Author(s): Zelenkov Mikhail Yuryevich, Antonyan Elena Aleksandrovna, Grishko Natalia Alexandrovna, Novitskaya Lyudmila Yuryevna, Ismailov Ismail Shapurovich
The study object is modern terrorism. The subject is the religious factor, as one of its system elements. The goal is to identify its role in the system of modern terrorism based on the results of the religious factor structure analysis. The theoretical background of the research was made up of a conjunction of scientific works on the religion structure, the results of research on the constructive and destructive role of the religious factor in the process of anti-terrorist activity. The methodological framework was a systemic comprehensive analysis that allowed identifying and characterizing the role of the religious factor in the modern terrorism system. The epistemological potential of statistical and sociological methods of quantitative and qualitative studies has made it possible to define the place and purpose of religious ideology and religious psychology in the terrorism structure appropriately to the contemporary context in relation to the hypothesis put forward by the authors. The novelty of the paper is determined by a peculiar approach to identifying characteristic traits that reveal the constructive and destructive role of the religious factor as an element of the modern religious terrorism system. The results obtained in the course of the study allow to conclude that the religious factor is capable of playing both a destructive and a constructive role in the of terrorism system in the 21st century.