SAM of North Ossetia offers to set up a body to combat extremism

Hadji Murat Gatsalov, the Mufti of North Ossetia has proposed to establish a joint permanent body including religious, public and state structures that will supervise and monitor the situation with extremism in the republic. He moved the proposal at the conference on the interaction of religious, public and governmental structures for preventing extremism and radicalism.

The event took place on February 5 in Vladikavkaz on the initiative of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims (SAM) of North Ossetia in the North-Ossetian Institute of Social and Humanities Studies (NOISHS). The conference brought together representatives of public organizations and state agencies, researchers of the NOISHS and other stakeholders. The participants spoke about the causes and nature of extremism, and how to deal with it.

Today, the Internet and social networks have a grasp of the minds of young people; and only the truthful and academic information can counteract this, said the Mufti.

His deputy Rasul Gamzatov cited several reasons for the emergence of extremism. In the first place, it is a distorted understanding of Islam. Secondly, it is the remoteness of the scholars who know the Qur'an and the Sunnah. The third reason is the lack of family upbringing. The Deputy Mufti has treated the gap between the younger and the older generations as the fourth cause of this problem. He sees the proper "treatment" of this disease in the correct understanding of Islam.