Ingushetia president wants youth protected from Wahhabi influence

SOCHI, August 29 (Itar-Tass) -- Ingushetia's President Yunus-bek
Yevkurov has acknowledged that the radical trend in Islam - Wahhabism -
has taken a firm foothold in the North Caucasus. He called on the
authorities and clergy in the region to do their utmost to protect youth
from its influence.
"Wahhabism today constitutes a major threat to peace, law and order in
the republic and in the region in general," the Ingush president said at
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's meeting with the muftis and leaders of
the North Caucasus republics.
He recalled that Wahhabism had begun to gain strength in Ingushetia in
the middle of 1990s, when emissaries of domestic and foreign - ostensibly
humanitarian - organizations flocked to the republic on the pretext or
providing aid for refugees. Their real aim, though, was destabilization of
the region.
Yevkurov acknowledged that young people "continue to take up arms and
go away into the woods."
"This is a result of our loss in the ideological struggle in the
1990s," he said.
Ingushetia's president stressed the need for stepping up ideological
work, first and foremost, among youth, because many of the radically
minded young people made their choice for ideological reasons.
"We failed to support them at the right time and to put them under
control. The emissaries (of radical Islam) were quick to step in,"
Yevkurov said.
The Ingush president called for struggling for youth with every
possible means, including restrictions on trips abroad for instruction at
religious colleges.
"I am certain that our young people must not be allowed to go abroad.
We have enough priests here. If this or that young man goes there after
all, he will have to obtain approval from the council of muftis and remain
under control all the way. This will prevent his brainwashing and
recruitment," Yevkurov said.
Under the influence of extremist religious leaders young Ingushes
often do things they never committ on their own.
Yevkurov recalled the recent attempt on his own life.
"Imagine how strongly that young man had to be indoctrinated, what
sort of ideas had to be planted in his head to make him get into the car
and explode himself. We have never had anything like this before. It takes
a great deal of propaganda. I am certain that happened not without
zombying and mind-bending drugs," he said.
The Ingush leader called for tighter control of news channels
extremist organizations use to incite religious discord.
"The struggle with them must be merciless. Today we are still unable
to reach those who propagate this filth through the Internet and mobile
telephones."
Yevkurov believes one of the main reasons why the struggle against
Wahhabism and extremist has been ineffective is that the religious
organizations in the republic and in the North Caucasus in general are
dissociated from each other and stand too far away from the authorities.
"The authorities are just at the beginning of the process of
developing the understanding of religious affairs," he said.
The Ingush president would like muftis to be present at the meetings
of all bodies of power.
"The word of God must be heard at these meetings. This will be a great
benefit," he said.
Yevkurov acknowledged that in the republic there were some who would
never return to peaceful life.
"They are mercenaries, we call them 'wild geese', they are on the
payroll. Also, there are the ideology-driven ones. These are the hardest
nuts to crack. Clearing their minds of all this rubbish will be very hard.
But there are also those who are just scared, who are blackmailed."
The Ingush president voiced the certainty that active struggle against
the extremist ideology will allow for winning back 50 percent of those who
have sided with the extremists.

-0-str