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Lecture notes, cheat sheets
История религии. Ислам (конспект лекций)
Directory / Lecture notes, cheat sheets Table of contents (expand) Topic 10. Islam 10.1. Muhammad, the main sources of Islam Islam is the third of the world's religions, the latest in time of occurrence, which has a positive effect on the historical data that modern historians of religion have regarding the circumstances of the birth of the Muslim faith. We know much more about Islam and its founder Muhammad than about Buddha and Jesus, due to the fact that the life and teachings of Muhammad were recorded in written sources a few years after his death, and not several decades later, as was the case with Christianity and Buddhism. But before talking about Muhammad himself, it is necessary to highlight the situation that developed on the Arabian Peninsula at the beginning of the XNUMXth century. and which became the basis for the birth of a new religion. The Arabs are by origin one of the Semitic tribes, so their original customs have much in common with the customs of the Jews (for example, the ban on eating pork), but the development of their religion and culture went in a slightly different way. The nomadic way of life that the Arabs led, the location of their tribes at the intersection of caravan routes leading from Mesopotamia to Egypt, from India to the Middle East - these circumstances contributed to the fact that the concentration of the religious cult of all Arab tribes occurred in Mecca, which was located on the banks of the Red seas. It was there that a sanctuary was organized in which the relics of individual Arab tribes were kept, including the mysterious Kaaba stone, which, according to legend, fell from the sky and served as an object of worship for all Arabs, regardless of their belonging to a particular tribe or clan. Quite early in the Arab oases, foreign settlements also appeared. , originally merchants, in particular the Jewish and early Christian communities. After the caravan trade entered a period of decline, the Arabs had to gradually switch to a settled way of life, which entailed the assignment of a clearly fixed piece of land to each tribe. The dispute over the boundaries of land gave rise to military clashes between different tribes, and the forced need to reduce these clashes to minimal losses, due to the constant presence of external threats, led to the emergence of rallying factors. One of these factors is the monotheistic religion, an example of which could be similar forms of belief observed by Arab nomads among their neighbors - Jews and Christians. Muhammad's preaching, which unfolded in such an environment, was doomed to success, although the founder of Islam had certain difficulties already at the beginning of his ascetic activity. The figure of Muhammad himself is, of course, historical, although some details of his biography were clearly conjectured by subsequent Muslim chroniclers, who tried to present the founder of Islam as more powerful and invincible than he actually was. Muhammad ibn Abdallah (570-632) was born into a family descended from the Quraysh clan, which ruled in Mecca. But the family to which the future founder of the new religion belonged belonged to an impoverished branch of the family. Even as a child, the boy began to have seizures (modern researchers believe that we are talking about “muscular hysteria” [46]), during which mysterious visions appeared to him. Having lost both parents in early childhood, Muhammad was raised by his grandfather Abdal-Mutallib, took up caravan crafts early on and made several long trips on trade business. Muhammad's affairs were finally improved by his marriage to the rich widow Khadija, who bore him several daughters. At about the age of 40, Muhammad finally decided to tell about the visions that visited him, sent down on behalf of the only god - Allah - to his messenger Muhammad for transmission to all other people. It is from this moment that the famous sermons of Muhammad begin, which brought him the respect of some and the hostility of others. For a long time, the wealth and nobility of his wife Khadija, as well as the patronage of the leader of his family, Abu Talib, acted as worthy protection for the prophet, although many of his supporters from the lower strata of the population had to leave Mecca and settle in Ethiopia. After the death of Abu Talib and Khadija, when the new head of the clan refused to provide all kinds of support to Muhammad, the future founder of Islam had to leave his native city and move to Medina, which was a trade rival of Mecca, and therefore favorably treated refugees from there. It is this move, which took place in 622, that is considered by Muslims as the date of the beginning of a new era - the Hijra. Muhammad's preaching in Medina gave him so many followers that with their help he managed to capture Mecca in 630 and thus return to his hometown victorious. Even the tribal nobility, who had previously actively opposed the new teaching, considered it good to join the new religion, which was a powerful unifying stimulus among the Arab tribes. Even during the life of Muhammad, the state he founded becomes dominant on the Arabian Peninsula, since most of the Arab nomadic and sedentary tribes join it. The prophet himself in 631 sent letters to the rulers of neighboring states and governors of the Byzantine possessions in the Middle East with a proposal to convert to Islam. After the death of Muhammad, which followed in 632, his teaching did not die out, but, on the contrary, unfolded even more widely. Mecca and Medina were recognized among Muslims as sacred cities, since the earthly life of the prophet was connected with them. He was born in Mecca, and it was in the vicinity of this city that Allah first appeared to his prophet and revealed his will to him - to convey divine institutions to people. Medina is associated with the final formalization of the Muslim faith, the formation of a system of rules and prohibitions, which included a ban on the use of alcoholic beverages, pork, and a ban on gambling. 10.2. Sacred texts and laws of Islam Despite the fact that the Prophet Muhammad himself never wrote down his sermons, special scribes were present at his speeches, whose main task was to record the most wise sayings. After the death of Muhammad, scattered lists of his revelations remained, many of which also contradicted each other, so the urgent task facing the emerging religion was the codification of sacred texts. This work ended in 651 with the creation of the Koran, which became the main source of Muslim doctrine. To exclude the possibility of the emergence of alternative sacred texts based on the authority of Muhammad, all the records on the basis of which the Koran was compiled were destroyed. This circumstance also explains the amazing conservatism of the Muslim creed: it did not go through a period of coexistence of various schools and trends, like other similar religions (primarily Christianity). The Koran consists of 114 suras, each of which includes several dozen individual verses. There is no special order - neither thematic nor chronological - in the arrangement of the suras, but linguistic studies have shown that the suras of the Mecca (before 622) and Medina periods stand out quite clearly. Another important part of the Muslim sacred literature, which began to take shape in the middle of the XNUMXth century, was the hadiths - legends about the life of the prophet Muhammad himself, which, as a rule, described individual actions of the founder of the Muslim religion and necessarily had a moralizing ending. In many hadiths, the influence of the Christian and Jewish traditions is felt, since situations are described that are similar to those in the Holy Scriptures and the Talmud. Thus, the Koran in Islam is similar in its meaning to the Holy Scripture in Christianity. The analogue of the Holy Tradition is the Sunnah - a collection of hadiths compiled by the most prominent Muslim theologians in the XNUMXth century. Not all Muslims recognize the Sunnah as a sacred text, many consider it just a collection of stories that do not carry a dogmatic load. The direction of Islam, which ranks the Sunnah among the foundations of its doctrine, is called Sunnism, and it is precisely this branch that is the most numerous in modern Islam. Sharia is based on the Koran and the Sunnah - a set of legislative norms and religious guidelines that are mandatory for the faithful Muslim. Islam does not separate legal norms from religious ones, therefore the behavior of a Muslim in relation to another person, in relation to his family, to the state is determined by divine institutions. It is interesting that Sharia applies only to relations between Muslims, so the behavior of Muslims in relation to representatives of other faiths or secular authorities is determined by specially agreed norms that do not have a religious character. The third source on which, in addition to the Koran and the Sunnah, Sharia relies is ijma - the opinions of the most authoritative Muslim theologians of past centuries, which have no doctrinal significance, but can be used to resolve complex and intricate cases. The essence of the religious dogma of Islam is as follows. The only god is declared to be Allah, who sent numerous prophets to earth (Noah, Moses, Jesus). The most revered of them is Muhammad - the last of the prophets and the most wise. Allah is great and omnipotent, therefore he determines in advance the fate of a person, which he cannot change, but he is able to achieve the favor of God by unconditional obedience to him. Unlike Christianity, Islam is not about the constant self-improvement of a person who seeks to compare with God, to achieve a divine-human state: the Muslim god is so inaccessible to his adherents that he only allows service, and not an attempt to equal himself. The mercy of Allah will manifest itself at the time of the Day of Judgment, when all the dead will rise, and those of them who led a righteous life or managed to atone for their sins will be in a state of eternal bliss, and the rest will be condemned to eternal torment. The ethical requirements that Islam imposes on every Muslim come down to the observance of justice (returning good with good, and evil with evil), obligations towards relatives and friends, generosity to the poor, etc. The relative simplicity of religious dogma also affects the observance practical rules and commandments, of which there are five: 1) the obligatory fivefold prayer, formalized to the utmost degree - not only the words spoken by the believer are subject to regulation, but also the body movements performed at the same time; 2) ablution before prayer, since at the moment of prayer a person must appear before God cleansed not only from physical dirt, but also from bad thoughts; 3) giving alms to the poor, which gradually transformed into zakat - the deduction of part of their income in favor of a religious community or state, if it is controlled by a Muslim monarch; 4) an annual fast (uraza), which is obligatory for everyone who has such an opportunity, but can be canceled for the sick and travelers; 5) pilgrimage (hajj) to the holy city of Mecca, which every true Muslim must make at least once in his life. 10.3. Early history of Islam. Shiites and Sunnis By the time of the death of the Prophet Muhammad, the Islamic state already occupied the entire Arabian Peninsula, although the spread of Islamic doctrine was much more modest, since most of the Arab tribes were included in this state on the basis of political subordination, and not religious unity. The first four caliphs - the political and religious successors of Muhammad - are recognized throughout Islam (regardless of the trend) as righteous. The first of them, Abu Bekr (632-634), was the father-in-law of Muhammad, and therefore became his first successor. However, in addition to family ties, he had the talent of a commander, which was useful to him already in the first months of his reign. In 632, many tribes announced their falling away from the Islamic state, proclaiming a new prophet of a certain Museylim, who claimed this status during the life of Muhammad. Abu Bekr was able to defeat the troops of the impostor in several battles, and took his own life, which made it possible to preserve the political independence and religious unity of the state. Abu Bakr's successor Omar (634-644), who was a companion of Muhammad during his flight to Medina, continued the aggressive policy of his predecessor, significantly strengthening the state and the Muslim faith, although among the general population the idea of a new religion was still vague. The sources mention a characteristic case: in 637, after one of the battles, when Omar decided to reward the warrior who knew the Koran best of all, only one of the entire Arab army was able to pronounce a religious formula. For the vast majority of the Arab tribes, who did not go into dogmatic details, it was enough to believe in the one God Allah and his prophet Muhammad. The third caliph, Osman (644-656), was already a very old man at the time of his accession to the throne, so his reign was not marked by any significant events. Osman was not loved by the people for his greed, and therefore was killed by disaffected people who broke into his palace in Medina. Osman's successor was Ali (656-661), the cousin of the Prophet Muhammad and the husband of his beloved daughter Fatima. His accession to the throne of the prophet was not without a bloody war unleashed by representatives of noble Arab families, some of whom were unhappy that it was Ali who became the caliph. Despite the fact that Ali managed to cope with his opponents, defeating them in battles and gaining a foothold on the throne of the caliphs, his main rival, the representative of the Quraysh tribe, Muawiya, remained free and organized the assassination of the caliph in 661. It was Muawiya who became the new caliph, founding the Umayyad dynasty , who ruled in the caliphate until 750. At the same time, Ali's associates, who called themselves "shia" (party, group), remained faithful to their deceased leader and his sons, who were the grandchildren of Muhammad himself, which marked the beginning of the split of Islam into two main directions still existing - Sunnism and Shiism. The most characteristic feature of Shiism is the recognition of the legitimate successors of Muhammad only to his direct descendants, who are also descendants of Ali. As a result, the Shiites deny the sacred nature of the Sunnah, which was compiled under the first caliphs: according to the followers of Shiism, the compilation of the Sunnah was of a tendentious nature, therefore, in the stories about the life of the prophet, the role of his son-in-law Ali was underestimated. The Shiites consider their spiritual and secular rulers to be the direct descendants of Ali - the imams, of whom there were only 12. The last of the imams went missing during the political turmoil in the middle of the XNUMXth century. This gives reason to one of the directions of Shiism - Mahdism - to assert that this imam did not die, but hid in a secret place, from where he would get out at the right time and become the savior (mahdi) of true believers. Imams in Shiism were given much more importance than in the rest of Islam, since their opinion was considered absolutely true and infallible. The followers of Shiism managed to gain a foothold only in Iraq and Iran, where most representatives of this trend still live (in Iran, Shiite Islam is even the state religion), while Sunnism has gained a foothold in the rest of the caliphate. In contrast to Shiism in Sunnism, only a council of the most respected theologians has the right to decide on the most important theological issues that remain unresolved within the framework of the Koran. Under the Umayyads, the state expanded beyond the Arabian Peninsula and, accordingly, the spread of Islam as the state religion of a new political entity to the vast expanses of Asia and North Africa. Already in the 711th century. the young Muslim state managed to defeat the Byzantine army and annex the Middle Eastern possessions of Byzantium. The conquest of North Africa led to the penetration of Islam into the territory of the Iberian Peninsula (732), the final consolidation of the Muslims on which occurred after the victorious battle for them at Poitiers (XNUMX). In the east, there was an expansion of Muslim possessions up to India and China, but such a significant increase in the caliphate led to the development of centrifugal tendencies. Already in the middle of the VIII century. the Umayyad dynasty, which discredited itself in the face of orthodox Muslims, was displaced by the Abbasids, descended from Abbas, the uncle of the prophet Muhammad, and the caliphate itself broke up into many separate states, the only unifying factor for which was the Muslim faith. 10.4. History of Islam in the IX-XIX centuries Despite the fact that the Abbasid dynasty managed to establish control over the capital of the caliphate, which at that moment was Damascus, some areas fell out of its control: the surviving representatives of the Umayid dynasty took refuge in the Iberian Peninsula, founding the Caliphate of Cordoba; Morocco and Egypt were occupied by representatives of the Shiites. The further existence of the caliphate was reduced to an endless struggle against the raids of nomads and the change of dynasties. Relative stability was achieved only in 1055, when the Seljuk Turks, who came from Central Asia, captured Baghdad (then the capital of the Caliphate), after which they spread their influence over the entire Middle East. Representatives of the Abbasid clan continued to be considered caliphs, performing, in fact, only religious and ceremonial functions, while real power belonged to successive foreign dynasties. Nevertheless, despite the crisis of the Arab Caliphate itself, the gradual expansion of those lands where Islam became the official religion continued steadily. So, in Spain, the Arabs owned almost the entire peninsula, only the very north and the Pyrenees remained for the Christian kingdoms. At the beginning of the XI century. The Arabs managed to take over Sicily, making this island their outpost in the Mediterranean Sea and a staging post for the possible spread of Islam already on the territory of Europe. The transformation of Islam into the state religion, in the presence of a large number of politically independent entities, became a prerequisite for the emergence of many movements and sects, some of which penetrated to the highest state level. The history of the Arab Caliphate knew the period of penetration of the Mu'tazilites into the ranks of representatives of the ruling dynasty. At the first stage of their existence, the Mu'tazilites remained in opposition to orthodox Islam, which was explained by their rather free interpretation of the basic Muslim dogmas. According to its religious foundations, this movement had much in common with the Judeo-Christian heresy of the Gnostics. At least, the surviving texts allow us to assert that the Mu'tazilites proclaimed the priority of reason over faith in the process of knowing God, and also defended the thesis of the fundamental unknowability of God, to which only an approximation is possible, but not a complete coincidence with him. At the beginning of the ninth century Mutazilism became the state religion of the Arab caliphate, but its triumph was short-lived: already in 847 it was time to return to orthodox Islam (kalam). One of the brightest representatives of the Kalam, Ashari (873-935) proposed a conciliatory position on the issue of overcoming the abyss between God and man: the Koran is God's word, which was imprinted in the souls of the prophets and the righteous, but found its expression only in the form of words and phrases of the human language, since this form turned out to be the only one accessible to the perception of the divine truth by the ordinary human mind. Hard trials fell on Islam in the 1492th century, which turned out to be connected with the Tatar-Mongol invasion, which destroyed the Central Asian Muslim states and put an end to the existence of the Arab Caliphate. But the threat turned out to be temporary: having succumbed to the influence of the religion of the conquered lands, the Mongols already in the second half of the 1453th century. adopted the Muslim faith, and in the XIV century. their power was shaken by the appearance of a new power on the Asian horizon - the Ottoman Empire, which forced its neighbors to remember the conquering power and religious fanaticism of the first Arab campaigns. While other Muslim states are gradually losing their significance (in XNUMX, Grenada, the last stronghold of Muslims on the Iberian Peninsula, was in the hands of Christians), the Ottoman Empire is only gaining power, its peak was the capture of Constantinople in XNUMX, which ended the Byzantine Empire . The entire south-east of Europe fell into the sphere of Muslim influence, the consequences of which are still being manifested (Bosnia and Albanians profess Islam as the state religion). A symptom of the crisis in the Islamic world was sharply manifested differences, but not between different areas of the Muslim faith, but within the Sunnis: individual states (for example, Iran) refused to recognize the spiritual authority of the Ottoman ruler over their countries. Gradual political weakening led to a sharp reduction in territory, and by the end of the 1876th century. Almost all of Europe was cleansed of the Ottoman Empire, and the empire itself became a fiction. The nourishment of Islam as the state religion was increasingly carried out by radical movements. Under Sultan Abdul-Hamid in 1922, an attempt was made to make so-called pan-Islamism the state religion and ideology of the Ottoman Empire. The essence of this trend was the call to all Muslims to overcome political boundaries and establish a single Muslim state on the territory they occupied under the rule of the Caliph. An attempt to implement this idea at the state level was unsuccessful, and in XNUMX the Ottoman Empire ceased to exist. By the end of the XIX century. in the development of Islam (both Sunni and Shiite) there have been two trends - conservative and modernist. Conservatives (Wahhabis) called for returning Islam to its original foundation, returning to a literal understanding of the sacred texts and the theocratic power bequeathed by the prophet. Modernists (Bahais) saw a way out of the impasse in which Islam found itself in bringing some of its provisions closer to the realities of the modern world, without changing the essence of the teaching itself, but only making it more accessible and understandable. 10.5. Islamic sects (Ismailism, Sufism, Wahhabism, Bahaism) In addition to the officially recognized areas of Islam - Sunnism and Shiism, this religion throughout its development provided food for numerous schools and sects. Some of them disappeared almost immediately after their appearance, while others either left a bright mark on history or still exist. The most famous of the Muslim sects are as follows. Ismailism. This Shiite sect arose in the 1273th century. Its founder is Ismail, the eldest son of the sixth Imam Jafar, who was excluded from inheritance by his father, but found supporters among the radical opponents of Sunnism and non-Muslim religions. The location of Ismailism is Western Asia and Syria, in the mountains of which the residence of the supreme imam was located. In its structure, this sect resembled a military organization with a clear hierarchy and strict internal discipline. According to the teachings of the Ismailis, the divine soul is embodied in the figure of the imam, therefore the truths expressed by him have the character of divine revelation. There were seven imams in total, the last of them was Mohammed, the son of Ismail, so it was he who got the most complete knowledge about God and the truth that he wants to convey to people. The hierarchy of the Ismaili organization was also manifested in the presence of various levels of initiation, to which not all members of the organization were admitted, but only the most proven ones. At the highest levels, the Ismailis were inspired with confidence that the truth contained in the Qur'an is not reduced to its literal meaning, but is expressed with the help of allegories. Ismailism was not a single trend, the Assassins (a sect of hired killers) and the Druze (a more moderate wing of the current, the descendants of the Druze still live in Syria) separated from it. Despite the significant influence that this sect had in the XNUMXth-XNUMXth centuries, its heyday was short-lived. The final destruction of the Ismailis as a centralized movement occurred in XNUMX, when the residence of the supreme imam was destroyed by the Mongols. Sufism. Similar to the Ismailis in their mysticism were the Sufis, whose origins date back to the 8th century. However, unlike the radical followers of Ismail, the Sufis focused their efforts not on achieving political influence, but on individual ascent to God. The key point of their teaching was the call to “Be in the world, but not be of the world.” Having emerged in the depths of Shiism, this movement quickly gained followers among the Sunnis. Sufis avoided centralized organization and attachment to one locality. The main form of their existence became wandering monastic orders, whose members were called dervishes. In terms of behavior and ethical requirements, Sufis showed absolute contempt for earthly goods, even the most basic (food, clothing, etc.), and also denied the need to perform cult actions. From their point of view, any rituals serve only as the embodiment of a person’s desire for God, but are not themselves the conditions for its achievement. The mystical content of Sufism and its denial of some Muslim dogmas put it in opposition to orthodox Islam, but attracted numerous adherents to it, thanks to which Sufism still exists. Wahhabism. The founder of this most radical of the current Muslim movements was Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, who first preached to the Arabian nomads in 1730. The main requirement of his teaching was the return to Islam of the period of the righteous caliphs, which automatically abolished the cult of saints that had spread in late Islam, as well as monastic orders. A feature of Wahhabi propaganda was its radical nature: opposing both other religions and official Islam, the adherents of this doctrine demanded the unleashing of a holy war (jihad). In this requirement, they relied on the text of the Koran, which provided for the need for a holy war, but only against the pagans, and not against fellow believers and representatives of Christianity and Judaism. Bahaism (Bahaism). This relatively new trend emphasizes its connection with Islam, but prefers to see itself not as a Muslim sect, but as an independent religion, although the dogmatic provisions underlying it are very similar to the provisions of Islam. The founder of this movement was Muhammad Ali, nicknamed the Bab (intermediary between God and man), who preached at the beginning of the 1850th century. the equality of all believers in their striving for God and the absence of religious partitions that could interfere with this equality. The harsh suppression of this trend by orthodox Muslims in 1844 led to its collapse, but one of the former followers of the Bab, Mirza Hussein Ali Behaullah, significantly changed the teachings of his predecessor, becoming the founder of Bahaism. The date of foundation of this trend is considered to be XNUMX, when Baha'u'llah read the first sermons (in addition to them, Baha'ism has its own sacred texts written by Baha'u'llah himself). The basis of the Baha'i doctrine is the proclamation of universal brotherhood and equality, non-resistance to evil and forgiveness of unrighteous deeds to each other and to man on the part of God. The significantly softened nature of the Muslim precepts preached by the followers of the Baha'i led to the fact that this movement found followers even in Europe and North America. Baha'i followers also live in Russia. 10.6. Modern Islam: Ways of Modernization and Fundamentalism First half of the XNUMXth century became a time of cardinal modernization of Islam, which, however, was of a different nature from a similar process that took place in Christianity. The fact is that Muslim modernization was originally aimed not at solving purely theological issues, but at adapting theological dogmas to the changing realities of the modern world. The judicial system was the first to be changed. Already in the 1970s. in many Muslim countries, the courts were divided into Sharia and secular, and the scope of Sharia law was limited to matters of faith. Numerous rules and regulations have undergone codification: many of them are outdated, and some contradict each other. The most fierce controversy, affecting even the theological level, arose at the end of the XNUMXth century. about the admissibility of the banking system in Islamic countries. The emerging crisis, due to the fact that many theologians referred to the sura of the Koran about the inadmissibility of usury, was successfully overcome by the publication of a special fatwa (decree), according to which banking was recognized not as usury, but as an honest activity. Similar incidents arose in other areas of industry and agriculture, but most of them were settled. The modernization process was especially active in the first half of the 1926th century, when official relations were established between various countries whose population professed Islam, which had previously been absent due to contradictions between Sunnis and Shiites. In 1970, the first international organization, the World Islamic Congress, was organized, within which theologians from various countries tried to come to a common conclusion regarding the ways and acceptable degree of reform of the Muslim religion. Muslim organizations that functioned both at the governmental and non-governmental levels acquired the greatest weight in the 1969s, which was associated with the economic strengthening of a number of Islamic states (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait) due to an increase in oil production. In 44, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) was created, designed to solve the problems facing the development of the Muslim (and, more broadly, Asian) world as a whole. This organization currently consists of XNUMX states, represented by their leaders or prime ministers. Other organizations (the Islamic World League, the Islamic Council of Europe, etc.) are non-governmental in nature and focus on missionary activities to increase the spread of Islam, as well as on helping Muslim communities existing on the territory of other states. In the second half of the 1979th century. The direction of the processes taking place in the Muslim world turned out to be changed almost diametrically, which was associated with globalization that was gaining rapid momentum. The natural reaction of individual states to external pressure aimed at changing their cultural and religious foundations was the strengthening of traditionalism and fundamentalism. Radical Islamic sects, such as Wahhabism, are currently experiencing a new wave of popularity. In many Muslim countries that officially adhere to moderate Islam, there are paramilitary organizations (Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas) that promote the defense of the foundations of Islam, even by armed means. The backbone of Islamic fundamentalism is Iran. The 13 revolution brought to power in this country a reactionary government led by Ayatollah (teacher) Khomeini; Sharia law was returned to secular legislation. In modern Iran, a woman is prohibited from appearing on the street without a hijab (a headscarf that covers her head and face), her spouse cannot seek a divorce, and the marriage age for women has been reduced to XNUMX years. But even in countries where radical Muslim parties do not have access to power, they can put pressure on the government, creating a silent dictatorship of Islamic fundamentalism. The following methods of exerting pressure on the part of fundamentalists are distinguished: 1) limiting the sphere of influence of the ruling regimes through the threat of mass protests and disruption of government activities (for example, taking foreign tourists hostage); 2) inciting hatred towards certain religious or ethnic groups (representatives of Orthodox churches in the Middle East are chosen as the target); 3) pushing the authorities to carry out forceful actions, which serves as justification for the subsequent use of violence by radical groups. Modern Islam is the second largest world religion, with a total number of believers of 800 million people. The majority of Muslims still live in Asia and Africa, although recently, due to immigration processes, significant Muslim communities are also forming in Europe and the United States. In 28 countries of the world, Islam has been declared the state religion, and in many other countries, Muslims constitute the dominant group of the population, even if this is not reflected at the constitutional level. << Back: Russian Orthodoxy (Features of the adoption of Christianity in Rus'. Development of the Russian Church in the XIII-XVII centuries. Church schism in Russia. Old Believers. Church under state control (1700-1917). Revolution and a new schism of Orthodoxy. Renaissance of Orthodoxy in modern Russia) >> Forward: Religion in the modern world (Processes of secularization of religion. Modern sectarianism: main features. Ecumenism) Author: Anikin D.A.
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