Арабо-Исламская политическая культура и традиционные формы политического протеста (2011-2015 гг.)

The article is devoted to the genesis of the term fitnah within the Arab political culture. The fitnah is studied through the binary research paradigm: fitnah as a multi-meaning term and fitnah as a real historical widely spread form of the public activities in the Arab countries. The historical roots of fitnah date back to the Preislamic period. The general meaning of fitnah in the Koran has mainly negative connotation. However, the historical realities show us fitnah as a very common event within the whole Islamic period. In the beginning of 20th century the events that are called “ fitnah ” in the Arab Islamic historiography were unexpectedly bounded with the early electoral process. The top rank specialists of Islamic law still do not have a common attitude towards the Arab spring mass protests of 2011-2012, whether they are allowed or forbidden from the Shariat point of view. The contemporary life of this old form of the public protest demonstrates some new unexpected features. First, the protest events looked like fitnah drifted far from the pure religious activities and got almost the civil character. Second, they accumulated not only marginal social elements and demoralized soldiers, but also students and even a significant part of the local intellectuals. Contemporary means of communications like Internet, mobile devices, as well as TV and radio networks, make fitnah a powerful and rapid weapon of the opposition movement. In this article, one can also find an analysis of a remarkable fact: some participants who take part in war of jihad in Syria are thinking of retreat under the influence of the announcement that Syria is “the land of fitnah ”.