Yesterday Russia launched Kalibr missiles from the Rostov-on-Don submarine from the Mediterranean Sea at positions of Daesh. The Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu stated that the targets were two major positions of the terrorists on the territory of Raqqa; supplies, a plant which produced mines, and oil infrastructure were seriously damaged. Meanwhile, experts have a common view that terrorism cannot be defeated by military means only. “We must keep the struggle on the ideological forefront,” Albir Krganov, Member of the Presidential Council for Interethnic Relations, says.
According to him, the black flag of Daesh is a standard flag of the Prophet Muhammad, and its round pattern with the words "Muhammad Rasool Ullah" is the seal of the prophet. “That is, when we criticize these characters, actually, those comrades are making us criticize Islamic symbols. There is a very clear, precise game of concepts and a great deception,” Krganov said.
He notes that the forces in the struggle are unequal: “We asked of a religious organization: "What kind of work are you doing today?’’ You know, when some of our parishes in the villages do not even have funds to pay for gas and heat, what kind of work can be done there? On the other hand, work is carried out by 'Hollywood', big money. All the same, a magazine that was published 19 times already, and indeed, there are very colorful images that can be interesting for young people. A video has recently been issued in the Tatar language on YouTube, addressed to the Tatar population. Immediately, of course, YouTube took it down, but nevertheless, such big ideological work is being done.”
The Mufti says that the same kind of work is carried out by Daesh in prisons: “Almost half of them are people who were convicted before. And today there are some Jamaats in prisons, when the ideology of extremism is still embedded in their heads. It is necessary to have religious leaders in every prison, who could lead the right kind of work there.”
Speaking about the education system’s role, Krganov points out: “We have repeatedly appealed to the Arab countries, where our students go, so they would accept only children with permission. At the beginning it worked somehow, but then they started to accept everyone just with registration. Today 40 people have gone to study in different Arab countries from the republics of the Volga region, Tatarstan. People are going to study there even now. And in this regard, of course, it is very important that this decision to establish in Tatarstan, in Bulgaria, an Islamic Academy, to which Islamic clerics with moderate correct views will be brought… We need to change attitudes towards believers themselves in some way. When some lady appears in the street in a scarf, and we begin to shun her and see her as a potential terrorist, we are pushing her into a self-imposed isolation. She goes online, she will go to those groups where she gets the support she needs, they will say that you are good, you are with us and we will support you. That is, we should not be in too much of human society. All citizens of our country are our brothers and sisters. And we need to find the right approach to these religious people and to carry out proper work.”
