The State and The Muslim Ummah

The article is dedicated to the issues of relations between the state and Islam in Russia and the Arab World. Exploring the Arab experience, the authors highlight Algerian, Egyptian and Syrian cases as most relevant for being compared to the situation in Russia. The methodological part of the article classifies the institutions of Islamic communities’ self-organization and state policies towards Islam. While the direction of relationships between states and religion is unique in every particular case, defined by peculiarities of historical development, architecture of political systems and social structures, one can discover some general patterns. For instance, the comparative historical analysis of evolution of government policies towards Islam proves that at the stage of statehood establishment, both the Soviet administration and the governments of Arab republics had similar objectives of social modernization and consolidation of political system. This fact predetermined oppression of traditional religious institutions through Islamic reform movements. After the governments had achieved the consolidation of political systems, the models of their interaction with Islam became significantly different. In the Arab World, it was the beginning of the “Islamic turn”, leading to the revival and expansion of religious social and political structures. On the other side, USSR saw the “statification” of Islam, division between “formal” and “informal” religion. In late 20th – early 21th centuries, both Russia and the Arab countries have faced similar challenges and threats, causing the securitization of relations between state and religion, that has developed in absolutely different conditions and has been imposed by different mechanism

Development economics · Economics · Islam · Modernization theory · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Global Political and Economic Relations · History · Law · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts · Regional Socio-Economic Development Trends