D. FAYZULLAYEV Candidate of Economic Sciences Currently, Islamic extremism is perceived as one of the most serious threats to the world community. The United States, Russia, many European countries and a number of other countries have adopted legislation prohibiting the activities of radical Islamic organizations on their territory.1 In this regard, the study of the nature of this phenomenon, the causes of its occurrence and activation since the beginning of the 90s of the last century is of particular relevance. THE ROOTS OF RADICALIZATION The phenomenon of Islamic radicalism has its own specifics in the post-Soviet space. Its origin dates back to the late 1980s and early 1990s and is directly related to the collapse of the USSR. The evolution of Islam in the post-Soviet space went through several stages: from the religious upsurge of the early 1990s to its gradual politicization and the emergence of radical Islamist movements and groups. It should be noted that in the early 1990s, not only Islam, but also all faiths represented in the USSR, experienced a revival of interest in them, a kind of religious boom. This was primarily due to the collapse of the former ideological foundations of Soviet society. In the conditions of an ideological vacuum, a certain part of the population turned to religion in search of new ideological guidelines. Gradually, political features began to appear more clearly in the activities of many Islamic organizations - Islam acquired a religious and political orientation. In the Soviet Union, the church was separated from the state, but at the same time the state sought maximum control over the activities of the church, which was manifested in the emergence of special control bodies subordinate to the Department for Relations with Religious Organizations under the Council of Ministers of the USSR, as well as such a phenomenon as "official clergy". Its representatives were close to the ruling elite and often served as agents of its policies ... Читать далее