Islamism, political Islam is a multi-million-strong, multi-layered, multi-ethnic, multi-confessional phenomenon that has a significant impact not only on political and social processes in the Muslim world, but also on the entire system of international relations. Moreover, Islamists include groups of Muslims who think differently and act in different ways-from supporters of "popular Islam" and the peaceful introduction of certain sharia norms, the Turkish Justice and Development Party, which pursues a flexible domestic and foreign policy, to Al-Qaeda terrorists and other supporters of the establishment of a world caliphate by force, and mercenaries hiding behind green the banner of Islam. Entire countries are also called "Islamist" - Sudan, Iran and-wrongly - even Saudi Arabia, which is closely connected with the West. Given the complexity, diversity and dynamism of this phenomenon, our magazine opens the subheading "Islamization, Islamism and Extremism". The following articles are published: P. A. Rassadin "Political Islam and Religious minorities in the Arab East", V. M. Akhmedov "The Army and ethno-religious conflicts in the Middle East" and A. A. Razlivaev " Turkey. Revival of religious communities". One of the key trends of modern societies in the Arab East is attempts to Islamize them (both in politics and at the cultural and everyday level). This process is causing growing concern among the ruling and largely westernized Arab-Muslim elites. However, representatives of minority religious (primarily Christian) communities are most concerned about the growing influence of Islam, especially given the popularity of Islamic concepts in public life. While still holding important cultural, socio-economic, and political positions in a number of Arab countries, minorities have almost completely lost their ability to influence key government decisions, with the possible exception of Lebanon. This raises an extremely important and directly practical question: how was the ... Read more