The phenomenon of terrorism and its modern modifications are analyzed in the ar-ticle. The distinctive feature of the terrorism of late 20th century, in the author’s opin-ion, is its ethno-confessional nature. Noting that today, due to the events in Kosovo and in North Caucasus, the attention of the public is riveted on Islamic terorism, the author points to the tendency, that has recently emerged, of identifying terrorism with Islamic fundamentalism and with Islam as religion, and stresses inadmissibility of such identification, especially in a multiconfessional country like Russia. Only along the path of cooperation with the Islamic world, first of all with those of its forces that adhere to the positions of orthodox Islam, is the solution of the Islamic terrorism problem possi-ble, the author maintains.