POLITICS
BAKU CENTER FOR STRATEGIC RESEARCH HOSTS ROUNDTABLE ON POLITICAL ISLAM
Baku, 23 September (AZERTAC). The Baku Center for Strategic Research recently hosted a closed roundtable discussion entitled “Faces in Political Islam” with participation of Prof. Muhammed Ayub from the University of Michigan and Heydar Jamal, Head of the Islamic Committee of Russia. In his speech, Prof. Ayub pointed out that “political Islam is not monolithic, and Islamic movements in each country have specific national features, although several transnational Islamic groups already appear in the world.” He also gave an overview of the compatibility of Islam and democracy, pointing out that the two thirds of the world’s Muslims lives in a certain sub-forms of democracy. According to the professor, wide support for authoritarian regimes often leads to popularization of Islamic groups.
Russian philosopher Heydar Jamal dwelled on the place and role of political Islam in the system of international relations. According to Jamal, the modern world sees the crisis of civil society and liberalism as a project that has been ushered after 1945. “The main trend of Islam is declericalization of the religion”, he said.
The meeting was attended by representatives of the Azerbaijan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, diplomatic corpse and international relations experts.
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