R. MAMARAEV (Makhachkala) One of the significant factors influencing the current state and future development of North Caucasian society is the process of politicization of Islam in the region. The intensity and rapidity of the development of this process and its orientation vectors determine whether the republics of the North Caucasus will follow a secular path, as stipulated in the charters of the territories, the constitutions of the Russian Federation and the republics of the North Caucasus, or a religious one. The main active factor in the Islamic movement is traditional Islam, whose adherents are" traditionally-believing " Muslims, that is, those who perform the usual religious rites for a particular republic at the everyday level. This category also includes the administrative and administrative apparatus of religious organizations-the spiritual administrations of Muslims (DUM)1. At the same time, traditional Islam differs significantly in different republics of the region. In Chechnya, Ingushetia, and Dagestan (except for Kumyks and Nogais), this is the Sunni Islam of the Shafi'i madhhab in the form of the Naqshbandiyya and Qadiriyya Sufi orders (tariqas). In turn, these tariqats consist of affiliated entities - Murid or Vird fraternities: 15 such fraternities are registered in Dagestan, and more than 30 in Chechnya and Ingushetia, despite the fact that relations between some of them are strained and even hostile. The reasons lie both in ideological differences, and sometimes in their artificial opposition to the authorities. In the central and western parts of the North Caucasus, the Hanifi madhhab of Sunnism is more widespread. DUMD - THE ENGINE OF ISLAMIZATION Radical Islamists aim to forcibly islamize Dagestani society. As the events of the summer and autumn of 1999 showed, such a path of development in Dagestan was rejected by the absolute majority of the population. In recent years, religious and political extremists have moved from legal forms of acti ... Read more