What Consequences Can the Growth of Extremism in Islam Have for Azerbaijan?
Dissemination of hatred among the branches of Islam contradicts the ideas of the religion. The main idea of Koran is to unite the Muslims around common values. If a group of people, using religious slogans, makes a split, then it contradicts the provisions of Islam. This opinion was expressed by the head of the community mosque Meshedi Dadash, head of the public association "National Values” theologian Shahin Hasanli.
According to him in Islam slogans calling for separatism for the first time were used by Khawarij, who treacherously killed Ali. “Citing Koran they call all the dissentients “kafiir” and justify their murders”, - mentioned Hasanli. As an answer to the question how Islamic theologians can oppose to the ideologies of such groupings as "Taliban," "Al-Qaeda", "Islamic State”, Hasanli called these groupings 'political', which just exploit religion. He thinks that behind the creation of such groupings stands the West, which tries to split the Islamic world.
“The preachers of Shiites and Sunnis should openly declare that these groupings have nothing common with Islam. In this regard the religious leaders should show unity. How can we speak about religion, when some forces declare war against mankind? Verses concerning jihad do not propagate aggression, instead are defensive in their nature. Their logic is the following: “Fight against those who attack you””, - Hasanli stated.
Hasanli has stressed that it is important to widen the worldview of the religious leaders. “They should have a modern and rich worldview. The language of the religion should also be simple and accessible”, - the theologian has mentioned.
It should be mentioned that in parallel with the developments in Syria, growth in Islamic extremism has been noticed in Azerbaijan. A lot of information and videos appeared in media which proved that a great number of people from Azerbaijan went to Syria to fight against the Assad regime. It is noteworthy to mention that still last year, early in December, the Vahabist groupings – Khawarij and Salafi, had a conflict in the Azerbaijani city Sumgait about the question, whether the war in Syria should be considered as jihad or not. Moreover, they had also discussed whether Azerbaijani Islamists should be sent to Syria or not. The argument had turned into shootings and the police had to intervene. Now the head of one of the Azerbaijani Mosques speaks about the Khawarij as a dangerous grouping. It is also interesting that the “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” or “Daesh” terrorist organization has recently threatened to organize terrorist acts in Azerbaijan. The organization had published maps, where the territories of Azerbaijan and Turkey were in black, being presented as the territories, which were under the control of “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant”.
Nowadays, the situation in the Arab world, the rise of activities of Islamic terrorist groupings speaks about the increase of extremism in Muslim, which, in its turn, has a great influence on other Muslim states. Azerbaijan is also among them - an oil-rich authoritarian country, where even the basic human rights are violated. In such a situation and as a result of psychological vacuum, people very often start seeking “salvation” in Islam. That is why Azerbaijani youth are involved in activities of these terrorist groupings and they actively participate in the Syrian war. Even though at present the extremist groups act outside the country, there is no guarantee that the same wave will not be spread inside the country. Though the Azerbaijani authorities keep the country totally under their control, the clashes that from time to time take place between the representatives of branches of Islam speak about the possibility of the escalation of the situation.