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«IZVESTIYA IRKUTSKOGO GOSUDARSTVENNOGO UNIVERSITETA». SERIYA «POLITOLOGIYA. RELIGIOVEDENIE»
«THE BULLETIN OF IRKUTSK STATE UNIVERSITY». SERIES «POLITICAL SCIENCE AND RELIGION STUDIES»
ISSN 2073-3380 (Print)

List of issues > Series «Political Science and Religion Studies». 2024. Vol 49

The Post-Secular Nature of Religious Fundamentalism: The Activities of Islamic Terrorist Organizations in Central Asia

Author(s)
T. V. Izluchenko, D. N. Gergilev
Abstract
The influence of post-secular trends on the emergence and spread of religious fundamentalism as a hybrid form of religiosity is substantiated. Religious fundamentalists are understood by social actors. They reflect on socio-political mistakes from the point of view of radical religious beliefs and implement a project of transforming society – bringing the world to predictability (sacred history) through moving away from chaos (godlessness). The principles of religious fundamentalism are used to ideologically justify terrorist activities, form group thinking and exercise social control. The ambivalence of the essence of religious fundamentalism is emphasized by the example of the activities of terrorist organizations in Central Asia that unreasonably appeal to the Islamic faith. So, on the one hand, Islamist terrorists act as defenders of faith in the face of threats of the post-secular world, threats of liberalism and conductors of traditional, primordial sacred values and principles of the Islamic caliphate of the VII century. On the other hand, they promote the ideas of developing and maintaining religious expression, respect for human rights and freedoms, especially with regard to religion. Islamist terrorist organizations demand recognition of religious identity in the public sphere, and of themselves as full-fledged participants in international relations. Religion is not a «private matter» of Islamic terrorists, it acts as an ontological and semantic justification for the consistency of the alternative social reality that they construct.
About the Authors

Izluchenko Tatyana Vladimirovna, Candidate of Sciences (Philosophy), Associate Professor of the Department of Delictology and Criminology, Siberian Federal University, 6, Maerchak st., Krasnoyarsk, 660075, Russian Federation, Senior Research Scientist, Laboratory of Historical and Socio-Economic Research in Siberia and Central Asia, Krasnoyarsk Scientific Center SB RAS, 50, Akademgorodok st., Krasnoyarsk, 660036, Russian Federation, e-mail: izluchenko@mail.ru

Gergilev Denis Nikolaevich, Doctor of Sciences (History), Associate Professor, Leading Research Scientist, Laboratory of Historical and Socio-Economic Research in Siberia and Central Asia, Krasnoyarsk Scientific Center SB RAS, 50, Akademgorodok st., Krasnoyarsk, 660036, Russian Federation, Head, Department of History of Russia, World and Regional Civilizations, Siberian Federal University, 82А, Svobodny ave., Krasnoyarsk, 660041, Russian Federation, e-mail: turilak@yandex.ru

For citation

Izluchenko T.V., Gergilev D.N. The Post-Secular Nature of Religious Fundamentalism: The Activities of Islamic Terrorist Organizations in Central Asia. The Bulletin of Irkutsk State University. Series Political Science and Religion Studies, 2024, vol. 49, pp. 130-137. https://doi.org/10.26516/2073-3380.2024.49.130 (in Russian)

Keywords
religion, religious fundamentalism, post-secularity, Islamic terrorists, Central Asia, terrorist activities.
UDC
329.3:2-664+2-1
DOI
https://doi.org/10.26516/2073-3380.2024.49.130
References
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Full text (russian)