22:11, 19 May 2007

Expert thinks that Caucasian Wahhabism should be counteracted at the ideological level

"Blaming extremists and sending 'Alpha' or OMON fighters against them is senseless. It means fighting ideas and thoughts. But you cannot kill an idea," Candidate of Law Arslan Kurbanmagomedov, Assistant Professor of the Makhachkala Branch of the Krasnodar University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, has declared at the Conference "Modern Russian Society: Actual Problems of Fighting Crime" held in Nalchik.

Mr. Kurbanmagomedov presented results of a sociological study held in Dagestan. According to the study, out of fifty Wahhabis who were under investigation in 2000-2002 only two defendants had doubted the justice and rightness of their actions. According to the scientist, this fact indicates that Wahhabism, as ideology, represents not just a set of extremist ideas but a system of "argued" provisions. Therefore, counteracting this system should be organized at the same level, at which training of potential extremists is conducted.

Author: Luiza Orazayeva, CK correspondent