R. R. SIKOEV. PAN-ISLAMISM: ORIGINS AND MODERNITY. Jamaluddin Afghani and his religious and political followers of the XX-beginning of the XXI century. Foreword by V. V. Naumkina, Moscow: Aspect Press, 2010, 287 p.

At a time when extremist activities of radical Islamist groups are intensifying in a number of countries in the Near and Middle East, South Asia, and North Africa, who have chosen pan-Islamism as their ideological weapon, somewhat "modernizing" it and adapting it to their interests, the publication of a monograph by a well-known expert on Afghanistan, R. R. Sikoev, is very relevant.

In the 19th century, pan-Islamism was the first wave of the religious and mobilization rise of the Islamic world, an expression of its resistance to the onset of colonialism by the European powers, who sought not only to subjugate the Muslim peoples to the military, economic and political domination of the West, but also to decisively influence the spiritual appearance of the adherents of Islam, their daily life, This posed a threat to the socio-cultural identity of Muslims, their historically formed ethno-confessional specifics, and the unique originality of traditions, customs, customs, and mentality. In addition, since the eleventh century, i.e., since the Crusades, the world of Islam, forced to constantly defend itself against the military and religious expansion of Western chivalry, and somewhat later-against corsairism, missionary work and aggressive interventions of Christian Europe, perceived its colonialism as a direct continuation of this centuries-old aggressive pressure.

All this, taken together, gave rise to pan-Islamism, i.e. the desire to unite the entire world of Islam to repel the "infidels". This movement was led by the caliph, whose title was then Sultan (Padishah) of the Ottoman Empire, and Jamaluddin Afghani played a major role in developing the ideology of pan-Islamism, whose name became a banner for his followers at the turn of the century.

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XIX-XX centuries and still enjoys wide popularity among Muslims of various countries.

The death of the Ottoman Empire as a result of the First World War, the collapse of the caliphate and the caliphate movement that tried to revive it brought another ideology - nationalism-to the political forefront of the world of Islam. But nationalism, despite its predominantly secular nature, did not neglect religious slogans. In practice, he paid tribute to Islam (in different countries to varying degrees) as an important part of the spiritual identity of Muslims, as an indispensable element of the national worldview and patriotic worldview. Under the banner of nationalism, almost all Muslim countries have won their independence, thereby freeing themselves from political dependence on the West. However, it soon became clear that they were unable to solve their pressing economic, social and cultural problems without financial assistance, technology and qualified specialists from the West. In other words, the era of neocolonialism has arrived, perceived by the majority of Muslims as a somewhat "modernized" repetition of the seemingly bygone order and the former hated oppression.

This created the conditions for the third wave of the rise of the Muslim world in the form of political Islam or Islamism, which sees the solution to any problems in the complete Islamization of the internal life and foreign policy of Muslim states, and in the most extreme interpretation - in the complete Islamization of the whole world! To achieve these goals, Islamists took into account all the rich experience of thousands of years of opposition to the Christian world (mostly Western), including the traditions of solidarity of the Muslim Ummah (i.e., a religious community of any level-from a large clan, village and city to a country, continent and the whole world), numerous wars and battles with colonizers, early Islamic postulates of equality and mutual emancipation of co-religionists. Naturally, they also adopted the ideas of pan-Islamism. Currently, militant Islamists widely use pan-Islamism both as a means of rallying their supporters in various countries, and as a basis for interfering in the internal affairs of other states and ultimately seizing power.

R. R. Sikoev in his work set the task of thoroughly analyzing the content of the doctrine of pan-Islamism of the outstanding Muslim religious and political figure Sayyid Jamaluddin Afgani (1838-1897) and tracing the main milestones of radicalization of the postulates of his teaching for more than a century up to the present day. The author coped well with this difficult task.

The first part of the book "Mentor" is completely devoted to describing the life path and religious and political activities of Sheikh J. Afghani. The author cites a number of interesting documents and facts that were only briefly mentioned or were little known in the Russian scientific literature, which gives a new idea of this outstanding personality.

Having thoroughly studied the content of the doctrine of J. Afgani, R. R. Sikoev identified its main provisions based on the Koranic principles: the priority of religious community over national; unity and brotherhood of Muslims; the need to unite in an alliance to restore the former power of the Ummah; jihad as a means of defense against the aggressor, etc. Interpreting the pan-Islamism of J. Afgani as a response of Muslims and other peoples of the East to the aggression and expansionist colonial policy of the great powers at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, the author emphasizes that this teaching pursued the main goals - the preservation of the Islamic world of its identity and its face, the achievement of the highest cultural and scientific knowledge by Muslims,economic systems , and not the formation of some aggressive bloc directed against followers of other religions. In other words, J. Afghani's teaching was defensive, not expansionist, and aimed at preserving one's heritage and values, rather than destroying others'.

Pan-Islamism of J. Afgani from the very beginning was a sharp ideological and political weapon of the peoples of the East, first of all, of course, Muslims. R. R. Sikoev writes in detail about how the main dogmas of his teaching were radicalized over time due to specific historical, geographical, political and social conditions in different countries in the second part of the book - "Followers". He examines the ideological concepts of such well-known religious and political figures, followers of the teachings of J. Afghani, as the organizer of the Muslim Brotherhood society in Egypt, Hassan al-Banna, the creator of the Islamic Society in Pakistan, Abul Ala Maududi, and the founder of the Islamic state and social order in Iran, Ruhollah Khomeini. Their ideology is covered in detail in the book. I will note only the general conclusion

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Author: the provisions of pan-Islamism were radicalized due to the historical conditions and specifics of each country (in Egypt-the British occupation, in British India-the division into India and Pakistan, in Iran-the anti-monarchical revolution).

I would like to emphasize the special role of Hassan al-Banna and his followers in passing on the baton of pan-Islamism to subsequent generations and in the emergence of Islamism as such. They were the first to put forward the idea of "Islamic nationalism" (al-qaumiyya al-islyamiyya), which on the one hand continued one of the postulates of J. Afghani, on the other - taking into account the trends of the time. J. Afgani, as is well known, tried to substitute pan-Islamism for nationalism, claiming that Muslims have "no other nationality than their religion" (p. 73). But in the 1920s and 1930s in Egypt, and in other countries of Islam, especially Arab ones, various trends of nationalism became very strong (including the "Pharaonism" preached by the famous writer Taha Hussein, as well as "all-Arab nationalism" (al-qaumiyya al-Arabiya). He needed something to counteract, which is why al-Banna invented his formula for a hybrid of Islamism and nationalism. He and his followers first proclaimed some other ideas of modern Islamists, in particular the dream of an "ideal Islamic state", the constitution of which should be the Koran, the half-forgotten hope for the revival of the caliphate, taken up today by the most extremist wing of supporters of "jihad" at any cost. R. R. Sikoev, of course, is right to point out that,"despite their professed commitment to pan-Islamism and their international mission to unite all Muslims, the Brothers remained essentially supporters of pan-Arabism" (p. 114). Moreover, if in the 1930s their influence within pan-Arabism extended only to Syria and Palestine, then since the 1960s it has already covered the entire Arab world, competing under the banner of Islamism with the secular and socialist version of pan-Arabism of the Baath Party.

At a time when Iraq, Afghanistan, and even Pakistan are actually at war, the sections of the book devoted to the policies and practices of the Taliban movement, as well as the ideological views of a number of Islamic radicals in the Arab East, Africa, and South Asia, are of particular interest. The author points out that there are different trends among this category: from the moderate radicals of Rashid al-Ghannouchi in Tunisia to extreme extremists like the Syrian Abu Musab al-Suri, who advocates a "world Islamic state" (p.230). The latter, although they claim to be followers of pan-Islamism, nevertheless perceived it in the interpretation of Osama Bin Laden, who proclaimed a worldwide jihad against not only followers of other faiths, but also all those Muslims whom he considers to be "infidels"at his discretion.

R. R. Sikoev rightly assesses Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda and its aggressive organizations as extremist and jihadist sects that have little in common with Islam, the great world religion, "merciful and merciful", tolerant of all non-believers, since their Holy Book states that "there is no compulsion in religion". That is why the majority of the one-and-a-half billion-strong Muslim community rejected the misogynistic ideology of al-Qaeda.

In this regard, the title of the fourth chapter, "The Islamic Emirate of the Taliban - a stronghold of the Muslim world" (p.170), is controversial. The Taliban and those associated with it cannot in any way be considered a" stronghold "of not only all, but even the majority of Muslims, who are not like-minded either with the Taliban or with Al-Qaeda directing their actions. Their claim to gain power over the world of Islam is dangerous, but it has no prospects. Of course, if the forces opposing them learn from the sad experience of recent years and do not allow such mistakes as a short-sighted bet on an exclusively forceful solution to the problem.

I would like to add something to the characteristics of the "heirs of Afghanistan", which the author calls "the new leaders of the caravan". Some of them are not only propagandists of pan-Islamism in the new edition, but also make a significant contribution to the development of the ideology of modern Islam-extremism. For example, Yusuf Qaradawi, a fairly "moderate" Islamist who admits even "pluralism of opinions" and condemns violence, at the same time objectively contributed to the rise of Islamism in Algeria during his years in this country as an Arabic language teacher. Even more prominent is the figure of Hasan al-Turabi, a Master of Laws at Oxford and Doctor of Jurisprudence at the Sorbonne, who founded the University in 1991. The Islamic-Arab People's Conference, which brought together Islamists from 55 countries. Having repeatedly held senior positions in Sudan, he became one of the most authoritative ideologues of Islamism in the world and even stated:

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In 1994, he declared that "Sudan is the most Islamic state in the world, more Islamic than Iran."* And finally, the Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri, Bin Laden's right-hand man, a violent leader of Al-Qaeda, an active terrorist involved in many bloody crimes, who in the 1980s declared it" political and ideological suicide " (p. 222) for a Muslim to swear an oath to the legitimate authorities of his state who do not share the tenets of Islam.extremism. It was al-Zawahiri who sent up to 40% of Arab volunteers to Afghanistan and created the Talai al-Fatah (Vanguard of Conquest) organization, whose fighters were caught in Albania, Arabia, Kenya, and Tanzania in the 1990s. Its activities are a vivid example of how modern Islamists use the traditions and experience of pan-Islamism.

In conclusion, the author makes a very important conclusion, in my opinion: the entire international community should fight Islamist extremism and terrorism, but only the global Muslim Ummah will decide its final fate: its right and duty to put an end to this phenomenon, which is not accepted by the majority of followers of Islam. At the same time, it is necessary to take into account the danger of the transition of "moderate" Islamists (no one knows how many of them there are). to the position of extremism in the event of an unfavorable course of events, in particular carelessness, short-sightedness or mistakes of the forces opposing Islam-extremism.

Describing the book of R. R. Sikoev as a whole, I note that it was written by a specialist at a high professional level. Undoubtedly, this work will be of great interest not only for scholars engaged in the study of Islam, but also for all those who are interested in the modern history and religion of the countries of the Near and Middle East, and will also become an important textbook. It is desirable that our political leaders, diplomats, journalists, businessmen, and practitioners who are constantly confronted with the ideology and sentiments of pan-Islamism and the modern Islamism that has adopted it should also get acquainted with it.

* From an interview with the magazine " Asia and Africa Today "(1994, N 11, p. 33).

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