Россия и Арабский мир: к 200-летию профессора Санкт-Петербургского университета Шейха ат-Тантави (1810–1861)

161 State religion in all Arab World. Islam is the basis of the civilisational identi- fication of the Muslims. As regards the role of Islamic factor in the social and political develop- ment it has the following components: 1) the Islamic Fundamentalism; 2) the Islamism; 3) the Public opinion; 4) conceptions of Islamic Thought. Islamic Fundamentalism, or Salafisme, is a religious phenomenon which means the return to the sources of the original Islam of the epoch of the Prophet Mu- hammed and Four Rightly Guided Caliphs – Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali. The Islamism, or Political Islam is the political phenomenon. It means the use of Islam for political goals. The ideologists of Islamism propagate «the Is- lamic project». They regard Islam, Muslim culture, moral and ethic norms and some elements of the «Islamic economy» as an indispensable condition for subsequent successful development of the Arab and Muslim World. The current rising of Political Islam in the Muslim World can be considered as a social and political phenomenon. It reflects the aspiration of a part of Muslim society to keep by this way its religion, historical traditions and culture, i.e. its civilisational identification in front of challenges of the Contemporary World and first of all of the globalisation. The Public opinion and the Public sentiments can be considered as an integral part of the Islamic factor as well. In recent years in Arabic countries the attention to the Muslim identifi- cation is increased. It is characterized not only by religious but also cultural, social and political aspects. This phenomenon can be explained, to a large extent, as a reaction of the Muslim society to some political events (aggrava- tion of the Palestinian-Israeli crisis, Afghanistan crisis, Iraqi crisis, Israeli invasion into Lebanon, caricatures on the Prophet Muhammad published in several European newspapers etc.). The theoretical conceptions of the Islamic thought are also an important element of the Islamic factor. The most impor- tant of these conceptions are as follows: the traditionalistic one, which sup- ports the today state of the Muslim society; the fundamentalist, which de- mands transforming the society and State structures in correspondence with Shari‘a ; the liberal, which seeks the Islamic interpretation of the liberal re- forms after Western model. There is also another conception, which is called in Arabic Wasatiyya. It means moderation, compromise, mediation. The ba- sic principles of Wasatiyya are based on the Sura 2 Bakara (‘the Cow’) of the Holy Koran. The conception of Wasatiyya is a compromise one in compari- son with other directions of Islamic thought. At the same time Wasatiyya confirms such important principle of Islamic thought as Idjtihad – a possibil- ity for the eminent Muslim ‘ulama’ to have different opinions on religious and other problems. In recent years Wasatiyya spread out in Arabic countries (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the Arabic States of the Persian Gulf) and some other countries of the Muslim World as well (Indonesia).