Evkurov orders MIA of Ingushetia to stop persecuting Moslems

President of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek Evkurov does not find the young men who "would not go to the mosque with others" to be Wahhabites and instructed the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) and Muftiyat to stop persecuting the youth on the basis of their religion. This was stated by President of Ingushetia in his interview to the "Caucasian Knot" and "Gazeta.Ru".

According to Mr Evkurov, 99 percent of the youth of Ingushetia are believers, and now the work is underway in the Republic to check the institutes of religious education.

"We've now set up our own analytical centre of five persons; they are young people and represent different trends... All the Muslim trends existing in the territory of the Republic are represented there. We try to use this analytical centre for analyzing how people are trained in mosques, in Muslim centres and how rites are administered; by means of television we plan to cover all that and study the problems of those young people who do not want to go to the mosque together with others," said President Evkurov in his interview on March 6.

Nevertheless, according to his story, the authorities will not run lists of such people.

"I've toughly warned the MIA and advised the Muftiyat not to persecute them. Many girls, I've noticed (I was in the University right now), are wearing hijabs: this is new for Ingushetia. Ingush women never wore hijabs. They were also wearing scarves, but somehow in our own way, Ingush style, how the Islam demands - the hair should not be seen. For some reason, however, they prefer hijabs, they took this style. Well, let them do it," said Mr President.

He also added that he received complaints from Muslim women wearing hijabs that they were prosecuted.

Yunus-Bek Evkurov has assured that efforts are undertaken to prevent any split on the basis of religious distinctions.

Besides, according to Mr Evkurov, the authorities take measures to involve youth in public processes, sports and policy.

"I meet young people and to involve them, I say that there is the Committee for Youth Supervision. We build plants, factories, houses, etc. in the countryside, and young people should go and supervise. We say that young people from the Committee should control the United State Exam-1, to avoid bribe-taking," said Mr Evkurov.

To the question on blaming people as militants' helpers, Mr Evkurov has noted that the authorities try to demonstrate: "you should not help them: sooner or later people will know."

According to Yunus-Bek Evkurov, the helpers are affected by "such preventive methods: the district militiaman visits suspects' relatives, then heads of administrations and activists start to communicate with them."