The Issues of Reislamization in Post-Soviet Dagestan in 1990–1995

Abstract

The process of the Islam revival in Dagestan was associated with the politicization of religion in society during perestroika and post-perestroika periods. The process had its own peculiarities associated with the general transformation of Russian society, active work of international organizations, and the decline of traditional Islam in the republic. As a result, there appeared alternative and unconventional directions in the process of revival of the Islamic component, e. g. the so-called "new Islam" (Wahhabism), foreign to local religious communities.

The activity of the adherents of the new movement showed itself not so much in the confessional sphere as in the socio-political sphere. This was clearly manifested in Dagestan society in the early 1990s against the backdrop of the socio-economic and socio-political collapse and contradictions between the state and society.

The research investigates the place and role of the social conflict that arose on the basis of ideological differences. The actors of the conflict were individuals with their religious non-traditional views and socio-political orientations, who opposed official structures in the struggle for domination in the society, desperately searching for a new religious idea. The authors proceed from the thesis that the escalation of this kind of conflict has a significant impact on the nature of social (political, socioeconomic, national) relations in any society, the way it happened when the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Dagestan split according to ethnicity.