US, Russia share common threat of 'new extremism'
The US, the EU and Russia, whatever their differences over Ukraine and Crimea, should give priority to battling the rise of Islamic extremism.
The existence of different denominations and sects within Islam is a manifestation of religious and cultural diversity that does not necessarily entail conflict and hostility, any more than do the existence of different religions or ethnicities. In multiethnic and multi-faith Russia, both Christians and Muslims know this well.
However, recently in the Middle East and beyond, there has been an increase of inter- and intra-religious strife, escalating into a sharply violent phase. For example, conflicts are escalating between Christians (including Orthodox) and Muslims in the Middle East and on a wider scope, Shiites and Sunnis (behind which stand governments often pursuing not religious but geopolitical interests) and followers of different Sunni groups, which pose a direct threat not only to regions close to Russian borders, but also to Russia's internal peace.
Of course, clashes between different denominations and sects have always existed, but they have never been so acute. Russia believes that the United States has opened a Pandora's box, turning the Middle East into a site of feckless, violent “regime change” engineering. As Daniel Byman has rightly noted in global politics publication Survival, “The massive sectarian wave began to rise after the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003, and grew in size and ferocity as Syria descended into strife.”
For Russia, the context of recent events has added to the sharp exacerbation in relations between followers of various denominations within Christianity and adherents of Orthodox churches of diverse jurisdictions within Ukraine. The dramatic intensification of attacks on the position of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) by the Kiev-backed schismatic Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kiev Patriarchate) and the Uniate Church can be compared in part to the onslaught of Islamic extremists against traditionally tolerant Islam in Russia in terms of “anti-Russianness.” An even greater, off-the-scale “anti-Russianness” unites Ukrainian radicals of the right and other ultra-nationalist and neo-Nazi organizations with terrorists from radical Islamist groups in the Middle East.
