The main idea of sharia law is bringing together conflicting sides – Dagestani religion minister

Minister for National Policy, Religion and External Relations of Dagestan Bekmurza Bekmurzaev told VK about his vision of anti-extremist policy. He gave the interview right after the twin Moscow Metro bombings. On the day of the interview, there was a double terrorist attack in Dagestan’s Kizlyar.
    - Could the Moscow Metro bombings escalate interethnic conflict? What actions are being taken by the Dagestani authorities to prevent conflicts in cities populated with the Caucasian Diasporas?
    - Dagestan mourns for the victims of the Moscow terrorist acts. The Dagestani people have strongly condemned this heinous act and shared the pain of innocent people’s losses with the rest of Russia. I regret to say that Dagestan is targeted by terrorism too often. Local authorities are well aware of how to unify the people to work against this evil. We prevent the spread of tension and the rise of nationalism by working in close cooperation with public (community-based) organizations in the republic and outside. It is quite obvious that the Moscow bombings were aimed at creating a climate of extreme fear and breaking the unity of Russia. Those who have organized this terrorist act knew that the society’s fear can easily accept a new image of the enemy. Therefore, first of all, we can not allow society be overwhelmed with fear. Secondly, we can not regard this tragedy with relation to a particular nationality or religion. And what is even more important, we have to find and punish the perpetrators of the Moscow twin bombings. Yet the authorities and the mass media should not draw hasty conclusions. Instead of assisting in investigation of this crime, some of them only express extreme views and point at people of a specific nationality or religion as a potential threat, which leads to panic. Yes, each terrorist has a nationality but it does not mean that the entire nation shares the same views. This is our common tragedy. Terrorism threatens everyone. This is the reason why Dmitry Medvedev has raised the question of giving support to the North Caucasus and weakening terrorism by destroying its social basis.

    - Some consider that the North Caucasus terrorist underground is the main source of the terrorist threat in Russia…
    - You’re asking what fuels the terrorist underground? This is complete corruption, which discredits the authorities in the eyes of people. Perhaps, some of those who have joined the rebel groups do not really share their views. But these people are desperate and easily
fall under the influence of terrorist propaganda. People remain ignorant and do not assist the police even if they know that their relative or neighbor has joined an armed group. It is one of the main reasons for terrorism.    No one is safe from the terrorism. It can affect our lives as ideology, activity or attack, in any point of the country.
    - Is there any direct link between corruption, organized crime and terrorism?
    - Corruption fuels organized crime and illegal armed groups including those created to promote the interests of the corrupt authorities. The problems of militarization and drug trafficking are caused by corruption as well. The representatives of our ministry hold
meetings with imams, alims, and sheikhs including those who set themselves against the civil authorities and official religious leaders. We offer them to join us, since Dagestan is a region of the Russian Federation and there are laws that each and every citizen of Russia should obey.
    Some people set personal safety as top priority and are ready to struggle against the authorities. This is dangerous in itself. We try to explain that we are on the same side and safety is a mutual problem. There are many mixed-up young people in the terrorist underground. They have been convinced that there is no other way to change the situation but armed struggle. During the last 20 years a generation of young people who believe that the gun has the last word has appeared.
       Nowadays, when some of them, including ideologists, have realized that armed struggle always turns into a massacre, wish to come back to normal life, they can not. They are afraid they may be destroyed. Still, some call in aid, and we will help them. But the rest are criminals, who exploit our mistakes.
    The separatist movement in the North Caucasus is doomed, because terrorists do not have a motherland. It is an international phenomenon. They hide behind religion, but we can counter them with international humanistic ideas.
    - Are there experts who can explode the reputation of those criminals, who hide behind the misinterpreted religious ideas?
    - In the 70’s – 80’s a generation of real experts in questions of religion were replaced by a new one, represented by young aggressive people, who make hasty conclusions and judge without any evidence.
They pretend to be unaware or just don’t know that the main principle of sharih is the assumption of innocence. The level of religious awareness is not high enough in our country. Therefore we have established a network of educational institutions: 16 Universities,
including 13 religious and 143 madrassas.
    - What attracts young people to the terrorist underground?
    - Emotions play a big role for the Caucasus peoples. To keep our word we are ready to jump of the cliff. According to the Koran, a person is what he does, not what he says. From the hand we hear the calls to follow the Sacred Koran, but on the other hand we see rivers
of blood. Is Islam really calling for self-destruction? One of the meanings of the world “Islam” is safety. The protection of rights of other confessions is a Sunna of Mohammed. The first agreement Mohammed concluded with Christians and Jews was about peace and safety. This agreement established one of the main principles of the modern Law – adherence to the treaty and the safety of the sides. It seems that we are guilty nowadays of intolerance too. We have not communicated enough to people, if they live in forests and caverns we have to go there and help them.
    -It is a quite widespread practice in the North Caucasus to hold activities without participation of the opponents, without dialogue…
    - There is an idea to hold a pan-Caucasian roundtable meeting in participation with our opponents as well. I had some meetings with them, but it is very hard to start the dialogue since they can not overcome their hatred. During international trips, I had meeting with
leaders of some terrorist organizations, which turned into national and religious movements. Even in their eyes I have not seen as much hatred as I see in our people. Nevertheless we can establish dialogue. I talk to them in Koran language but there is a long way to establish
relationship based on trust. They are afraid they will be persecuted by the armed forces.
         Musa Musaev, Makhachkala. Exclusively for VK.