The text of Imam Ramil Belyayev’s appearance at the seminar of the UK Tatar Association of Great Britain, London.
15.8.2015

Theme “Concept of religious extremism”

Dear friends!

Greetings to you all by the greeting of islam Assalamu alaikum va rahmatullahi va barakatuh!
Peace to you, mercy from the Almighty and his blessings upon you.

Today we will discuss the theme, which widely is illuminated in the media about the concept of religious extremism.
It is complex to understand religious extremism, if we do not understand its ethical side and the motivation of actions.

Among the professionals, dealing with this problem, there does not exist precise idea, what religious extremism actually really is. The absence of the sole understanding of the problem of religious extremism consists in the fact that the sides do not converge to the general system of coordinates, within the framework which would be studied the problem named above.

In order to generalise the objective judgment about the religious extremism, it is necessary to understand its essence. For the integral approach to the study of problemetatic it is necessary to give answers to the following questions
– the meaning of the term?
– are such signs?
– the reason for appearance?
– ideology?
– consequence?
– preventive maintenance?

It is known that the religious extremism is directly connected with the radical religious organisations. Some religious organisations are only covered by their inclination to the religion, and in reality propagandise their interests, controlling the consciousness of man, destroying their personality.

Transferring the not regulated by state interelligious questions into the political plane, using them as the tool, means for kindling of conflicts, religious extremism create the real threat of National Security for any government.
Religious extremism now acquired the form of large scale permanent war or systematic terrorist acts, accomplished by the bands of international terrorists, armed and trained. Their ideology is war with “the incorrect”, that confess not only other religion, but also being adhered to the secular means of life, democratic political orientation. It is here appropriate to note that the servants of churches, synagogues and mosques yearly die from the hands of extremists.

The primary target of religious extremism is the acknowledgement of their religion that leading, and so the suppression of other religious confessions through their coercion to its system of religious belief/faith. However, extreme extremists pose before themselves the problem of creating an individual state, whose lawful standards will be substituted with the general standards common for the entire population of religion. As a clear example of this which it serves as the arrival of this formation in the east as IGIL.

The religious extremism frequently is clamped with the religious fundamentalism, whose essence is concluded in the tendency to recreate the fundamental bases “its” civilisation, after purging alien innovations and adoptions from it, to return by it “true appearance”.

By religious extremism often are understood different phenomena, from the diverse forms of the class and liberation struggle, which is accompanied by the application of violence, rape, to the crimes, accomplished by hired agents and provocateurs.

Religious extremism, this nothing else but cultivated contemporary servitude of people, based for brainwashing and checking the consciousness of man with the way of psychological programming. Therefore, it is much more reasonable to prevent the appearance of extremism than to fight with it.

What does the term ”religious extremism” mean?

Extremism originates from the Latin extremus – extreme. Already it is evident from the translation that the term is characterised as adherence to the extreme views and the actions.
Religious extremism, is this negation of the system of traditional for the society values, standards of morals and right, and also the aggressive propaganda “of ideas”, which acts under the guise of inclination to the religion. Among the adherents of many confessios it is possible to reveal religious ideas and actions of believers corresponding to them, which have antisocial nature, i.e., to one degree or another is expressed the nonacceptance of the secular society and other religions from the positions of one or other religious dogma or another.

Religious extremism – these are the religiously justified or religiously camouflaged actiivities, directed toward a forced change in the political system or the forced assumption of power, the disturbance of sovereignty and territorial integrity of state, for the excitation for these purposes of religious hostility and hatred.

Religious extremism – this is adherence in the religion to the extreme views and actions. The basis of this extremism compose violence, extreme cruelty and aggressiveness, that are combined with the demagogy.

Are such the signs of religious extremism?

The signs of religious extremism are:

– fanatic intolerance and hardness, which force man to blindly follow exceptionally by his own opinion and prejudices and they do not make possible for extremist to take into consideration the interests of the surrounding people;

– showy and constant excessiveness in the religious behavior and the tendency to force others to enter so;

– failure of the movement to the universally recognised standards of morals and rights, priorities, that leads to irrelevance and inopportuneness of the application of various religious orders;

– the rough and sharp manner of contact with the people, in the rigid and categorical approach;

– the ideological content in the form of adherence to the extreme religious and other spheres of public life;

– the public danger, which is expressed in the reason for essential harm to the bases of constitutional system or to the constitutional to the bases of interpersonal relations or in the creation of the threat of the reason for this harm;

– the active nature, which is expressed, as a rule, in the illegal and damaging on society methods and the forms of the expression of protest against the routine in one or other sphere or another of social relations.

Are such the reasons for the appearance of religious extremism?

Religious extremism – a nonaccidental phenomenon and has the objective reasons for appearance. Understanding the reasons for the appearance of extremism must precede the determination of the presence of religious extremism and the application of methods of opposition. Having a result of definition, the true reasons for the appearance of religious extremism are determined. It is from the very beginning necessary to recognise that there does not exist one isolated factor, critical for development and propagation of extremism. On the contrary, religious extremism is a complex phenomenon with different interconnected, direct and indirect reasons and prerequisites, part from which rises from in the distant past, part – in the present.
The reasons for the appearance of the religious extremism can be different, which include:
– religious;
– social;
– economic;
– political;
– psychological, – social and economic;
– technological;
– information;
– state corruption;
– social and economic crises;
– the deformation of political structures;
– a drop in the standard of living of the substantial part of the population;
– suppression by the authorities of dissent and opposition;
– the absence of religious knowledge;
– national oppression, the ambition of the leaders of political parties and religious groups, which are attempted to accelerate the realisation of advanced by them tasks.

The democratic change of the freedom of conscience is one of the reasons for the appearance of religious extremism. However, the freedom of conscience – the important and valuable freedom of citizens in the modern rule-of-law state, its interpretation as permissiveness of religious associations, it made it possible to create conditions for the appearance in the society of extremist ideologies.

The reasons for the appearance of religious extremism are found in the person himself, in his interrelations with the members of family, by relatives, and with the deeper analysis it can be discovered in the contradictions between the internal peace of extremist and the surrounding society. Between the faith and the behavior, the ideals and the reality, the religion and the policy, the words and behavior, dreams and actual achievements, secular and religious life. It is natural that similar psychological internal contradictions can lead some part of the young people to the intolerance and aggressions.
The absence of religious literacy is one additional important factor of the appearance of extremism.

In what does consist the ideology of religious extremism?

Religious extremist organisations – these are such groups and organisations, which in their ideology use extreme and unethical the technology of manipulation for the recruiting and retention of their terms. Are controlled thoughts, feelings and behavior of their adherents for the purpose of the satisfaction of the interests of leaders and purposes of the group.

Religious ideology has the different directions, which include:
– the forced propagation of its principles;
– intolerance to the opponents, the negation of dissent;
– attempt at the ideological substantiation of the application of violence with respect to any persons, who do not divide the persuasion of extremists;
– appeal to any known religious or ideological studies with the claims on their true interpretation and at the same time actual negation of many positions of these interpretations;
– the domination of the emotional methods of action on the consciousness of people in the process of the propaganda of the ideology of extremism, the turning to feelings of people, but not to the reason;
– the creation of the charismatic means of the leader of extremist motion, the tendency to present by his infallible.

The ideology of extremism denies dissent, rigidly asserts its own system of political, ideological, religious views. From their supporters the extremists require blind obedience and performance of any, even most absurd orders and instructions. The line of reasoning of extremism is inverted not to the reason, but to prejudices and feelings of people.

Led to the extreme, the ideology of extremist actions creates the special type of the supporters of extremism, inclined to the self-excitation, to the loss of control over its behavior, prepared with any actions, for the disturbance of the standards, which were established in the society.

In the recent decades arose tens of aggressive motions, which preach the diverse variants of extremist activity, this nationalism, religious fundamentalism, fascism, the idea of the end of the light and the new religious motions.

As far as religious extremism goes, it is separated by eight basic ideological elements, which lead, with their simultaneous and systematic use in connection with of a personality, to a catastrophic change in the consciousness:

– the monitoring of the surrounding situation (medium) – the rigid structuring of environment, in which the contact is regulated, and admittance to the information strictly is controlled;

– mystical manipulation is – the use of the planned or tuned “spontaneous”, “direct” situation for giving to it the sense, advantageous to manipulators;

– the requirement of cleanliness – the sharp division of peace into “the clean” and “the unclean”, “good” and “poor”. Religious extremist organisation – “good” and “clean”, all the remaining – “poor” and dirty”;

– the cult of confession – the requirement of continuous confession and intimate acknowledgements for the destruction of the boundaries of personality and maintenance of feeling of guilt;

– “holy science” – the declaration of its dogma by absolute, complete and eternal truth. Any information, which contradicts this absolute truth, is considered false;

– the loaded language is – the creation of the special clichéd dictionary of intragroup contact for the purpose of the elimination of basis itself for the independent and critical thinking;

– the doctrine higher than personality – doctrine is more real and true, than personality and its individual experience;

The supporters of extremist ideology can be so obsessed by the consciousness of rightness and legality of the requirements presented by them, that freely or involuntarily drives on the variety of life situations and processes to the vision of the peace through the prism of this ideology. The historical precedents of the achievement of the objective by unpopular means make possible for the leaders of extremism to create analogous precedents, hoping that their history will justify.
The basis of the ideology of religious extremism is religious fanaticism which it is converted into the extremism when there are no other “retaining” forms of the identification whatever: national, civil, ancestral, property, clan, corporate.

Fanatic religiosity of individual and society at all levels to introduce negative element in the relations between the people.

The fanaticism of the religious fanatic (on the passion) of persuasion on is so great, that it not only completely does not fear punishment, but also there is no time it does not regret its acts. It should be noted that the complexity of fight with the extremists consists in the fact that them lacks the fear of death. However, death by them is received as good into the name of common purpose.

How is religious extremism manifested?

It is widely-known that under the contemporary conditions of real threat, both for entire world community and national security of one or other state or another, its territorial integrity, constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens represents extremism in various forms of its manifestation.

In the recent decades the extremists increasingly more frequently turn themselves to the organised and religious- substantiated use of illegal reports as to the means of achieving their goals.

Is separately dangerous the extremism, which is covered by religious slogans, which leads to appearance and escalation of interethnic and between confessions conflicts.

Religious extremism is manifested in the entire force at that moment when one isolated group, which follows to the installations enumerated above, it begins to threaten the safety of majority, permitting the application of physical violence. This becomes possible, when a radically inclined group of people considers all people – with exception of its followers – out of its of religion, declaring they’re incorrect. This step finally tries the connection between this group and society.

What nature as to the consequences of religious extremism?

The applied by religious extremism harm to sociumu is extremely dangerous: its manifestations vary from the psychological and material damage to society and to state to the deprivation of the life of concrete individuals, from the excitation of civil hatred or hostility to the functioning of the numerous illegal armed units, which set before themselves as a goal of a displacement of the constitutional system of state and disturbance of its territorial integrity.

The consequences of the criminal manifestations of religious extremism can be manifested both immediately after the accomplishment of the corresponding acts and have long-term outlooks.

Essence of religious extremism, – in the application of violence to those thinking differently.

Consequences from the religious extremism as it appears:

– indoctrination and programming of people;
– kindling religious strifes;
– kindling international strifes;
– deprivation and the limitation of constitutional rights;
– the disturbance of the stability of socially economic development;
– an increase in the percentage of suicide;
– the destruction of in a cultured way – historical values;
– the regress of society;
– the interference in the general education system;
– the interference in the state and local self-guidance;

Methods of prevention of religious extremism.

Opposition to religious extremism – the difficult, but feasible task. Solving it, however, necessary to be aware, that the discussion deals with the continuous operation.

For the solution of the problem of preventing opposition to religious extremism, guarantee of a process of the normalisation of sociopolitical situation it is necessary to employ adequate means of psychological and ideological influence on the carriers of similar ideas. In the media, the schools and the higher educational institutions it is necessary to reveal antihumanistic nature of religious fanaticism and extremism, to conduct explanatory work, explaining and proving the destruction of fanatical ideology and practice, to propagandise humanistic ideology and humanistic values.

The complex problem of religious extremism with all associating it reasons, motives and stimuli requires complex and systems approach in the solution. The complexity of the solution must be caused by the variety of crisis; however, it is necessary to realise the fundamental essence of the question: religious extremism is, first of all, the religious phenomenon, which affects psychological, social, economic and political measurements.

One of the reasons for religious extremism is intellectual blindness and ignorance, which become the catalysts of such phenomena as chauvinism, xenophobia, aggressiveness with respect to the dissent, terrorism. Therefore to counteract the phenomenon of extremism is necessary, first of all, at the intellectual level. Not in vain the emissaries of radical groups recruit followers the lowest and least formed layers of society. Than it is religiously more competent than men, the more complex it is to manipulate by its consciousness.

Opposition to extremism must vestit complexly and by entire society.
– the adoption of the preventive measures, directed toward the prevention of extremism, including to the development and the subsequent elimination of reasons and conditions, which facilitate its realisation;
– development and the suppression of extremism;
– international collaboration in the region of opposition to extremism.

The prohibition of different literature under the pretext of its extremist nature must occur in accordance with the established united censorial norms, the expert councils, with the start in them of the representatives of traditional confessions.
Far more effective is to counter education, which will allow the reader to critically receive that written, is much more effective than prohibitions.

Wide activity in the religious education of society so conduct muslim clergymen – imams. As an example it is possible to record words of one of the imams.

The target of terrorism become people guilty of nothing. According to the sacred Koran, a muslim is responsible before the Almighty Allah for its each step, it is obligated to manifest validity and mercy, to bear good to all people, it is not dependent on that wether they are Muslims or not, to protect and to defend feeble and innocent people, to stop others from the accomplishment of evil on the earth. Evil it is all acts, which bear threat to peace, to prosperity and safety of people, all manifestations of extremism and terrorism.

The murder of an innocent individual who is guilty of nothing is the most great of dishonor and great sin on the earth. Allah said: “The one who shall kill an innocent living soul who is without any fault, or for honor on this earth, that seemingly would mean putting humanity to their deaths. But who will revive them (without having allowed the murder), that seemingly will revive all people “. ( Sura 5 “Table”, 32)

Responsibility lies not only on the direct executors of murder. On the shariat all participating to them persons bear the collective responsibility for the reports of terror.

The sacred Koran forbids suicide. Explicit suicide is the fact that some people commit the acts of suicide, tying to themselves explosives and then, approaching people, they explode among them. Who and no matter how committed suicide, this person on the shariat will be to be destined to Hell, as this is mentioned in reliable hadith of the prophet of Muhammed, peace to it and the blessings: “It whoever killed itself by iron weapon, then iron weapon will remain in its hand, and it will continuously bring on them the impact to itself into the stomach in the fire of hell, it is eternally”.

Suicide, as is the murder of other people, contradicts Islam. Allah the Almighty forbids suicide. In the Koran it is said: “… And do not kill itself…” (Sura 4 “of woman”, 29). Murder itself, – whatever reason – is forbidden in Islam. Consequently, suicide terrorists, who take away with themselves lives of thousands of innocent people, unambiguously contradict the principles of the shariat.

Any forms of violence contradict Islam. Allah commands to people not to transgress the limits of that permitted by them and not to cause outrage on the earth, prohibits injustice, violence, murders and bloodshed.

Allah the Almighty said: ” Eat and drink out of the lot, given by Allah! And you do not create evil on the earth, extending ungodliness “. (Sura 2 “cow”, 60).

Those terrorists, who assume that they can achieve the success in the mundane life, killing and degrading innocent people, they be in the most great error. Allah forbids any dishonor on the earth and curses all, who embarked on the path of evil. In the Koran it is said: “… Indeed Allah does not accompany the matters of those, which create dishonor” (Sura 20 “Of yunus”; 81)
If a man, in the name of God, extends dishonor on the earth, then such are the persons and the purpose of them by no means in the service of Allah.

Terrorism pursues the aim of violence, murder, war, suffering and oppression of people. All this, in the Koran it is noted as great dishonor. Therefore terrorists, transgress the boundaries of that permitted by Allah they, since they accomplish violence and bloodshed, using in this case the name of Allah and leading people into error. Allah the omnipotent said: “When they are toldl: “ Do not extend dishonor on the earth!” – they speak: “We – only creating good”. But know, they, are true, that extend dishonor, but they do not understand this”. (“Cow”, 11-12)to be worthwhile to remember and about the main postulate of Islam “in the religion there is no coercion” (Sura 2 “cow” 256). This indicates any violence above the human will it is unlawful according to Islamic dogma.

Today we are located amongst the Tatar association of Great Britain and it would be wrong to turn attention away from and by the attitude of Tatars toward the Muslim of religion.

Tatars reached Islam by a creative way and officially was accepted as a religion in the year 922 in the capital of Volga Bulgarii – Bulgarakh. The secretary of the Baghdad embassy Ibn Fadlan noted that the Tatars up to the moment of their arrival already knew about Islam, they read namaz and they even had its own scientists.

From 1552, Tatars are yielded by Russian state. History shows that in spite of the difficult times of forced baptism, wars, revolutions, red terror, collectivisation, repressions, despite all that, the Tatars always remained devoted to state, loyal citizens of their country. This completely appeared in the times of all wars of liberation. Tatars actively participated in the wars of Ivan Grozny, Peter the First, in the patriotic war 1812, in first and World War II.
So they were an integral and important part in formation of Russian state, be it Moscow principality, the Russian Empire or the Soviet Union.
Moving to the stay into the new countries, Tatars continued the line begun in ancestors to with great care store the laws of the country of stay and they became durable support in the building of the civic community of the countries of Asia, Europe and America. In spite of that, the Tatars with great care relate to their of religion – to Islam to them it is alien as to the thought of oppression on the religious soil, since they have the millennial experience of peaceful co-existence with other religions and cultures. This experience gives to contemporary Tatars painlessly to integrate into the societies of the European countries after preserving in this case the signs of confessional and ethnic belonging.

Today, UK Tatar Association passes the stage of its formation and makes the serious steps of in execution outlined tasks. In London there are conducted among festivals, the national holidays of Sabantuy, Nowruz, the evenings of thematic meetings and organised seminars on topical questions. It goes without saying, a large role in the activities that play are the chairman of the association Mr. Ramil Minullin and all who help him with this good the matter.
From myself, I want to wish peace to you all, prosperity, health and success on all good undertakings.

Dear collegues!

I would like to thank my dear friend the chairman of Tatar Assossiation of United Kingdom for inviting me to this seminar. It’s very important to hold this kind of seminars, because it gives an opportunity to gather and to disscuss about actual problems in our society.
I have visited the Association several times and it is pleasure to mention that the organisation is developing dynamically. And in the growing of activity of Tatars in UK the main role is playing Mr. Ramil Minullin and all his friends who help him. Nowadays UK Tatar Association organises Sabantuy and Nowruz events, makes strong relations with Government of UK, Russian Federation, Respublic Tatarstan. The Association is a member of European Aliance of Tatars wich means relations to Tatar ogranisations in European countries.
For the future, the Association plans to build a strong organisation with wide activities in culture, language and religions. Behalf of muslim society of Finland and Russia we wish success and best future to Tatars in UK.

Thank you for your attention!

Video clip the seminar of Imam Ramil: