Islam as Critical Practice: Young Muslims Discuss their Religious Development

Abstract

In modern Russia, religion is seen as a conservative social force aimed at consolidating society on the basis of common values. At the same time, as human history shows, religions often acted as a powerful political force, leading to great social transformations. Such a dual approach to religion was embodied in the views of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory (M. Horkheimer and others), as well as a number of Islamic intellectuals of the "left" wing, such as G. Jemal and F. Isak. These thinkers emphasized that religion in certain historical periods could be a liberating force acting in the interests of the most oppressed members of society, while in others, on the contrary, it could promote oppression and support the interests of power elites. The paper presents the results of studies of young Russian Muslims based on the methodology of critical social psychology, which develops the views of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory. The results show that a person's religious conversion is preceded by a critical rethinking of his own way of life, which was also noted in earlier studies conducted among representatives of Christianity and Judaism. At the same time, it was found that the critical attitude does not disappear with the adoption of Islam. The antagonism between the former “secular” and the current Islamic way of life is only strengthened by the opposition of the social position of Muslims and the “majority”. Initial dissatisfaction with the conditions of one's own life is transformed into a larger social criticism.