Based on the analysis of the works of leading foreign and domestic authors, a study of theoretical approaches to the politicization of Islam in our country is conducted. The main approaches to the politicization of Islam, formulated in the works of foreign experts, are considered separately. The author comes to the conclusion that two approaches dominate in modern Western science. The first is, when the politicization of the Islamic Ummah is associated with the development and spread of Islamism as an extremely reactionary position of the Muslim worldview. The second, when it is proven that today's problems are associated not so much with Islam itself as with geopolitics, playing out the "Islamic factor". Two main approaches are also identified, to the politicization of the Russian Islamic Ummah, existing in domestic science, both recognizing the fact of politicization and denying this phenomenon.