Political Islam: Postscript

Abstract

The article gives a detailed theological and linguistic analysis of the term “pan-Islamism” in its connection with the concepts of “Muslim union”, “Islamic solidarity”, “political Islam”, etc. Moreover, the paper analyzes the false and dangerous dualistic ideology of sects of political Islam with a rigid division of the world into “we” and “they”, “the world of Islam” and “the world of Jahiliyyah” with the announcement of all those who are not part of the party of political Islam, the “ignoramus” (who are in Jahiliyyah) and pagans. The research also considers the concept of the relationship between religious, ethnic and national in Islam, the concept of a modern nation-state, as it is formed in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. The article deals with the reaction of apologists of political Islam to the monograph by V. S. Poloshin “Political Islam: in search of an “earthly paradise””, in particular, the review by D. R. Gilmutdinov. The review is based on an incorrect, expansive definition of the subject of the study of the monograph, it has no signs of scientific argument. It is replete with distorted citation of the peer-reviewed text and logical errors. In a meaningful plan, D. Gilmutdinov supports the binary opposition: “we are them” inherent in the ideology of representatives of political Islam. The article considers the circumstances of the declaration by the Ottoman Empire of the “jihad” against the Russian Empire in 1914 and the introduction of pan-Islamism in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, as well as the tendency to reconstruct this expansion 100 years after the “fatwas” of the Ottoman Sheikh-ul-Islam Khairi Efendi.