Kazakhstan society is called to independently counter extremism

The society has to independently counter religious extremism, Tengrinews.kz reports citing political analyst Aidos Sarym as saying at the meeting of the social-political discussion club AitPARK. According to him, it is necessary to form up the society that would automatically “sweep off” radicals and extremists. He also emphasized that the society itself brings up the extremists and potential terrorists. The analyst found it hard to name the particular regions of Kazakhstan where the religious situation is the most intense and prone to terrorist attack. “I travel a lot, I have recently been to Mangistau oblast. Nobody can foresee a spur of terrorism risk, it can rip through in any place,” Sarym said. Dossym Satpayev, Kazakh political scientist, thinks that Kazakhstan is entering a dangerous stage. The 20-year-old generation of independence has grown up, he said. They are more radical from the political point of view. Meanwhile, the education level is going down. Spiritual poverty and ideological vacuum among the population is also a threat, according to Satpayev. Political analysts also commented on a new draft law On religious activities and religious institutions initiated by Kazakhstan Agency on Religion. According to Satpayev, the law will not be able to tackle religious extremism. "Adoption of this law will help counter only one problem: it will control those religious missionaries who make business out of their religion,” he said. “The law will not be able to counter religious extremism, as no law in the world can do it on its own. The countering requires a whole package of measures. As for discussions about praying rooms, it is so widely disputed that it seems as if all our state employees are very religious. Why is corruption level so high then?” Satpayev said. Draft law On religious activities and religious institutions was presented to the lower chamber of Kazakhstan parliament on September 8. The draft law provides for elimination of praying rooms from state bodies' premises. Public organizations have called for dismissal of the head of the Agency Kairat Lama Sharif soon after the draft law was presented. By Roza Yessenkulova