General Palagin urged local self-government bodies to withstand religious extremism

At the III congress of the municipal formations RB the head of the Federal Security Service (FSB) Dept in Bashkortostan General Palagin urged the employees of local self-government to withstand religious extremism, making favorable conditions to traditional liberal Islam.

“After the establishment of the Clerical Muslim Dept RB the Muslims unfortunately appeared divided by the national characteristic. Besides, the imams and mullahs of Bashkortostan failed to preserve the traditional Islam. The Islamic graduates, studying abroad, returned home and as a result, the extremist sects, such as “Khizb-ut-Takhrir al Islami”, started working in such big Bashkir settlements as Durtuli, Chishmy, Ishimbay, Meleuz and Zirgan. What can happen next we can see by the example of Ingushetia and Dagestan, where Vahhabism became very popular (the adherents of this puritanical Islamic movement prefer to call themselves salafits).

Thus, the salafits from Askino tried to penetrate to the uncontrolled territory between Afghanistan and Pakistan - the residence of Ben Laden – in order to continue jihad there. The last acts of terror on the territory of Russia with participation of the suicide bombers were committed by the recruited citizens of Bashkortostan, Tatarstan and Tyumen region.

Taking all abovementioned into account the local self-government bodies have to create the atmosphere of intolerance with respects to the extremist forms of Islam, supporting the traditional Islamic trends.

The head of the Bashkir FSB has also reported that from his side he is busy with solving the question concerning prohibition of the extremist activity on the territory of Bashkortostan now. Besides, the divisions of FSB will be restored in some Bashkir settlements – Birsk, Belebey, Sibay, Baimak and Zilair.