Religion unites believers, but spiritual likeness does not always equal shared political interests of representatives of a certain religion or their countries.

The Islamic world and ideas of Muslim consolidation

In the past, Islam often became the ideological justification for the aggressive policies of imperial entities (including the Arab Caliphate and the Ottoman Empire). In recent history, Islam has often determined the political ideology of theocratic regimes (for example, in Iran and Afghanistan). Islam has a fairly high influence in the modern monarchical regimes of the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf, as well as in secular and democratic Türkiye.

The renaissance of Islam as a spiritual element is objectively gaining momentum in the Muslim countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (including the national subjects of the Russian Federation), taking into account the period of militant atheism in the Soviet era. The politicisation of Islam and religious extremism were noted in local and civil conflicts in the post-Soviet space with active external intervention (e.g. Karabakh conflict, civil war in Chechnya). There were cases of Islamic opposition parties forming with the aim of changing the secular regime in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Unfortunately, under the influence of clerical forces from the countries of the former Soviet Union, radical Muslims were recruited to international terrorist organisations (including Al-Qaeda* and ISIL*, organisations banned in Russia).

Meanwhile, the Islamic world itself has a rather diverse political........

© New Eastern Outlook