Islam in the north Caucasus: history and present

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to identify the features of the development of Islam in the North Caucasus, establish the causes that contribute to extremist and separatist manifestations and determine measures to eliminate them. The article examines the genesis of Islam in the North Caucasus and the main reasons contributed to this process. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between the Russian state and Sufi Islam, traditional for the region. It also touches upon the aspects of the confrontation between Sufi Islam and radical Islam (Salafism). The reasons contributing to the spread of religious extremism are being determined. The article proposes the measures aimed at strengthening the all-Russian identity and eliminating the causes and conditions contributing to disintegration on religious grounds. The methodological basis of the study includes philosophical methods and principles of cognition. The work organically combines the method of comparative analysis and the principles of objectivity, historicism, unity of historical and logical, dialectics of objective and subjective factors of history, general scientific research approaches (system, structural and functional). Among the general scientific methods used in the study, one can note methods of analis, synthes, induction, deduction, etc. As a result of the study, the author comes to the conclusion that Islam penetrates the North Caucasus in the 6th century. The process of Islamization is due to the cultural influence of the Arab Caliphate, the Seljuk Turks, the Golden Horde, the conquests of Timur, Iran, the Ottoman Empire, the Crimean Khanate. Islamization of the region was mainly completed in the 19th century, which was facilitated by the Caucasian War, during which Islam became the ideological basis of the struggle against the Russian Empire. Sunni Islam, the Shafi'i madhhab, was established in the North Caucasus in the form of Sufi brotherhoods. This religious movement has become part of the local tradition. The relationship between Islam and the Russian state, and then the USSR, was contradictory. Persecution alternated with periods of mutually beneficial cooperation. In the Russian Empire, Islam was recognized as a tolerant religion. In the USSR it was persecuted by the atheistic regime like other religions. With the abolition of the monopoly of communist ideology, a religious renaissance began. The religious factor was used to confront the federal center during the first Chechen war. Later, the process of gradual convergence of the interests of the federal government and representatives of Sufism began, due to the emergence of a common enemy - radical Islam (Salafism). The popularity of the Salafi ideology is due to economic problems, historical grievances, changes in the demographic and social structure of North Caucasian society. To eliminate the causes of religious extremism in the region, it is necessary to: improve its economic situation; delicately approach the coverage of historical issues; propose a modern secular national supra-religious modernization project; strengthen the all-Russian identity and increase the prestige of Russian citizenship.