The subject field of this article, devoted to the manifestation of the Islamic factor in the socio- political life of the Great Britain, is localized within the borders of Scotland. The authors emphasize the special (different from other regions of the UK) nature of the interaction of the Muslim ethno- confessional minority with the indigenous population of Scotland. Most attention is paid to the identity of Scottish Muslims. The article highlights that Scotland demonstrates its winning position for Muslims through the development of an inclusive identity. The authors make a prognostic conclusion that Scotland will maintain a policy of affirming common civic values that ensure the pluralism of various socio- cultural communities. According to the authors, the future of Scotland is a post-ethnic, transcultural socio- political state- organized space in which British-wide tensions between Muslims and non- Muslims will gradually decrease, and the Scottish tradition of equality and social justice will be strengthened.
The article considers the identity of Scottish Muslims as a non-traditional for Scotland sociocultural manifestation of globalization of regional socio-political processes. The relevance of this topic is determined by the fact that the number of Muslims as a part of population of Scotland has been growing rapidly over the past decade. In this regard, the range of questions about the future national sovereignty of Scotland is significantly expanding, requiring the search for scientific, theoretical and practical answers. The research goal of the article is to analyze the influence of Islamic identity on domestic political processes in Scotland. To achieve this goal, the authors rely on general logic, institutional, stating factual and comparative methods used in political science. In addition, the article uses the data of socio-anthropological and psychological research conducted on the subject by foreign colleagues. As a result of the research, the authors identified the activation the Scottish authorities’ activities, who are forced (within the framework of internal policy) to develop comprehensive measures aimed at Scots who confess Islam. The article deals with the issues of political participation of Muslims, Islamic extremism and others, the practical solution of which, according to the authors, is connected with the problem of Muslims integration into the Scottish society (traditionally Christian). In this regard, the authors attach particular importance to the peculiarities of Islamic identity in the modern Scottish society. The authors come to the conclusion that this identity is a socio-cultural manifestation of global civilizational processes and it contains plenty of internal contradictions caused by a number of objective reasons, the main of which is the discrepancy between two civilizational codes: the traditional (native Scottish, Christian, European) and the non-traditional (brought from the outside, Muslim, Asian).
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