Expansion of religious extremism in Russia continues through "personnel" training in foreign Islamic centers - Russian Prosecutor General's Office
MOSCOW. Oct 8 (Interfax) - The Russian Prosecutor General's Office has expressed concerns about the intervention of non-traditional branches of Islam to Russia.
"We are still concerned about the continuing intervention of non-traditional branches of Islam from abroad. In the 1990s, it was carried out by foreign preachers, and now it is being done by young people who go abroad to receive religious education," Russian Deputy Prosecutor General Viktor Grin said at a joint meeting of the presidium of the Russian Legislators' Council on International Relations and Liaison with Religious Associations under the chairman of the Federation Council on Tuesday.
Grin said one of the possible reasons why young people tend to leave Russia to get religious education abroad is the low competitive power of the religious education establishments located in Russia.
"Foreign Islamic educational institutions not only have significant funds from charity donations, but they have direct state support from these countries," Grin said.
Grin said, citing information from the Interior Ministry and the Federal Security Service, that several thousands of Russian citizens have already received education and are now studying abroad.
"In the meantime, studies show that these people often become active ideologues of religious extremism and bring their radical ideas, which are totally different from and are uncharacteristic of our country, to the norms of social and intercultural communication and civil behavior, which is a factor in ethnic tensions," Grin said.
With regard to this, Grin believes that issues relating to the support of domestic religious education and state control and supervision in this sphere are vital.
Grin said migration, both internal and external, is one of the main causes of extremism in Russia.
"Studies show that the increase in the number of people with origins in the southern regions of Russia to more economically developed and more stable regions of the country and the migration follows from the CIS countries are the determining factors influencing the spread of extremist tendencies in Russia," he said.
Grin said the large number of migrants, their economic activity, and the fact that the practically occupy whole segments on the labor market and in the sphere of trade and services "increases migrant phobia in society."
He also said that "migrants' lack of respect for local traditions is often offensive to native populations and increases ethnic tensions."
