With the influx of migrants to Europe, talk has started about the threat of radicalization. The European Union fears that militants of radical organizations, including Islamic State, will enter their countries under the guise of refugees. The intelligence agencies of Germany have noticed that the number of Islamic extremists entering the country has increased dramatically in recent months, and the threat of involvement of newly arrived refugees in jihadi ranks has increased with them.
A leading researcher at the Institute of Economic Forecasting of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Dmitry Poletaev, believes that this is not just a European problem. According to him, Russia itself may become an exporter of radicals to the countrues of origin of migrants. For example, migrants who land up in Russian prisons can learn radical ideas from their cellmates and bring them home, to the countries of the post-Soviet space.
"They brainwash these people. Not very educated people. Those people, who do not know much about the Quran. Who are weakly able to imagine what Islam is. And these people come out radicalized. And then we get such a wave of dissatisfaction from the countries where these people return to later."
According to the expert, police methods should not be exhaustive in the fight against this phenomenon: "This soft power, this proposal of alternatives, and in general, just the interception of this initiative in education, in enlightenment, this is a very important thing. We must forestall such things. This export of radicalism to CIS countries does not strengthen our ties with countries with which we want to unite in the Eurasian Economic Union. It is a very important political issue."
Poletaev is concerned about the lack of funding for integrational programs, and the fact that Russia doesn’t have enough mosques: "People are forced to pray in apartments attended by radical preachers, and they say: 'You see, when there are our major holidays, people are forced to pray in the streets, laying their rugs in the dirt. Are officials of Islam thinking of you? No. Because if they did, they would have put on pressure, so that there would be mosques, so that people could safely fulfill their religious needs. But we know how to do it.' There are no public spaces, where work with Muslims could be done. I believe that this is one of the aspects of the fact that there are no integrational programs in the format in which they could be carried out. And in my opinion, money should be allocated to such integration programs."
As experts believe, integration cannot be limited to round tables, to interaction with the leaders of the diasporas. there should be an integrational program, which could include not only assistance in the construction of mosques and so on, but also a wider range of measures, including on the crisis of mistrust. "This crisis of mistrust, which exists in Russia, exists not only in relation to migrants, it relates to many aspects: to the administration, to the authorities, to each other, to school teachers or teachers in the university. This crisis of mistrust is also shown in relation to migrants in the form of migrant-phobia. And this rejection from Russian society creates such a basis for these radical preachers to say: 'After coming to our community, you will not feel that you are a second-rate man'."
Poletaev urges to "allocate much more funds, make much more effort than we could make. Such integration, the improvement of the situation with confidence in each other, it is also an important step in the fight against both radical Islam and the crisis of mistrust in our country."
