Fundamentalism Research Articles

Young people’s views on religious fundamentalism, ethno-nationalism and SRHR: an SRHM South Asia virtual roundtable discussion

In South Asia, social identity and location have always been important determinants of the opportunities available or denied to people and of their relationship to the State. They are also closely linked to the social norms that govern young people’s lives. In recent times, religious and identity-centric fundamentalism and ethno-nationalism has gained extraordinary importance in the South Asian sub-continent, and this has implications for young people’s SRHR. This roundtable article is based on a virtual discussion organised by SRHM to explore, from the perspectives of young people from five countries in South Asia, how a young person’s identity and social location affect their SRHR. The discussion threw light on the ways in which conservative religious norms, nationalist discourse, and discriminatory legislation have constrained young people’s choices, their access to health care services and their overall sexual and reproductive wellbeing. It also discussed, with critical reflection, the efforts that are being made by young people’s collectives to bring about positive change. With respect to implications for practice in the SRHR domain, the discussion highlights the significance of understanding and acting on the interlinkages between political, social and cultural contexts with sexual and reproductive health while addressing the concerns of young people.

РЕЛІГІЙНИЙ ФУНДАМЕНТАЛІЗМ І ПРАВА ЛЮДИНИ: ІДЕЯ ТА СУЧАСНА ПРАКТИКА

The content of the concept of religious fundamentalism is analyzed; the peculiarities of positioning and forms of manifestation of the phenomenon of religious fundamentalism in the socio-cultural space of the modern world are considered; the specifics of the relationship and the existing fundamental contradictions between fundamentalist ideas and practices and the idea of human rights and ways to defend them are studied. It is concluded that religious fundamentalism is a complex phenomenon that has not only a purely religious nature but also socio-political essence, gives to faith an ideological character, and provides social action against cultural modernity and secular nature of power, while following religious orthodoxy. Religious fundamentalists seek to adhere strictly to the foundations of their sacred sources and texts, to defend a monopoly on the only possible point of view based on them, to follow unconditionally the letter of proposed definitions and interpretations, which is inevitably embodied in a certain doctrinal intransigence, which often contradicts modern values, which are usually associated with human rights and fundamental freedoms. Religious fundamentalism manifests itself as a worldview, an interpretation of reality based on a certain religious matrix, combined with political actions that flow from it and aimed at weakening democratic processes, against policies to promote pluralism and diversity in their interdependence. Religious fundamentalism is a divisive force that denies dialogue and democracy, asserts its view as absolute and the only possible, leads to the self-separation of religious fundamentalists from those who do not share their credo, restricts individual freedoms and human rights, and is the antithesis of them. In its most extreme forms, religious fundamentalism emerges as radicalism, which, when applied in practice, negatively affects not only the human rights situation but also the security or life of individuals and human communities.

Экзистенциальная тревога религиозной идентичности и религиозного экстремизма у индонезийских мусульман

Relevance and object of research. In this modern world, the system of managing large social processes is a foot. A dangerous social trend of the so-called “information society” is identity manipulation, including religious identity. Relevant questions: What distinguishes an authentic religious identity from an extremist one? What qualities of devoutness are necessary and sufficient for understanding devoutness? The article presents the results of a study on religious identity of Indonesian Muslims. Subject, methods and materials of research. Data was collected from 484 Indonesian Muslims to confirm that existential anxiety plays the role of a mediator variable in the negative correlation between authentic religious identity and religious extremism. The survey was conducted using a google form. Mediation regression analysis was implemented. Three methods were used to collect data: the Authentic Religious Identity Scale, the Existential Anxiety Scale, and the Religious Extremism Scale. When testing the reliability and validity of these scales, the SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) and JASP (Jeffrey's Amazing Statistics Program) programs were used. Results. The study found that authentic religious identity is negatively associated with existential anxiety, and existential anxiety was definitely associated with religious extremism. An assumption is that an authentic religious identity makes it possible to overcome existential anxiety, forming a social tendency to reduce the risk of developing religious extremism. If existential anxiety is not included in the research model, then there is a correlation between authentic religious identity and religious extremism. This means that without taking into account existential anxiety it is not possible to distinguish authentic devoutness from an extreme one. The study shows that authentic devoutness cannot completely eliminate the risk of developing an extremist view. To make this distinction the factor of favoritism was necessary, hence the nesecesticity of empirical studies to include the phenomena between spirituality and devoutness.

The Efficacy of National and International Accountability Mechanisms in Combating the Al-Shabaab in Somalia

Decades of power struggles among political rivals have resulted in Somalia being regarded as a ‘failed state’. The absence of a central government has allowed Al-Shabaab to take control of parts of Somalia and commit war crimes as well as crimes against humanity. Despite compelling prima facie evidence of these crimes, Al-Shabaab has not been held sufficiently accountable, leaving many victims without redress. This is due to the shortcomings of existing national and international accountability mechanisms. Somalia’s judicial branch faces significant capacity challenges that prevent it from adequately investigating and prosecuting war crimes. Countermeasures by religious fundamentalists and excessive reliance on informal dispute-resolution methods further frustrate the justice system’s efforts. Peacekeeping missions by international bodies such as the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) have also been ineffective. In addition, there are growing fears that the group’s reach will grow due to an increase in the revenue that it is able to generate. This article examines the shortcomings of the aforementioned accountability framework and offers solutions to address the gaps to ensure justice for the victims of Al-Shabaab.

Countering extremist activities of religious associations: International experience of legal regulation

Everyone can freely profess any religion, i. e. to be a member of a religious association or to be an atheist. This is what practically all existing legal norms concerning freedom of conscience and faith say. However, restrictions on the spread of new religious movements, destructive cults and sects, individual religious rites and ceremonies, and extremist worldviews are regularly introduced by legislatures in different countries. Such legislative acts can be divided into two main categories in accordance with the logic of law enforcement practice: prohibitive and restrictive. Prohibitive laws provide for a direct ban on any actions, restrictive ones provide for a number of conditions under which the norm is used as a means of partial prohibition. Prohibitive and restrictive measures against religious extremists are considered as the activity of the State to ensure the right to freedom of conscience and freedom of religion. This article analyzes the international experience of legal regulation of the activities of destructive religious associations — new religious movements, cults and sects, in particular, countering their extremist activities, and also examines the possibility of implementing the norms of international law in this area.

Антропологический кризис техногенной цивилизации: параметры и перспективы преодоления

The anthropological crisis of the technogenic civilization is examined in the arti­cle from the perspective of its ontological foundations. Its ontological aspect is interpreted as a set of special states in the development of complex systems, characterized by the fragmentation of the integrative quality and the increase in entropy, which initiates genesis of new structural hierarchy and order. Thus, the interpretation of the current state of technogenic civilization, proposed by V.S. Styopin, is supplemented in the article by his own synergetic ideas. The so­ciocultural foundations of the crisis stages in the development of modern soci­eties are revealed in the interaction and interconnection of the destructive and constructive components of the crisis in the processes of transformation, first of all, of the fundamental values of the technogenic civilization. The idea is that an­thropological crisis contributes to a radical change of stereotypes of public con­sciousness, the regulatory principles of thinking and action. The crisis also initi­ates the reinterpretation of the meanings of the key cultural universals, thus contributing to the transition to new parameters of the homeostaticstate of the system due to increasing stochastic factors of the external environment. One of them is the divergence of local sociocultural systems, manifested in the growth of ethnic, religious fundamentalism and extremism. Such forms of interaction of civilizations as dialogue, cooperation, partnership can be presented as construc­tive alternatives to these manifestations. Their constitutive basis is the mutual recognition of the originality of local cultural traditions and ethnocultural diver­sity, which will allow to build effective strategies for constructive overcoming the modern anthropological crisis.

Провалы общества: как их понимать?

The article deals with the concept of the failures of society. First of all, attention is drawn to the value nature of this concept. What, from the point of view of an external observer, can be interpreted as a failure, for an insider will be a normal state. Moreover, the latter, perhaps, will not want to change life in the traditional environment familiar to him, which constitutes his social identity, for something else, which seems preferable for an external observer. The failures of society are described as far from reality lexicographical preferences. The most typical example is religious fundamentalism. With its dominance, the failures of society are inevitable. However, modern social dogmas, which have become widespread and strongly influencial in the West in the framework of the so-called new ethics, may well be interpreted as failures of society. As a result, the world has lost its orientation and authoritarian (neo-totalitarian) practices do not experience strong opposition. Assessing global processes, it is quite possible to state the failure of the Earth’s civilization as a whole due to the loss of an ideal image of the future. Constructivist solutions are not able to correct the state of affairs. The world will either heal itself through spontaneous institutional change or prolong its state of decline.

La culture de l’annulation entre quête de justice et débordement

"Cancel culture has developed in the various arts in multiple facets in order to publicly denounce individuals, groups or institutions responsible for acts, behaviors or remarks considered inadmissible or despicable by human society. Even if the concept of ""the cancel culture "" appeared at the end of the 2010s. Thus, more than an awareness strategy, the objective of the cancel culture in the arts is part of a real confrontation and continual struggle to minimize the impact of groups and behaviors that threaten modern societies. Since September 11, 2001 and the attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, several directors have chosen to fight against religious fanaticism and terrorism by directing films that denounce Islamic fundamentalism and fanaticism in all its forms. The appearance of Daesh in Syria and Iraq has led to the proliferation of cinematographic works that denounce the brutality, religious fanaticism and terrorism of this terrorist group. However, we note that a large part of the cinematographic works and successful series have attached the label of terrorist to Muslims and to the inhabitants of the Arab-Muslim world. In other words, by fighting against certain behaviors and stereotypes, some of the filmmakers have contributed to creating new stereotypes and nourishing them through artistic creations that stigmatize a particular religious category. We will first seek to present the different social representations of the phenomenon of cancel culture in popular culture and on social networks. In this first part, we will demonstrate the role of the cancel culture in delivering justice to victims in new, less legal and more instantaneous forms. Secondly, we will illustrate through different cinematographic examples how the concept of the cancel culture has led to the appearance of films and series that denounce intolerance, religious fundamentalism and terrorism. Finally, we will focus on the limits of this concept which has overflowed in several artistic representations to turn into the stigmatization and lynching of a particular social and religious category."

Yasukuni Fundamentalism: Japanese Religions and the Politics of Restoration by Mark R. Mullins

Reviewed by: Yasukuni Fundamentalism: Japanese Religions and the Politics of Restoration by Mark R. Mullins Saitō Kōta Yasukuni Fundamentalism: Japanese Religions and the Politics of Restoration. By Mark R. Mullins. University of Hawai'i Press, 2021. 270 pages. ISBN: 9780824889012 (hardcover; also available as softcover and e-book). Despite the vast number of books and essays that have been written on it, Yasukuni Shrine remains a difficult subject for academic discussion. The difficulty stems first [End Page 170] of all from the complex history of the shrine from the Meiji period to the present. But another major factor is the violent political debate that the shrine still inspires in Japan and abroad. Discussions of Yasukuni tend to strongly reflect the political position of the debater, sometimes leading to an oversimplification of his or her viewpoint. While some attempts at empirical historical research have been made in the interest of avoiding such problems, even they have not been able to wholly escape the ideology that inevitably surrounds Yasukuni Shrine. Especially challenging is the question of how to understand the ideology of rightists who are trying to revitalize the role of this shrine in current Japanese politics. Calling that ideology State Shinto would be one possible solution, but that only invites the more difficult question of what this academically and politically contentious term really means. In Yasukuni Fundamentalism, Mark R. Mullins, who has published many important studies on religion in modern Japan, tackles these issues from the perspective of the historical sociology of religion. As reflected in the title, the key to this book is the concept of fundamentalism, which Mullins deploys to reveal the process by which the changes Yasukuni Shrine underwent during the Allied Occupation led to the rise of right-wing political forces seeking what they saw as restoration. The introduction explains the author's framework for examining Yasukuni Shrine. Mullins focuses on the new relationship between nationalism and organized religion in contemporary Japan, seeing it as part of the rise of global religious nationalism. As a central example he cites the movement toward cooperation between the Shinto shrine community and the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)—a push for desecularization or deprivatization that seeks to restore the official role that was taken away from Shinto by the policies of the Occupation. This movement is sometimes understood as "an effort to restore State Shinto" (p. 20). However, Mullins himself does not choose to employ the concept of State Shinto, noting that the movement includes no claim to revive the prewar control of shrines under the Bureau of Shrines in the Home Ministry. He also observes that many in the Shinto community are not sympathetic to the movement. His argument and its rationale are solid. Mullins contends, rather, that the contemporary Japanese neonationalist movement is best understood as religious fundamentalism, given that it emerged as a response to the confusion caused by modernization and secularization, and is a "politics of inclusion" that seeks to reclaim the "essential" beliefs and values of the past and enforce them on the entire population (pp. 23–24). Inspired by the discourse of the movement's critics, Mullins describes it as "Yasukuni fundamentalism" in acknowledgement of the symbolic meaning the shrine holds in the movement's goal of restoring an old Japan (pp. 25–27). Part 1 (chapters 1 to 3) of the book delineates the postwar history of Japanese religious nationalism. Chapter 1, "Imperialist Secularization: The Restructuring of Religion and Society in Occupied Japan," details the establishment of the separation of religion and state in occupied Japan. As is well known, the Shinto Directive [End Page 171] issued by GHQ/SCAP in 1945 severed the relationship between Shinto and the state. This was a forced secularization by a foreign power and a typical example of what N. J. Demerath calls "imperialist secularization."1 Mullins notes, however, that the US State Department had been aware of the complex nature of "military shrines" such as Yasukuni from before the Occupation (pp. 38–39). The difficult decision of whether to apply the principle of freedom of religion to military shrines was left to the Religions and Cultural Resources Division of the Civil Information and Educational Section, which...

Религиозный и этнорелигиозный экстремизм в условиях нетранспарентности мировой политики

The article deals with the analysis of methodological and practical problems of studying religious and ethnoreligious extremism in modern society. The authors studied in detail the current conceptual estimations revealing interrelation between religion, terrorism and extremism. The algorithm used by the authors let them determine organizational forms and methods of aggregating negative factors, widely spread mechanisms that hinder the peaceful existence of the wider global community. The necessity of conducting a competent and adjusted social policy (educational, domestic, informational), which takes into consideration interests of different social and religious groups, has been stressed. Such policy should be well balanced, intelligently designed, and having financial and logistical support. The research has led to the conclusion that it is disseminating extremist ideology that leads to the growth of terrorist threat and to new terrorist acts themselves. In the article the authors have come to the conclusion that religious extremism should be considered as a regulated social activity of people who are united by religious and political ideology and perform actions directed at changing the established social and political structure.

О некоторых проблемах исследования религиозного радикализма и терроризма (на примере опыта Казахстана)

The relevance of the publication is due to the increasing manifestations of religious radicalization of the population and the threat of terrorism in the post-Soviet space and, in particular, in the Republic of Kazakhstan. One of the least developed problems is the study of psychological regularities of the emergence and development of the phenomenon of religiosity, the motives for its formation and levels of its manifestation in believers, including the formation of extreme religious views and values in an individual. The aim of the work was to describe theoretical and applied research questions on the problem of the formation of religious radicalism, extremism and terrorism in believers and followers of Islam, as well as on the methodological problems of developing psychodiagnostic tools and technologies of psychological intervention in this area. Results. The characteristics and dynamics of indices of criminal situations with radical religious extremism and terrorism manifestation in the Republic of Kazakhstan is presented. The features of psychoprophylaxis of religious extremism relapse and rehabilitation of people convicted for such crimes were considered. Some examples of such work,organized in Kazakhstan with women and children who were in terrorist activity zones for a long time were described. The necessity of studying the personal features of believers, their level of religiosity, the motivation for extremist views and the radicalisation of the personality, as well as the main targets of psychodiagnostics in order to predict behaviour from the perspective of public safety and to prevent the spread of radical ideology and values in secular society, have been substantiated. Among the main conclusions presented is the understanding of the need to develop fundamentally new approaches in psychodiagnostics of radicalization, extremism and terrorism in order to prognostically diagnose, rehabilitate and resocialize believers who have extreme criminal experiences. is behavioral analysis by means of different techniques, facts and documents with the use of methods of observation and diagnostic interview of a believer seem to be the most productive methods.

Афганистан и новая международная конфигурация в Азии

The development of the international political changes in Central and South Asia is analyzed in the article in connection with the consequences of the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan and the Taliban’s second rise to power (the first one was in 1996). It is shown that the peaceful transformation of Afghanistan is impeded by such persistent threats as religious extremism, terrorism, illegal drug trafficking. The complex mosaic of regional relations, in which Afghanistan is becoming an important element due to the changes that have happened in this country, is determined in Asia by the growing rivalry and competitive struggle of major economic states of the region, as well as global players, and by the efforts of all of them to build various international coalitions (Shanghai Cooperation Organization, RIC – Russia, India, China; Quadripartite Security Dialogue – QUAD, C5+1, Organization of Turkic States, etc.). Of particular interest in this regard is the position of the neighboring states – the three Central Asian nations (Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan), as well as China, Pakistan, India and Iran. Apart from that, this study also outlines the most important challenges for the national security interests of Afghanistan’s Asian neighbors. An optimal scenario for both Afghanistan’s Asian neighbors and Russia would imply achieving a stable consensus in this country. Afghanistan becoming a full member of such an influential international bloc as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, where Russia, Central Asian states and major Asian economic powers are already represented, can have positive consequences for the stabilization of the situation in the country and the whole Asian region. This would create favorable conditions for successful economic and political interaction between the Central and South Asian states. In conclusion the author emphasizes that the transformations in Afghanistan have complicated regional challenges, prompting neighboring states to focus on the military-political component of their security. Aiming to prevent a negative scenario in Afghanistan, they also multiplied diplomatic contacts with the current leadership of the country. The new international political configuration that is emerging in modern Asia dictates new approaches in the security sphere for the Asian states.

Single and double toroid formation during oil droplet impact on an air–water interface at low Reynolds number

The impact of an oil droplet on an air–water interface is explored for low to moderate impact velocities. A computational fluid dynamic framework has been employed with appropriate boundary conditions to uncover the finer features of post-impact dynamics of such ternary systems. Simulations reveal that the impacting oil droplet opens up a “crater” on the water surface, which initially expands and then collapses during the evolution. Simultaneously, the oil droplet flattens, spreads, stretches, immerses, or dewets on the crater surface to manifest interesting metastable or unstable flow morphologies. At lower impact velocities, we observe the formation of oil droplets or air bubbles entrapped in water, oil lens, oil toroids, and compound droplets to name a few. The interfacial tension, density and viscosity contrasts across the interface play key roles in the formation of such flow morphologies. Energy analysis of the droplet impact reveals that a part of the kinetic energy of the droplet gets converted into surface energy, which, in turn, facilitates the interfacial deformation, formation of new interfaces, and metastable flow morphologies, such as single or twin toroids. All the different flow morphologies are categorized into eight fundamental regimes, which are mapped with the variation of Reynolds number and capillary number. The results provide insight into the complex physics associated with ternary phase drop impacts, and the different flow morphologies shown in the present study can be of significance in the production of double or Janus emulsions, as well as the development of next-generation microfluidic devices for bio-analysis, drug delivery, and multiphase reactions.

Causes and consequences of religious extremism and fundamentalism

It is known that the state of Uzbekistan has clearly and firmly defined its attitude to religion from the first days of independence. The attitude of the state to religion was defined on the basis of clear principles: "A person cannot live without faith", "Secularism is not secularism". This principle has found its legal expression in the Constitution of our General Assembly and the Law "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations". Today, 2,238 religious organizations belonging to 16 religious denominations are operating in the Republic of Uzbekistan. Of these, 2,064 are Islamic, 157 are Christian, 8 are Jewish, 6 are Baha'i communities, and one each is a Krishna Consciousness Society and a Buddhist temple. In addition to these, the interdenominational Bible society is also active. Religious organizations, regardless of their denomination, have the same right to operate. The safe and free operation of these religious organizations is a practical expression of the prevailing religious tolerance in our country.

«Мания основ»: психологические аспекты современного фундаментализма

The article deals with some psychological aspects of modern fundamentalism. In research literature this phenomenon is traditionally understood as a reaction to secularization, secularism and modernism. However, as illustrated in this article, today it is rather a response to pluralism and relativism in search of “meanings” and “foundations” of being in the context of worldview uncertainty/ “new boundlessness” (J. Habermas). Due to this background and new tasks modern fundamentalism is substantially transformed. It does no longer emphasize the returning to the “foundations” of religion: sacred texts, theological basis of the doctrine (orthodoxy) or to the religious and civilizational foundations of unity. It desires restoration or a new creation of the “proper”, taken on faith, understanding of the reality after the relativization. Therefore it may not refer only to the religious movements but also to the secular ideologies. This new quality of the modern fundamentalism allows to interpret/understand it metaphorically as the “mania of the foundations”, which is an additional optics and a theoretical and methodological toolkit for studying religious fundamentalism in the context of transformation of religion in general.

Imagined Futures: Writing, Science, and Modernity in the To-Day and To-Morrow Book Series, 1923–31 by Max Saunders

Reviewed by: Imagined Futures: Writing, Science, and Modernity in the To-Day and To-Morrow Book Series, 1923–31 by Max Saunders Maxim Shadurski Imagined Futures: Writing, Science, and Modernity in the To-Day and To-Morrow Book Series, 1923–31. By Max Saunders. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2019. xiv+423 pp. £60. ISBN 978–0–19–882945–4. Highly comprehensive and insightful, this landmark study offers a critical reevaluation of modernism against the background of twentieth-century futurology. Focusing on ‘To-Day and To-Morrow’, a book series of 110 volumes edited by C. K. Ogden during the inter-war years, Max Saunders examines how futurology provided a mode by which writers expressed their modernity. For Saunders, the series primarily popularized expert scientific knowledge, heralding thus a ‘third culture’ between sciences and humanities. This enterprise also produced a distinct category of writing, ‘speculative non-fiction’ (pp. vii, 9), evocative of H. G. Wells’s ‘province’ of ‘speculative philosophy’ (H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds (1898), in H. G. Wells: Classic Collection I (London: Gollancz, 2010), p. 361). Saunders’s study construes the series with a peculiar historical consciousness and future-oriented chronotope. Overshadowed by post-Darwinian degeneration and post-First World War despondency, ‘To-Day and To-Morrow’ emerged on the cusp of ‘radical commencement’ (p. 51), a time when the scale of modern innovation and change reinforced the status of futurology. On a futurological timeline, the series occupies an intermediary position between Wells’s practice of anticipations as a scientific method, on the one hand, and the eclipsing credibility of scientific planning after the Second World War, on the other. Saunders convincingly ascribes the project’s curtailment to the 1930s economic slump, ‘a blow to confidence in the future more generally’ (p. 341). Being a modernist phenomenon, ‘To-Day and To-Morrow’ invests modernity with hope. Its orientation towards the future differs from the temporality of classical modernism, which frequently renders all time commensurate with the past or fears the prospect of a robotizing future. The series’ engagement with space equally embraces a positive faith that science can transform the human body and everyday life. Such a future-oriented chronotope occurs simultaneously with instances of self-reflexivity throughout the volumes, and this occurrence ensures freedom of discussion and imagination. The study investigates ‘To-Day and To-Morrow’ in three parts, broadly divided into the specialist areas of sciences and humanities, as well as their technological and cultural applications. This structure permits Saunders to map out a multiplicity of imagined futures, which variously include: human agency above divine intervention; world unity on linguistic, commercial, and governmental lines; a rapprochement between mind and matter; the machine’s liberating effects on humanity; the transformation of the everyday, be it sleep, sport, domestic architecture, or clothing; and the endurance of past writing. Albeit selective, Saunders’s analyses look both at and beyond the series’ most famous contributors: J. B. S. Haldane, Bertrand Russell, J. D. Bernal, Vera Brittain, Robert Graves. The resulting intervention is nuanced and illuminating, particularly in how it contextualizes the volumes alongside the modernists’ preoccupations with their content, expression, and spirit. Whereas Aldous Huxley quarried the series for ideas of ectogenesis, [End Page 122] contraception, and hypnopaedia, James Joyce captured its new vocabulary. T. S. Eliot and Wyndham Lewis reacted against the series’ scientific claims: while the former disavowed a mundanely devised future, the latter repudiated science as a new creed. Saunders’s study surpasses the remit of book history and its contemporary affiliations. Rather, it furnishes a sustained commentary on how ‘To-Day and To-Morrow’ partakes of futurology and predicts ‘biospheres, mobile phones, and virtual reality, but not the digital processor, the crisis in obesity, or the resurgence of religious fundamentalisms’ (p. 40). To Saunders, accuracy of predictions matters only as a reminder that any ‘horizon scanning’ has blind spots. The series may indeed leave ‘a computer-shaped hole’ in its imaginings (p. 25), yet this gap hardly compromises either the project’s poetics or its audacity. Saunders deplores the recent cultural tendencies to relegate the future to a museum or extrapolate its fulfilment to the present moment. His arguments against the end...

The Threat of Religious Fundamentalism and the European Immigration Crisis

A significant part of the crisis of our contemporary European societies can be attributed to misplaced and abused religious zeal in various forms of religious fundamentalism, both domestically grown as well as imported and shared by the immigrants to Europe from third-world countries. To deal with this complex phenomenon in the European environment, it is necessary to conceive the analysis of the presented issue into a sociological scheme based on three premises: (1) diagnosis of migration processes in the context of growing population movements in Europe, (2) identification of determinants and factors that cause these movements, as well as (3) a proposal to solve the current situation in the spirit of social teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. Our paper is an attempt to interpret and compare the opinions of selected experts on this sensitive issue and, with the help of their opinions, to present some guiding ideas on the path to possible solutions to the current situation. We begin by describing the ideological deconstruction of the moral and cultural world as evidenced in the postmodern society, accompanied by processes of subjectivization and individualization, which acquired a societal context in Europe and North America in the 1960s. We then turn to exploring the context of religious change (from a theological-sociological perspective). The religiosity of postmodern man becomes a mixture of various correct, albeit often contradictory, discontinuous elements , involving a small dose of love for one's neighbor, often taking the form of friendly affection and showing emotions towards animals and the external environment, ideologically correct psychology as well as parapsychology, supplemented by esoteric, occult and astrological notions, while staying open to the possibility for Eastern philosophies and the sects. Islamic fundamentalism is seen as a reaction to this religious-cultural context that is perceived (by conservative Muslims and Christians alike) as hostile to traditional values, ideas about the world, and ideals. The context of contemporary Islam’s influence on the European religious landscape and culture is scrutinized in the next section of our paper. In Europe, the number of Christians will fall from 74.5% to 65.2% between 2010 and 2050, while the number of non-believers (nones) will increase from 18.8% to 23.3%, and the number of Muslims will also almost double from 5.9% to 10.2%. The growth of Muslims in Europe will be affected by both birth rates and migration. A part of our critical analysis points to the self-destructive tendencies of some European elites and cultural influencers/policy makers. After outlining some forecasts and developments, and offering initial critical views on the transpiring phenomena, we move on to delineating possible solutions to this situation. Due to the complexity of the problem, there is no ready-made, simple way to handle this situation. While immigrants have always played in important role in the European history, a growing number of political scientists talk in particular about the internal protection of Europe, that is, the inevitability of protecting its constitutive, fundamental values and rights. If Europe is not to lose its face and cultural/moral fiber, it is important to uphold its constitutive values. This will not be possible without an intentional struggle to reinvent its moral and spiritual heritage with every new generation without forfeiting the fundamentals upon which our culture and civilization has been built. The concluding section of our paper focuses on the Catholic Church's position on this issue and its recent proposals for resolving the migration crisis. The Church’s teaching that state officials and others who profess Christianity but reject refugees are hypocrites because Jesus would accept these people should be balanced by a critical call to be aware that our obligation to love and care for our neighbor extends not only to the immigrants and their families but also to the families and individuals of the European host countries. Our fear of Islamization of Christian Europe may be an indication that we Europeans have very little confidence in our own faith. Accordingly, we will not be able to preserve the Christian faith by living it secluded in our churches, but by presenting our Christian spirit - by accepting these refugees and by helping them in their concrete circumstances, and by engaging them (as well as our secular counterparts) publicly with due respect in an open-ended discourse of metanarratives.

EXTREMES OF RELIGIOUS CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE SYSTEM OF ISLAMIC EDUCATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF DAGESTAN. (ENDING. OPENING IN NO 4-2021)

The author, basing on sociological surveys of different years, showed the extremes of the religious consciousness of Moslems who studied in Islamic educational institutions of the Republic of Dagestan. The statistics of Islamic education in the republic are shown. The factors that strengthen the role of religious worldview in the socialization of Dagestan youth are revealed. The issues discussed are considered from the standpoint of the interests of the secular state in solving the problems of social stability, the formation of a secular legal culture, countering religious extremism and terrorism.

Applying Machine Learning Techniques for Religious Extremism Detection on Online User Contents

In this research paper, we propose a corpus for the task of detecting religious extremism in social networks and open sources and compare various machine learning algorithms for the binary classification problem using a previously created corpus, thereby checking whether it is possible to detect extremist messages in the Kazakh language. To do this, the authors trained models using six classic machine-learning algorithms such as Support Vector Machine, Decision Tree, Random Forest, K Nearest Neighbors, Naive Bayes, and Logistic Regression. To increase the accuracy of detecting extremist texts, we used various characteristics such as Statistical Features, TF-IDF, POS, LIWC, and applied oversampling and undersampling techniques to handle imbalanced data. As a result, we achieved 98% accuracy in detecting religious extremism in Kazakh texts for the collected dataset. Testing the developed machine learning models in various databases that are often found in everyday life “Jokes”, “News”, “Toxic content”, “Spam”, “Advertising” has also shown high rates of extremism detection.

Радикальный исламизм как дестабилизирующий фактор для Казахстана

The tragic events of early January 2022 in Kazakhstan, when the protests provoked by socio-economic reasons in a number of regions turned into violent acts of an extremist and terrorist nature, resulting in human casualties, revealed the threat of religious extremism both for the republic itself and for the states bordering it. Despite greater (compared to other Central Asian countries) stability, Kazakhstan faces hidden challenges associated with radical Islamism, which has features specific to this republic. The article examines the external and internal factors that determine the specifics of Islamist extremism in Kazakhstan.