Mikhail Roshin: “Rise of extremism in the Southern Russia stems from the fact that North Caucasus proved to be inside the sphere of globalization of Muslim fundamentalism”.

PRAGUE, 10 March, Caucasus Times. Mikhail Roshin, Senior Research Fellow of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Ph.D in History, in his exclusive interview to CaucasusTimes told that “if we put aside such local factors as economy, various forms of discrimination and social sphere and take a look at the problem in a wider context, then rise of radicalism in the North Caucasus region stems from the fact that North Caucasus proved to be inside the sphere of globalization of Muslim fundamentalism”.

In Mikhail Roshin’s opinion, “more and more new countries and regions are increasingly being involved into the sphere of Muslim counter-globalization. Period of crisis has been overcome only in some areas. It is quite obvious that North Caucasus region got into this sphere later and now it experiences the highest point of the crisis.

In Mikhail Roshin’s words, there has been established a structure of fundamentalist societies in the North Caucasus region, which are clearly demonstrating a tendency towards further expansion. At the same time, he believes that Chechen factor, which remains one of the most important factor of the regional destabilization, should also be taken into consideration.

According to Mikhail Roshin, open discussion inside the Muslim community can be one of the effective methods to counteract the spread of radical ideology in the Norh Caucasus.

Mikhail Yurevich Roshin, Ph.D in History, Senior Research Fellow of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Author of the following publications: “Revival of Sufism in Dagetan”; “Fundamentalism in Dagestan and Chechnya”; “Traditional Muslim Education”; “To Make a Hole in the Wall of Prejudices” and others.

Full version of the interview with Mikhail Roshin will be published on 14 March in the interview rubric.