Religion must restrain extremist movements

The political developments in the Middle East and Russia's participation in the fight against the terrorist group ‘Islamic State’, banned in our country, have pushed Russian followers of Islam to make a strong statement in support of the state authority in the fight against extremism.

“The question is whether our Russian muftis can consolidate the Muslims, to rally them against extremism, against racial hatred and enmity on religious and other grounds,” Alikber Alikberov, Head of the Center for the Study of Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Volga-Ural Institute of Oriental Studies, asks. According to him, “they are doing the job, considering that every year the situation is getting different, and each time terrorism and extremism with religious overtones is changing its face.”

“We are now confronting a new face of international terrorism. There were Caucasian separatists, who hid their ideology behind religious slogans. And today there is international terrorism, and the role of the Muftis in this role cannot be underestimated. Besides the muftis themselves, there are people who are much more involved in this fight, I mean, the imams. They are unlike the Muftis, who coordinate their work, have direct contact at the level of settlements directly with the people. And they, of course, have the hardest task, as there is an ideological war,” Alikberov thinks.

According to his information, representatives of religious communities and religious leaders issued a statement and identified those items in the Qur'an, on which the terrorist ideology is based, they say they are fighting a jihad, a holy war, and those suras that counteract it.

“The fight against extremism, based solely on religious doctrine, on religious controversy, operating only by some religious terms and arguments, is doomed to failure. It is necessary to go beyond any doctrinal disputes, to go to the next level and to operate other terms, because in the Qur'an and in any other religion, there are always different, conflicting setups, anyone can build  some of his setups despite the facts. Any religion, including Islam, proved during a thousand years of its existence that it is a peaceful religion. But extremism exists everywhere, it is, unfortunately, human nature, we cannot all be the same. So here it is necessary that religion restrains extremist movements.”