THE PROBLEM OF RELIGIOUS LEGITIMACY: A PHILOSOPHICAL-THEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF CONFLICTS IN CENTRAL ASIA

Abstract

Beyond its geopolitical dimension, the return to power of the Taliban movement (hereafter, T) in Afghanistan in 2021 raises a properly philosophical question: who possesses the authority to define authentic Islamic governance, and on what grounds can such authority claim religious legitimacy? This had a significant impact not only on the country’s domestic political situation, but also on the international security architecture. Although T promised the international community that they would not allow the territory of Afghanistan to become a base for terrorist organizations, subsequent events have shown that transnational jihadist groups remain active in the country. The article analyzes the activities of foreign extremist organizations operating in Afghanistan under the T regime and their mutual religious and ideological conflicts, approaching them through the conceptual lens of political theology and the philosophy of religion. The objects of the study were organizations such as Organization A (hereafter, A), the Islamic State of Khorasan, Tehrik-i Taliban Pakistan, Jamaat Ansarullah, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the Islamic Jihad Union, and Khatiba Imam al-Bukhari. The purpose of the study is to determine the nature of the relations of these organizations with T and with each other, the differences in their ideological and hermeneutical positions on religious legitimacy, and the impact of these conflicts on regional security. The results of the study showed that not all extremist groups in Afghanistan serve a common goal, and there are deep contradictions among them in terms of power, sphere of influence, religious understanding and strategic orientation – contradictions that, at bottom, reflect competing claims to the same contested category of religious authority. The article also examines the threats posed by transnational extremist organizations in Afghanistan to the states of Central Asia and analyzes the trend of increasing their ideological and military activity directed at the countries of the region, arguing that religious legitimacy in radical Islamism is not a fixed doctrinal given but a socially and politically constructed claim. Keywords: Philosophical analysis, religious conflict, political theology, religious legitimacy, philosophy of religion, hermeneutics of violence, Central Asia.