Islam and ISIS banned in the Russian Federation - why an equal sign is impossible. Afterword to the tragedy at Crocus City Hall
Simulacrum against the caliphate
When analyzing the tragedy at Crocus City Hall, ISIS, banned in Russia, was mentioned more than once, and took responsibility for the crime.
Unfortunately, for people who are far from religion, such an identification can cause an association with Islam.
And the terrorists themselves call their enclave a caliphate, having announced its creation ten years ago - on July 29, 2014, on the first day of the holy Ramadan in Islam, which in the context of the further bloody path of ISIS, including regarding Muslims, looks like the grin of the devil.
ISIS not only kill Muslims, but also destroy their cultural heritage, not to mention representatives of other faiths and their monuments. Accordingly, L. N. Gumilyov’s term is quite applicable to them: anti-system.
Jerusalem is the center of traditional faiths that should join forces in countering terrorism
But if ISIS members are not Muslims, then where did their ideology come from and what lies at its basis? And what are their differences with the caliphate?
To answer, let’s move to the 7th century, when the caliphate was formed on the ruins of yesterday’s still powerful Sassanid power and a significant part of the Roman lands.
One of the familiar events in the process of its formation was the fall of Jerusalem in 637, which at that time was part of the Roman Empire.
According to legend, Caliph Umar (634–644), considered righteous in Islam, entered the city alone and personally began to remove garbage from the site of the temple once built by Solomon and where the dome of Al-Aqsa now stands.
It is simply impossible to imagine the ISIS “caliph” al-Baghdadi (2014–2019) doing such an activity, because a person with destructive thinking is not capable of creation.
At the same time, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, led by Patriarch Sophronius, entered into an agreement with the caliph. Its text is given in the work of a man who lived at the turn of the 8th–9th centuries. historian At-Tabari, as well as on the pages of a number of scientific works, in particular, by the outstanding Arabist O. G. Bolshakov.
A small excerpt:
These are the guarantees of inviolability (aman) that Allah's servant Umar gave to the inhabitants of Iliya. He gave them a guarantee of inviolability for themselves, their fortunes, their churches and their crosses, their sick and healthy and their entire community. Truly, their churches will not be inhabited and they will not be destroyed, they will not be diminished, nor their fences, nor their crosses, nor their property, and they will not be oppressed for their faith and will not harm any of them.
Compare: terrorists persecuted Assyrian Christians living in Iraq, in particular, expelling the inhabitants from the Mar Behnam monastery and destroying it.
The ugly grimace of postmodernity
Where is al-Baghdadi’s declared return to the origins of Islam, within which and according to the Medina Constitution of 622, Muslims, Christians and Jews constituted a single ummah.
Let me make a small digression from the topic - chronological, but not conceptual. For all traditional societies have a similar paradigm of thinking.
In general, analogies of the events under consideration with other, even fundamentally distant eras, are often appropriate.
In this regard, I like to refer to the “Speech of Ipuwer” - a monument about the troubles that shook the Ancient Kingdom of Egypt and dated approximately to the 1917th century BC, but the impression is that it is dedicated to, say, what happened in Russia in XNUMX.
First retreat
Therefore, let’s move literally for a minute to Russia at the beginning of the 17th century. Troubles. Grigory Otrepiev poses as Tsarevich Dmitry.
The people, contrary to Pushkin’s “Godunov,” are not silent. Supports. The legitimate one, in his mind, is the king on the throne. Rurikovich.
Less than a year passes and the same people brutally deal not even with Otrepiev, but with his corpse.
Reason: Gregory, following popular ideas, played at being a king, which, in conditions of the sacred perception of the latter’s power, looked like the greatest blasphemy, worthy of death and subsequent desecration of the remains.
Likewise, ISIS, in the context of perception by traditional Islamic society, is precisely playing at the caliphate, and therefore is blasphemous and even blasphemous.
Accordingly, it is inappropriate to identify the true caliphate with its current simulacrum and the ugly grimace of postmodernity.
Orientalist historian S. A. Frantsuzov also writes about this:
the “shows” staged by its (ISIS – author’s note) adherents with the beheading of captives are apparently marked by a monstrous postmodern grimace.
And isn’t it an ominous grin from Satan: to take responsibility for a crime committed in Ramadan?
With respect to the People of the Book
Let's go back to the 7th century.
The first caliphs treated the People of the Book with respect and were not distinguished by excessive cruelty that went beyond military necessity.
By the way, it was towards Jerusalem that Mohammed initially turned his gaze during prayer.
Moreover, the English scientist Martin Lings, who converted to Islam, cites in his work an excerpt from the legend:
After the conquest of Mecca, the Prophet discovered images of Abraham, Mary and Jesus (peace be upon them) in the Kaaba, along with many other paintings and statues of numerous pagan deities. He destroyed all the pagans, but did not allow Abraham, Mary and Jesus to be destroyed:
“In addition to the icon of the Virgin Mary with the baby Jesus and a painting of an old man called Abraham, the walls inside the Kaaba were covered with images of pagan deities. Placing his hand on the icon, the Prophet told Uthman to ensure that all other paintings, except Abraham, were erased.
“In addition to the icon of the Virgin Mary with the baby Jesus and a painting of an old man called Abraham, the walls inside the Kaaba were covered with images of pagan deities. Placing his hand on the icon, the Prophet told Uthman to ensure that all other paintings, except Abraham, were erased.
It is unlikely that such an act could fit into al-Baghdadi’s imagination, covered with streams of innocent blood.
ISIS: in search of origins
Umar fell at the hands of a Persian slave in 644. The Ummah chose as caliph Mohammed's son-in-law, Uthman, an elderly and pious man, editor of the Koran, which again does not contradict al-Baghdadi's assertion that ISIS is returning to the roots of Islam.
For the codification of a book sacred to Muslims can be considered within the framework of an enlightenment project, which cannot be said about the ISIS. Their activities correlate only with propaganda.
But, alas, Usman was no stranger to nepotism: he appointed relatives to key positions. And let’s spend government funds for personal enrichment, which is difficult to imagine under the stern Umar, who followed the ideals of social justice - in the context of the early medieval Islamic understanding of them.
So, having arrived under the walls of Jerusalem, the caliph saw his poorly dressed warriors, who had left Medina several years earlier, dressed in silk and expensive armor. Outraged, he threw a stone at them, and then began to throw sand so that the appearance of the warriors would resemble their previous one.
Under Uthman this became an anachronism. But Mohammed’s still living companions were outraged by the greed of the caliph’s relatives.
In the end, a delegation arrived from Egypt to Medina with claims about the abuses of Uthman’s proteges, who promised to look into it. However, when the delegation returned home, they intercepted a letter with the seal of the caliph, in which the governor of Egypt was ordered to arrest the complainants.
They immediately returned to Medina. It turned out that the letter was concocted by Uthman's secretary, whom, however, the caliph refused to hand over. Then the Egyptians stormed Uthman's house and killed him. Thus, for the first time, Muslims shed the blood of Muslims.
The Ummah elected Ali, Mohammed's cousin and son-in-law, as caliph. But the governor of Syria, Muawiyah ibn Abu Sufyan, opposed it.
The first civil war in the caliphate began. Her fate was decided by the Battle of Siffin in 657. Victory was leaning towards Ali.
However, at the decisive moment, some of Muawiyah’s warriors approached his troops with scrolls of the Koran mounted on the tips of spears and a proposal to resolve the matter peacefully.
Ali agreed, which caused indignation among part of the army, which believed it was necessary to defeat the rebels and therefore broke away from the caliph. She formed the Kharijite sect. One of its adherents later killed Ali, paving the way for Muawiya, who founded the Umayyad dynasty, to power.
But the Kharijites did not fold weapons, stirring up 35 uprisings against the caliphate over the course of a century. And they recognized only their supporters as Muslims.
ISIS follows the same strategy, contrasting with the treatment of infidels in the caliphate itself, when Christians and Jews, as “people of the Book” (ahl al-kitab), were not only protected, but also incorporated into the intellectual and political elite.
Thus, the Christian saint John of Damascus, as well as his father and grandfather, held the position of great logothete under the Umayyads.
And the Koran says:
You will undoubtedly find that those closest in love to Muslims are those who say: “We are Christians!
What kind of ISIS Muslims are they when they ignore such words from their holy book?
For the true caliphate, they were not at all empty: in the early Middle Ages, the Islamic world became the intellectual center of the Middle East and the Mediterranean.
In one library in Baghdad, later destroyed by the Mongols, there were more books than in all of Europe, which was still going through the “Dark Ages”.
And it is simply impossible to imagine the caliphs or their subjects destroying monuments of Mesopotamian culture, as the ghouls of their ISIS did. We are talking specifically about an attitude dictated by a worldview, and not an affect on the battlefield or within the walls of a city that has just been taken by storm.
Or take the capital of the caliphate founded by the Umayyads - Cordoba: in terms of literacy levels, including women, it ranked first in Europe.
The Cathedral Mosque of Cordoba, built in the 8th century, is a monument of Islamic architecture.
The status of women in ISIS is fundamentally different. And literacy, including truly religious literacy, is of no use to her at all.
I will allow myself to give a lengthy but important quote on this subject from the work of K. A. Kakhieva:
In July 2018, a report was read out from King's College London, which noted the new status of women in the Islamic State, due to changing views within the organization about the fairer sex who should take up arms. Let us remember that previously women were not allowed to participate in full-fledged combat operations. The reason for this was ISIS Sharia laws, according to which military training was provided to women so that only infidels would die at their hands.
The report's conclusion was that the danger posed by women may be much greater than official figures suggest. “We believe that some women may now pose a unique security risk based on several factors,” the report said.
These factors include the security role and training that some women have received in ISIS-controlled areas and the ability to pass on these skills, including to their children, or apply them elsewhere.
In addition, narratives within the Islamic State itself surrounding women's roles have also evolved, expanding the conditions under which women can be asked to take up arms.
The report's conclusion was that the danger posed by women may be much greater than official figures suggest. “We believe that some women may now pose a unique security risk based on several factors,” the report said.
These factors include the security role and training that some women have received in ISIS-controlled areas and the ability to pass on these skills, including to their children, or apply them elsewhere.
In addition, narratives within the Islamic State itself surrounding women's roles have also evolved, expanding the conditions under which women can be asked to take up arms.
Regarding religious tolerance of Muslims, an interesting example is represented by Caliph al-Mamun (813–833).
According to the historian R. A. Salimovskaya, a prayer for a Muslim ruler, unique in Arab-Christian literature, is dedicated to him.
And in the life of Theodore of Edessa, al-Mamun accepted Christianity with the name John and became a martyr - according to this monument of hagiographic literature, the caliph announced his baptism to the people and was torn to pieces by an indignant crowd.
It is clear that this is fiction, but the dispute organized at the court of the caliph between an Orthodox and a Muslim theologian is a reality that was impossible under al-Baghdadi.
Of course, it would be unfair to say that Christians were not at times oppressed by Muslims. We tested it. But we must understand that sometimes the persecutions that broke out occurred during the crisis of the caliphate and extended not only to Christians, but also to the very adherents of Islam, which was different from the dominant movement.
This was the case under the Sunni caliph al-Mutawakkil (847–861), who oppressed Christians, Shiites, and representatives of the philosophical and theological school of thought - the Mu'tazilites. And not only Christian shrines were destroyed, but also Shiite ones. However, all this was not widespread and long-lasting.
The reign of al-Mutawakkil occurred during a period of change in the ruling elite in the caliphate - from Arab to less educated - Turkic. The guard, consisting of the latter, overthrew and killed the caliph.
Fatalism, fanaticism, distorted understanding of jihad
In this regard, it is not surprising that the radical views of the Kharijites have spread among the most uneducated part of the population of the caliphate - the North African Berbers, which only makes the latter closer to the ISIS, whose support is also made up of the unenlightened masses.
What was the basis of the Kharijite teachings?
Fatalism, fanaticism, a distorted understanding of jihad as a fight against “infidels” and Muslims who do not share the views of the Kharijites, who are the majority.
Such features of the Kharijite faith, writes religious scholar E.V. Zarubina, are interpreted and sharpened (and sometimes distorted) by modern radicals from Islam for the purpose of ideological justification for terrorism. The Kharijite creed objectively contains the possibility of such an interpretation, which turns it into a powerful ideological weapon in the hands of terrorists.
ISIS has nothing to do with traditional and intellectual Islam, which is based on a centuries-old culture, when the words “Muslim” and “philosopher,” as the outstanding medievalist Franco Cardini writes, if I’m not mistaken, were synonymous.
However, illiteracy is not the only reason for the replenishment of its ranks. If we talk about the military elite, then here the terrorists must pay a deep bow to the Americans, who violated the norms of international law and occupied Iraq, leaving a significant number of officers of the former Saddam army without their lot.
The latter had nowhere to go except to ISIS. Moreover, for the most part, it seems, these are people who are religiously indifferent, since most of them were previously members of the secular Baath.
S. Lavrov also spoke about their motivation:
Now the most effective militants in ISIS are former officers of Saddam Hussein's army, this is recognized by everyone, who were simply thrown out into the street and who had nothing to live on. I am not making excuses for them, but they went to ISIS not at the call of their hearts, but simply out of financial need.
Additionally,
The success of the Islamist boom - write A.V. Fedorchenko, A.V. Krylov - including in the form of the creation of the Islamic State, was greatly facilitated by the crisis of secular ideologies (primarily Western liberalism and communism), which prompted the broad Muslim masses to turn to closer They are in spirit, in mentality, with purely religious values.
Please note: the crisis in the caliphate led to a change of elites: as I wrote above, from the cultural Arab to the less educated Turkic.
It’s the same today: the crisis of secular statehood in Middle Eastern countries allows ISIS to incorporate poorly educated adherents into its ranks.
Second retreat
Regarding the crisis of secular ideology and liberalism - yes and no. Crisis is a crisis, but let's remember "The End" stories» F. Fukuyama, according to whose thoughts liberalism has triumphed in the world, since people are no longer ready to sacrifice themselves for the sake of an idea.
So is Fukuyama right?
Subsequent events, starting from September 11, 2001, at first glance refuted Fukuyama's conclusions. But he wrote not about the momentary victory of liberalism, but about its triumph in a historical perspective.
And here we see citizens who are not averse to killing simply for money, without any idea, and at the same time are not ready to die, unlike, say, the terrorists on Dubrovka, with the phrase of one of them:
We want to die more than you want to live.
Such a maxim is least associated with footage of interrogations of the accused captured in the Bryansk forest.
Isn’t this stereotype of behavior a reason to think about Fukuyama’s correctness? Perhaps we are entering an era when they will try to kill people en masse simply for money, which is what we saw in Crocus City Hall.
Those who carried out the massacre there, according to experts - the President of the Alpha veteran association S. A. Goncharov, in particular - were not professionals.
And I think that non-professionals are now actively joining the ranks of ISIS itself. The reason was correctly named by A.V. Fedorchenko and A.V. Krylov:
Muslims in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa objectively manifest a feeling of losing to neighboring civilizations that are successfully adapting to competition in the new global world, and an awareness of the injustice of the policies of the outside world, especially the West. Local elites, who do not want to undertake systemic reforms, play on these feelings. This syndrome becomes aggressive.
And it is easier for terrorists to use such dissatisfied people as cannon fodder, having previously pumped them full of psychotropic substances, than to turn them into well-trained and religiously motivated fighters through long training.
Moreover, some dissatisfied people really dream of a caliphate as a kingdom of justice, but due to the low level of education they have very distorted ideas about it, which is why they destroy ancient architectural monuments and kill, including Muslims.
Also, according to A.V. Fedorchenko and A.V. Krylov:
The main task of the Islamic State is to wage jihad against all infidels on the orders of the Almighty.
But the idea of jihad as a war against the “infidels” found mass application only in the form of a reaction to the Crusades.
To summarize: representatives of traditional faiths must unite to oppose terror as an anti-system and a kind of anti-civilization, including through education - not religious propaganda, but acquaintance with the true foundations of world religions.
Использованная литература:
Starosti A. N. Ideological origins of ISIS, adaptation practices and methods of information counteraction to radicals
Frantsuzov S. A. Polyphony of Islam. Faces of Islamic modernism
Zarubina E. V. On the religious component of Islamic fundamentalism
Rachinsky V. P. Structure of the armed forces and ideology of the Islamic state of Iraq and the Levant
Salimovskaya A. R. The image of Caliph al-Mamun and its transformation in the monuments of medieval Arab-Christian culture
Fedorchenko A. V., Krylov A. V. The phenomenon of the Islamic state
Kakhieva K. A. The role of women in the terrorist organization ISIS
Information