Deputy of Kazakhstan Majilis (lower chamber of the Parliament) is asking to accelerate adoption of the legislation regulating operations of religious institutions, Tengrinews.kz reports. Majilis deputy Yerzat Alzakov gave a speech to his colleagues at the first plenary meeting today, Spetember 7. “Kazakhstan has always been attractive by its tolerance and freedom of religion and Kazakh people have never been fanatically religious. Hijabs, short pants, beards have always been foreign to the mentality of the people of the steppes. All these are coming now. And the worst is that there are many young people among religious fanatics and extremists. This is our fault, the fault of the authorities and the fault of the whole society. We indifferently let our children get enrolled into different religious schools without finding out what they are taught there. We totally indifferently allow construction of religious schools that are supposedly aimed for preaching genuine Islam to our young people,” the deputy said. According to Alzakov, such schools have their own security personnel and even arms. The deputy gave an example of construction of the Islamic University in Tekeli town of Almaty oblast. “I would like to remind you that 15 years ago Isma'ilis and many other religious funds came to Caucasus declaring the same goals. This caused a splash of religious extremism that dipped the whole Caucasus in blood. The Kazakh Parliament has received a draft law on legislation regulating operations of religious institutions for consideration. The purpose of my speech is to draw attention to the problem. Religious extremism is currently a threat to the national security. I am asking you all to accelerate discussion and adoption of this legislation.” The legislation envisaging new measures of criminal and administrative punishment will be presented tomorrow, September 8. Earlier Tengrinews.kz English reported that President Nursultan Nazarbayev stated at the joint sitting of the two Parliament chambers September 1 that Kazakhstan will adopt a legislation to fence itself off religious extremism. By Renat Tashkinbayev
Deputy of Kazakhstan Majilis (lower chamber of the Parliament) is asking to accelerate adoption of the legislation regulating operations of religious institutions, Tengrinews.kz reports.
Majilis deputy Yerzat Alzakov gave a speech to his colleagues at the first plenary meeting today, Spetember 7. “Kazakhstan has always been attractive by its tolerance and freedom of religion and Kazakh people have never been fanatically religious. Hijabs, short pants, beards have always been foreign to the mentality of the people of the steppes. All these are coming now. And the worst is that there are many young people among religious fanatics and extremists. This is our fault, the fault of the authorities and the fault of the whole society. We indifferently let our children get enrolled into different religious schools without finding out what they are taught there. We totally indifferently allow construction of religious schools that are supposedly aimed for preaching genuine Islam to our young people,” the deputy said.
According to Alzakov, such schools have their own security personnel and even arms. The deputy gave an example of construction of the Islamic University in Tekeli town of Almaty oblast. “I would like to remind you that 15 years ago Isma'ilis and many other religious funds came to Caucasus declaring the same goals. This caused a splash of religious extremism that dipped the whole Caucasus in blood. The Kazakh Parliament has received a draft law on legislation regulating operations of religious institutions for consideration. The purpose of my speech is to draw attention to the problem. Religious extremism is currently a threat to the national security. I am asking you all to accelerate discussion and adoption of this legislation.”
The legislation envisaging new measures of criminal and administrative punishment will be presented tomorrow, September 8.
Earlier Tengrinews.kz English reported that President Nursultan Nazarbayev stated at the joint sitting of the two Parliament chambers September 1 that Kazakhstan will adopt a legislation to fence itself off religious extremism.
By Renat Tashkinbayev