Kazakh President urges not to associate terrorism with Islam

Kazakhstan's leader Nursultan Nazarbayev has urged not to associate terrorism with peace-loving Islam or with religion in general, Tengrinews reports.

During the meeting with heads of diplomatic missions in Astana, Nazarbayev recalled the terrorist’s attack on the office of French magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris on January 7 to highlight the vulnerability of today’s world in the face of the international terrorism. “The year of 2015 began amid the increasing threats and global challenges. Terrorist attacks in Paris demonstrated the vulnerability of the modern societies to the international terrorism. Today no one has any doubt that terrorism has became a global problem and the whole world should fight it. Kazakhstan strongly condemns terrorism and extremism in all its forms, and takes part in the global effort against this evil," Nursultan Nazarbayev said.

He also declared that Kazakhstan was ready to step up the cooperation with the international community in combatting this threat.

He also emphasized: "It is important not to associate radicalism and terrorism with traditional Islam, peace-loving Islam or any other religions. Only through firm intercultural, cross-confessional dialogue can we resist extremism, whose followers want to impose a destructive ideology on us," the President said.

Reporting Renat Tashkinbayev, writing by Assel Satubaldina, editing by Tatyana Kuzmina