Criticism and bibliography. Reviews

Moscow: Institute of the Middle East, 2005, 286 p.

The new work of the well-known Russian Orientalist R. G. Landa, whose scientific and professional activity for more than a decade has been connected with the study of the Arab and Muslim world, in my opinion, is more than just a masterfully written work on the study of problems related to the politicization of Islam, radicalism and terrorism of individual Islamic movements and organizations. First of all, this is a decisive attempt to show the inadequacy of the stereotypes of Islamophobia that are forming (and, according to some signs, have already developed) in the minds of not only individual scientists, politicians and statesmen, but also ordinary citizens of our country, which we owe to the recent increase in negative attitudes towards Islam and Muslims, who make up a significant part of the Russian population.

The main tasks that the author sets for himself are to study the key reasons for the transformation of Islam into one of the leading forces in both regional and international politics, analyze the relationship between Islam and the world revolutionary experience, study the genesis of the Islam-extremist movement, and determine possible ways of its evolution to "post-Islamism" (p.3).

Already at the stage of familiarization with the table of contents of the reviewed work, we can note a number of significant points on which this monographic study compares favorably with the works of other domestic and foreign experts on Islamic fundamentalism and extremism.

Thus, S. E. Babkin, in his work "Movements of Political Islam in North Africa", paid most of his attention to the study of specific forms of political organization in the countries of the North African region (Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Sudan). A detailed and detailed analysis of Islamist organizations in this region is undoubtedly the strong point of this work. At the same time, the author did not set himself the task of such a thorough and in-depth study of the roots of political culture in the multi-million-strong Islamic world [Babkin, 2000, p. 23 - 36, 241 - 262, 336].

In the work of K. I. Polyakov "Islamic Fundamentalism in the Sudan", the main task for the author was to describe the essence of the concept of "Islamic fundamentalism", highlight the socio-economic and political prerequisites for the "revival" of Islamic movements in the Near and Middle East, and study the doctrine and main aspects of the political activity of Islamic fundamentalists [Polyakov, 2000, p. 11-29]. As a result, the consideration of Islamic fundamentalism in historical retrospect and the factors of stabilization and destabilization in the Arab-Muslim world remained "overboard". However, given the author's goal and objectives (studying the causes, conditions for the emergence and further development of the Sudanese Islamic-fundamentalist movement, analyzing its specific features), such a "simplified" approach to the study of the problems of political Islam becomes understandable.

Among these works, Gilles Kepel, a well-known French researcher of Islamic-fundamentalist and extremist movements, published in Paris in 2001 as "Jihad: The Expansion and Decline of Islamism" (for Russian translation, see: Kepel, 2004). The author divides his monograph into four parts, using the so-called problem-chronological method of presenting the material. For him, the main goal and the corresponding tasks that follow from it is to analyze the Islamist movement on its way from its "cradle" (1940-1950s), through the turbulent " youth "(late 1960s-early 1980s), the powerful "maturity" (1980s). until "old age" and "death" (1990s). This structure of the work makes it extremely attractive for the reader, who can find here any "plot" that interests him. However, the researcher's field of view does not include events that do not fit into this framework, in particular those significant socio-economic, political, and mainly ideological processes that took place in the world of Islam at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries.

R. G. Landa took into account the shortcomings of the previous research tradition: when structuring his work, he tried not to ignore all the large and small ones

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the "pitfalls" of this topic, which still remains one of the most difficult to study, in modern Arabic studies, political science and sociology - the politicization of Islam and the radicalization of socio-political movements of Muslims.

The author has chosen a complex-problem approach as the fundamental method of presenting the material. The main issues for him were the analysis of the causes of political culture and violence in the diverse and diverse world of Islam, stretching from the sands of the Sahara desert to Indonesian beaches, determining the share of responsibility that the leading Western countries should bear for rampant international terrorism, and finding ways to reconcile the West and the East on the basis of a genuine and equal cooperation in all areas of life.

Analyzing the development of Islamic political culture, R. G. Landa rightly notes that its formation and development was influenced by the centuries-old confrontation between the East and the colonial expansion of the West, and this is the main reason for the emergence of Islamic fundamentalism. He describes Islamism as a form of political opposition to the pro-Western governments of Arab and Muslim countries. The author correctly points out that "despite all the differences and contradictions between the intellectual and entrepreneurial elite and the common people in the countries of Islam, both sides are equally outraged by aggressive "Westernization", and recently by the processes of globalization, which threaten to leave the elite out of business and finally ruin the poor lower classes." towns and villages... "(pp. 17-18). In other words, in Arab-Muslim countries, Islamism is equally used by both the "lower classes" and the "upper classes" of society as a very effective tool for protecting their interests in the confrontation with "Westernization" and globalization.

In this regard, it is very useful and necessary to get acquainted with how R. G. Landa reveals the essence of the concepts of "fundamentalism", " integrism "and" political Islam (Islamism)", about which in our country in the 1990s there were very lively discussions among Arabists, Orientalists, Islamic scholars and political scientists. Giving a brief overview of the main points of view and views on the content of these terms, the author concludes: "... fundamentalism, integrism and political Islam (Islamism), having a single essence and basis, still differ in that the first of them is primarily theory, the second is both theory and practice (with the predominance of the former then the second one, depending on the circumstances), and as for political Islam, this is mostly a practice ... it does not forget about theory, especially in matters of propaganda, agitation and spreading influence among the broad strata of believers " (p. 42). Moreover, the author divides fundamentalism itself into moderate and radical trends. The latter, in some cases, turns into Islam-extremism. In addition, the emergence of political Islam was largely "the result of a tough and uncompromising struggle between Islamists and nationalists for ideological leadership in both the national liberation and social liberation struggles of Muslim peoples" (p.42).

Analyzing further the origins and causes of the emergence of such a phenomenon as Islamic fundamentalism, R. G. Landa comes to very important conclusions for modern historical science, according to which, when considering this phenomenon in historical retrospect, it becomes obvious that "Islamic fundamentalism is already the third wave of the ideological rise of the world of Islam in the last 150 years" (p. 53). The first two waves, according to the author, were pan-Islamism, and then nationalism and partly socialism.

Of course, the author's attitude to such a complex and ambiguous concept as "Islamic revolution" deserves special attention, the essence of which is that "the idea of social revolution, the politicization of society and the corresponding organization of its classes, groups and spiritual trends is a kind of gift from the West (and Russia) to the world of Islam. But by connecting with local structures, traditions, customs and mentality, this "gift" has become an ideological and political boomerang." At the same time, it is important to remember that at the beginning of the XX century " the world of Islam... he emphatically rejected the very notion of "revolution" and generally Western-style revolutionism, outside the framework of religion " (p. 74).

The author's skill and high professional level are particularly evident in the paragraph devoted to the most controversial topic of modern Russian science, both historical and political - the topic of Chechnya. A thoroughly reasoned scientific analysis of the main stages in the development of Russian-Chechen relations before 1917, in the Soviet and post-Soviet periods, can be placed in the "Procrustean bed" of 24 pages of text.

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not every specialist, even if he has been dealing with this problem for a long time. I would like to emphasize the fact that, considering such extremely complex and ambiguous material, the author did not deviate one iota from the requirements of scientific research, extremely objective and balanced analysis of any problem, regardless of his personal position.

The theme of responsibility of leading Western countries for nurturing various Islamist organizations and movements at the stage of formation, many of which later "warmly" thanked their "breadwinners", runs through the entire work .

R. G. Landa quite rightly points out that an important point, but often overlooked by many researchers, is that the highest political circles of the West are held hostage by their narrow-pragmatic mentality. This mentality again presupposes an equally narrowly focused egoism, which in political practice is realized in the form of a simple formula: "these guys are extremely necessary for us today, since they are the last barrier to the communist threat (nationalist dictatorship, etc.)"."Not only will they not return the money and weapons given to them, but they will also turn them against their" benefactors " (a classic example is the activities of former CIA freelance Osama Bin Laden), Western political and public figures are not very concerned.

These figures are held captive by the myth of " a vicious system of internal and external security." Even the tragedy of September 11, 2001 and subsequent events could not bury this myth. On the contrary, they rather strengthened it, since the authorities of the countries affected by this global terrorist war declared that the problem is not the depravity of the security system itself, which fights terror with even greater terror, while harboring individuals suspected of terrorist activities in "dangerous" countries for the West, but the fact that "they didn't give enough money for security", "they severely restricted the powers of the special services" (the presumption of innocence alone is worth a lot), "they didn't allow us to destroy all the countries that sponsor terror" , etc.

The numerous facts presented in R. G. Landa's research allow us to say with a high degree of confidence that the myth of "safe life" is the main essence of the response of the military-political and business-economic elites of the West to the new challenge of the XXI century - international terrorism, in some cases painted in Islamic tones.

Instead of helping the leading Western countries, as R. G. Landa correctly points out, to overcome Islam-extremism in the Arab-Muslim world with "economic, technical, financial, scientific, cultural, educational, and health - care assistance" (pp. 215-216), the powerful Western powers, led by the Arab - Muslim world, are trying to do the same. "world empire" - the United States continues to develop new types of weapons to fight countries from the "axis of evil". However, each new" anti-terrorist " strike by the Americans and their allies only multiplies the ranks of the countries participating in the "axis of evil".

It should be noted that it is precisely in the views on the essence of the modern Islam-extremist movement, on the prospects for its further evolution, that R. G. Landa's work radically differs from Gilles Kepel's monograph, which is similar in its fundamental nature. In his research, which marked a new stage in Islamic studies, Kepel, with his characteristic pedantry, persistently defended the thesis that " at the end of the XX century, Islamism as a militant trend of Islam, contrary to the hopes of its supporters and the fears of opponents who predicted its success in the early 1990s, lost its appeal, having been defeated in the first half of the the struggle for political power" [Kepel, 2004, pp. 8-9]. In contrast, R. G. Landa, relying on a huge amount of factual and theoretical material, proves the opposite: "Can we talk about any "decline" of Islamism? The facts presented in this book suggest otherwise. It is more about a change of tactics, a demonstration, and even then not everywhere, of the transition from radicalism to moderation, from extremism to peacefulness. But this depends largely on the position of the forces opposing political Islam" (p. 264).

R. G. Landa's study of the theory and practice of political Islam, due to the extraordinary complexity of the problems raised in it and the huge amount of materials on their various aspects, is not without a number of shortcomings. Thus, it is not entirely reasonable to include an analysis of the internal political situation in Sudan, where traditionalists (Sufi fraternities and parties controlled by them), the army and Islamists are fighting for power in the country, in the paragraph "Islamism and Traditionalism". Agreeing with the author that

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"the most important role (in the army's removal of the Islamists represented by the National Islamic Front from the Sudanese political Olympus - S. S.) was played by the Sufi fraternities, who stood out in the confrontation with the powerful totalitarian-ideological apparatus of the NIF" (p. 212). I think it would still be appropriate to place this "plot" in the paragraph "Radical fundamentalism and Islamism". terrorism in Arab countries". Moreover, the same paragraph provides a detailed analysis of the activities of Egyptian Islamic fundamentalists, with whose support, in fact, the Islamist movement in Sudan was born in the mid-1940s.

The logic of the narrative in this paper leads us to believe that the West, given the psychology of its elites, is unlikely to want to change its policy towards the Arab-Muslim world. However, this idea itself was never expressed by the author. But it has long been no secret that the countries of Islam will be able to become full members of the world community only if their national economies begin to seriously compete with the economies of leading Western countries. However, in this case, the West may lose profitable markets for its goods and services in the Arab and Muslim East. There is no doubt that the current business and political elites of Western countries will never go to such a development of events, so as not to undermine their long-standing power. This, in turn, means that the breeding ground for radical and openly extremist organizations will remain for a long time in most Arab-Muslim countries.

The mentioned shortcomings of the reviewed monograph do not detract from its significance. The work of R. G. Landa is an undoubted scientific contribution of a scientist who undertook to generalize and analyze such complex and, I repeat, extremely ambiguous material. The topics covered in this study deserve to be further studied by various, I would like to believe, successful domestic scientific schools, whose works will further enrich modern Russian historical science and political science.

list of literature

Babkin S. E. Dvizheniya politicheskogo islama v Severnoi Afrika [Movements of Political Islam in North Africa], Moscow: Institute for the Study of Israel and the Middle East, Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2000.

Polyakov K. I. Islamic fundamentalism in the Sudan. Moscow: Institute for the Study of Israel and the Middle East, 2000.

Kepel Gilles. Jihad: The Expansion and decline of Islamism. Moscow: Ladomir Publ., 2004.

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