiritual, moral and humane, whereas their opponents characterize it as narrow-minded, fanatical, radical, and distinguished by extremism and terrorism.
In this case, as K. Gadjiyev noted, one can trace the trend to comprehend Islam not as a deep-going spiritual tradition, but as an ideological form of claims of some or other grouping to power and influence in one or another country, or even in the entire world. A definite part of the Western and our political and intellectual elite tends to identify one of the many trends of fundamentalism in Islam with Islam as a whole, with the ideology of war, political fundamentalism and terrorism. Thus, definite stereotypes in the assessment of Islam emerge, which cause fear of and mistrust toward the Islamic world as a world full of hatred to everything Western, especially American, and terrorists and fanatics. This is, in essence, the widespread phenomenon of Islamic phobia. And it shows that there is no adequate understanding, both in the West and in our country, of the role to be played by the Islamic tradition in the process of ideological and value modernization of the Muslim world.
Islamic phobia has become especially widespread after the events of September 9, 2001. Unfortunately, Russia joined that campaign. Some Russian political circles, part of academic community, and
especially journalists and other representatives of the mass media regard adherence of the North Caucasian peoples to Muslim faith as the foundation of the ideas about the ethnic purity of the North Caucasus, its belonging to another civilization area. The conviction became current that in the South of Russia radical Islam has turned into the main ideological form of anti-Russian separatism and terrorism. Regarding Islam as a threat to the national security of Russia, one perceives it in a very negative light. In doing so one tends to forget that Islam is not an alien element of Russian spiritual culture and that the Muslim population in its overwhelming majority has served Russia with courage and devotion over the centuries of Russian history. More than that, the Muslim peoples living in Russia do not, and cannot, imagine themselves outside the Russian Federation. This was confirmed in the course of the five-day war in August 2008, in which the overwhelming majority of the Muslim population of the North Caucasus approved and supported the military action of Russia against the aggressor and recognized the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. It should be borne in mind that apart from official Russian poly-ethnicity there is also poly-confessionality, which is connected with serious problems on whose solution depend vitality and prospects of Russian statehood.
Naturally, this article does not have the aim to whitewash and justify all aspects of Islam. In the Koran, just as in the Bible, one can find justification of both war and peace, both charity and cruelty. In this context it would be expedient to remind the reader that Islam is an Abrahamic religion, which is connected, in one way or another, with the Judaic-Christian tradition. In actual fact, a danger is hidden not in Islam or the Koran, but in their wrong interpretations by some of other radical currents pursuing their own specific interests. It is important to take into account that the multitude of ethno-national, territorial and
political contradictions, conflicts and changes, which have shattered the socio-political life of the Caucasian and Middle Eastern regions are founded not on these or other religions, but, above all, on the internal factors of the socio-economic, political, ideological and other character.
This is why, in assessing the real place and role of Islam in the Caucasus and Russia as a whole it is necessary to renounce a number of current ideological points of view of the problem.
First, Islam should not be regarded as exceptionally negative factor in the life of the Caucasian peoples, which allegedly contributes to destabilization and tends to radicalize the separatist sentiments and movements in the region. Although it should be admitted that certain fundamentalist ideas are indeed used by definite radical and extremist groupings for their purely political purposes. Numerous actions manifesting religious intolerance, justification of terrorism by the slogans of jihad, and much else demand a thorough analysis of the nature of modern radicalism, its causes and the character of its connection with religion in general, and with Islam in particular.
Secondly, it would be incorrect to characterize Islam as an exceptionally cultural-confessional and spiritual phenomenon, which is not connected with politics and is oriented exclusively to peace, welfare and stability in society. In contrast to Christianity, there is no strict division in Islam into the spiritual and secular, Islam is distinguished by a great social and political orientation.
This article also deals with the view that there exists a big Islamic arc of instability, which includes the great region of the Middle East, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Kashmir and the former Soviet republics of Central Asia. The Caucasus in the southern part of Russia as a whole is part of this arc, along the border between the Islamic and non-Islamic worlds. One cannot overlook the fact that most of conflicts and extreme situations begin on the territory of traditional Islam. The merger of
Islamic fundamentalism in its Wahhabi variant with ethnic separatism presents a grave danger for state unity.
Islam is a supranational religion. Classical Islam does not recognize nations and national bounds, inasmuch as all believers, no matter of what nationality they belong to, are regarded members of the uniform Muslim umma, or community. Similarly, just as there are no Hellenes, Judaists, or Romans, but there are Christian believers, there are no Arabs, Persians or Turks in Islam, but there are Muslim believers. But Islam is not uniform. It is split into two big branches -Shia and Sunna, and contradictions between them are sometimes as sharp as those between the Muslims and adherents to various denominations of Christianity. There are many currents, sects, trends and branches of Islam.
On this issue one can agree with K. Gadjiyev who wrote that "Islam is not a monolithic and stagnant phenomenon, it is changing to adapt itself to the requirements of the present development of the world. It is characterized by the absence of the institution of the official church and clergy as such in the Western sense of the word, and consequently, the obligatory dogmatized regimentation, as is the case of the most important denominations of Christianity. People who received religious education and knowledge have the right to interpret and comment the Koran. Islam is democratic in that it allows the existence of different assessments and positions, although it is rather suspicious of the concept of political democracy, seeing in it an attempt to elevate the power of man to the detriment of the authority of God.
As is known, world religions, by virtue of their universal character, are to abolish ethnic, linguistic, political and other differences between peoples, and in our day Islam is often used as the most important element of national self-consciousness. He has played, and continues to play, the key role in the life of many peoples of the
region and the formation of their socio-cultural and civilization image. As the American expert A. Smith noted, in the modern world the ancient religious idea of selectness was universalized in accordance with the specific doctrines of nationalism, which proclaim that each people has their own genuine identity, original culture, language, etc.
In this connection it would be interesting to know that in February 2008 the Archbishop of Canterbury R. Williams spoke about the need to study Islamic laws and even the inevitability of adopting the Sharia laws for the Muslim population of Britain. According to him, the "legalization of the Sharia laws would make it possible to avoid the situation in which representatives of the Islamic diaspora resolve disputed issues in a particular order on the basis of their personal ideas of law. Archbishop Williams was subjected to severe criticism on the part of many political figures for his views on the subject.
However, his idea was supported by the then premier Harold Brown, who said, among other things, that the introduction of the Sharia laws in the United Kingdom would be simply inevitable. In accordance with the data of news agencies, British policemen will study the Koran and the Sharia laws in order to combat extremism and terrorism more effectively.
The above-said does not mean that the Sharia standards and principles should be introduced in the Muslim republics of the Russian Federation. But harsh, biased criticism and total refusal of them in the regions inhabited by Islamic people for whom Islam is the key element of national consciousness will hardly be wise.
It is also necessary to take into account the complex character and ambiguousness of the status, role and significance of Islam in the Caucasus. It serves as a certain integral spiritual component of the ethnic cultures of the local people. Moreover, quite a few local analysts justly believe that in the new conditions Islam could prove an
influential force uniting the Muslim citizens of Russia. It can safely be said that in a number of national republics of the North Caucasus, primarily in Dagestan, Ingushetia and Chechnya, Islam has served as one of the major factors which kept hotheads from crossing the last borderline, which could be fraught with unpredictable, even tragic, consequences for all peoples of these republics. Islamic values can in principle make an important contribution to the improvement of the social climate. As it was noted by the Chairman of the government of the Russian Federation D. Medvedev at a meeting with the muftis and heads of government of the North Caucasian republics, "the North Caucasus is a unique region of Russia from the point of view of the national and cultural diversity, in which traditional Islam helps foster world outlook based on ethical values among young people." It can justly be asserted that traditional Islam comes out as a restraining factor preventing the spreading of narrow nationalism, ethnic separatism, and various forms of Islamic fundamentalism.
At the same time one cannot deny the evident fact that in certain conditions religion may provoke contradictions and conflicts. For instance, the concept of "jihad" in Islam has several meanings, including a call for perfection of society not only through an armed struggle, but also through sermon, admonition, good example, and behavior based on lofty moral principles. The Koran says, among other things, that it is permissible to kill those who kill you, for the sake of the cause of Allah, but do not overstep the limits of the allowable, because Allah does not like those who do it.
True, such attitude to religion is also typical of Christianity. In this connection, along with many admonishments about the need for peaceful solution of contradictions arising between individuals and whole nations, suffice it to recall the words of Jesus Christ cited in the
Gospel: "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace.. .but a sword."
Contradictions, conflicts and wars break up not only between adherents of different confessions, but also between representatives of different currents and trends within the framework of one and the same religion. This is shown by the fact that some radical currents of Islam, including the radical wing of Wahhabis regard the Muslims who adhere to other views apostates and wage a bitter struggle against them, just as against Christians. Islam comes out as one of the major elements of nationalism, and instrument of the struggle for power. This is demonstrated by the fact that Islamic ideas were being used by various ethnic groups, regional clans and political parties in their struggle for property and power in the post-Soviet area.
Supporters of Islam take part in creating institutions of civic society in the Islamic world. Moreover, those coming out for modernization recognize the original values of democracy, human rights, pluralism and civic society as ones fully in line with Islam. Their main task is to make the interpretations of a sacred text correspond to modern realities, and to find the means of applying the basic Islamic principles to new situations.
However, it is to be recognized that political Islam of a fundamentalist nature is used in the interests of the most radical and extremist forces in Muslim countries themselves, and in the rest of the world, including Russia, and primarily the North Caucasus. Its representatives have become initiators of intra-elitist and interclan struggle, a factor which seriously destabilizes the social and political situation in the national republics of the North Caucasus. Maintaining close ties with religious figures of many countries in the Middle East, the leaders of certain Wahhabi organizations have made a serious
contribution to the religious and theoretical substantiation of the Chechen conflict.
In this context one cannot but note the attempts of certain fundamentalist groups to work out and realize their version of the export of Islamic revolution, All post-Soviet Muslim republics, including those of the North Caucasus and Azerbaijan, have become the objects of such export. The projects of ousting Russia from the Caucasus, creating a uniform Islamic state on the territory of these national republics and expanding this state at the expense of other Russian territories seem absolutely fantastic, yet they do exist. In an interview to the "Al-Qaf" newspaper in April 1998, the notorious leader of the Chechen separatists Hattab said" We shall plunge Russia in such a state in which present-day Chechnya is. We shall not calm down until the black victorious banner of jihad is hoisted over the tallest tower of the Kremlin."
Essential features and basic trends of political Islam. In
assessing Islam, its teaching is often described as conservative and unable to develop in the new socio-economic, political and cultural conditions. Researchers and scholars are right in emphasizing the need to determine the essence of the very terms "Islam," "Salafism", "Islamism", "Political Islam", "Islamic fundamentalism", "Wahhabism", etc. Quite often, these notions are used as synonyms. Besides, the fact is that a purely ideological approach overwhelms a scientific one. For example, certain journalists and analysts call Islam a "form of religious extremism, ideology of evil, violence and murder," and the newspaper "Rossiskaya Gazeta" branded Wahhabism as "an absolute, death-dealing evil." The institutionalized clergy is striving to convince the central and local authorities that the Salafites are no Muslims. For their part, the Salafites also take irreconcilable positions
refusing to discuss doctrinal problems with the traditionalist Muslims regarding them as apostates who distort real Islam.
One cannot but pay attention to the indefinite character and vague aspects of these concepts. Quite often, practically any political current appealing to Islam can be identified and brought close to Islamism and fundamentalism. Indeed, Islam is the most politicized religion which claims to be ideal for social organization. This is why it is widely used by various forces for achieving their political aims. This is clearly seen in political Islam or Islamism, which is supposed to have gathered various socio-political currents regarding Islam as the foundation of their ideology.
The fundamentalists are the adherents of any ideology or religion who appeal to its initial basic principles or fundamental tenets. In this sense fundamentalism is not alien to many ideological-political currents in which part of the most ideology-driven figures comes out for the "purity" of principles and values and return to the "sources.." The specific feature of the present situation lies in that radicalism and radical minorities are playing greater role in socio-political processes.
Islam is not a monolithic and stagnant religious system. It transforms in accordance with the changes going on at global, regional and national levels. During its entire history it has developed dynamically, demonstrating an ability to adapt itself, more or less successfully, to the changing socio-economic, socio-cultural, political, geopolitical and other conditions. Given a great variety of methods and programs, Islam is the principal or the only source of power. The main slogan of the Islamists is "God is our Goal, the Prophet is our Leader, the Koran is our Constitution, Jihad is our Road, and death in the name of God is our supreme desire." Here Islam comes out as a means to achieve concrete political aims, as a result of which it acquires the status of an original political ideology. As noted by the leader of the
Islamic revolution in Iran Ayatolla Homeini, "Islam is a political-religious teaching in which religious service and prayer are added to politics, and politics is added to religious service and prayer." And he based his words on the fact that "there are more political instructions than religious ones in Islam."
The term "political Islam" is neutral per se, inasmuch as Islamist movements can be regarded as "conservative" and "progressive" at the same time. The term is a collective noun to denote the most varied Islamic groupings adhering to different positions, but criticizing the official clergy, whose representatives can be "conservative" in one questions, and "progressive" in others.
Some scholars and researchers characterize Islamic fundamentalism as traditionalism, others oppose traditionalism to fundamentalism. On the whole, political Islam and fundamentalism are interpreted as a platform for the restoration of initial Islam by way of turning to the experience "as-salaf as-salihun," which was why it acquired the name "Salafism.
Its adherents offer their own forms, ways and means to solve the problems of modernization, overcome its shortcomings and negative consequences, naturally, by using the ideas, principles and premises of initial Islam.
In this sense, one can agree with the scholar of the Arab East R. Landa who maintains that "fundamentalists are modernizers and guardians of Islam at one and the same time. They would like to use the achievements of Western technology, but without the culture and social standards of the West." The authors who maintain that "each Islamist is Muslim, but not each Muslim is Islamist" are quite correct.
An analysis of the real state of affairs shows that there are moderate and radical currents of left and right wing in modern Islamic fundamentalism. In some Islamic organizations there are groupings
using peaceful, legal methods of work, as well as secret groupings resorting to violent methods of struggle and terror.
Wahhabism is one of the key currents of political Islam. It is true that in Wahhabism, Salafism and other currents of fundamentalism jihad is presented as a sacred war against the infidels, including the Muslims who are regarded by Wahhabi and Salafi dignitaries as apostates. At the same time Wahhabism should not be interpreted as solely aggressive and negative. After all, it is the state religion of Saudi Arabia, which is not an aggressive state threatening any other country. In this connection it would be indicative to remember an episode during the state visit of President Putin to Saudi Arabia in February 2007. The governor of Riyadh province, Prince Salman ben Abdel Aziz, brother of the Saudi King, said, among other things, that true Islam and Wahhabism have nothing to do with terrorism as people in the West think. The Prince introduced one person of his retinue to President Putin and said that he was a descendant of Abdel Wahhab and at present heads the reconstruction department of the Saudi capital. "If Wahhabism is the same as terrorism, then here is a terrorist standing beside you." President Putin answered jokingly: "He is a good terrorist. He does not destroy, but builds." And he added: "Terrorists distort the principles of Islam, and we are well aware of it." By the way, the leadership of Saudi Arabia is one of the initiators of stepping up the struggle against terrorism in the Arab world.
Evidently, contradictions in political Islam have been caused by a whole range of problems based on the deep changes in society which engendered greater confrontation between the traditional and the modern. Islam is used as a means to achieve political aims determined by the concrete interests of political struggle. In this sense, Islam acquires specific features of an original political ideology whose basic
values are social justice, stronger morality, the preservation of Islamic culture, and efficient and honest governance of society.
"Prioritety natsionalnoi bezopasnosti Rossiiskoi Federatsii na Severnom Kavkaze," Moscow, 2011, pp. 86-106.
Gebek Gebekov, Cand.Sc. (Hist.) (IIAE DNTC RAS) THE ISLAMIC FACTOR IN POST-SOVIET CULTURE OF DAGESTAN (1992-2006)
The real liberty of conscience for the post-Soviet period in the space of the former union state resulted in emergence of religious traditions. It was marked by construction of mosques, medrece and appearance of Islamic higher education institutions and by a chance of interested people in cities and villages to attend religious courses and to study Arabic. Islam gained in its influence on art.
Renaissance of Islamic traditions, rise of interest of people in religious studies influenced the development of all components of cultural process. The religious feasts were celebrated in clubs, libraries and museums, while the religious world-look became subject to scientific studies based on the objective approach and not the MarxistLeninist ideology. The religious motives more vividly marked the works of writers, painters and artists in Dagestan. The TV and Radio stations arranged Islamic talks. Religious publications were published.
The works of vanguard painters in Dagestan was marked by influence of Islam. The works of painter Ibragim Supyanov were characterized by folk and religious influence. The painting "Zikr" as a symbol of Islamic culture was made in the way of the rite's technique: the paints were put on the canvas by the bare-footed painter. The works of painter Apandi Magomedov created for the 1990s synthesized the
