Dagestani leader supports law to ban Wahhabism in Russia

DAGESTAN, 11 September, Caucasus Times – Dagestani President Mukhu Aliyev is in favour of constitutionally banning Wahhabism throughout the entire territory of the Russian Federation, the republican government has said.

“The constitutional prohibition of Wahhabism is a necessary decision in the fight against this phenomenon. We were the first to raise this question even before the invasion of militants in Dagestan [in 1999],” Mukhu Aliyev said.

It will be recalled that the threat of Wahhabism in the republic was realized even in 1999 when the bill “On the prohibition of Wahhabi and other extremist activity on the territory of Dagestan” was adopted. A number of regions of the North Caucasus supported this law-making
initiative at the time.

Mukhu Aliyev expressed his disagreement with a plan regarding the prospects for teaching based on Orthodox religion in schools in a number of regions.

“This decision is wrong not because the rights of representatives of other traditional religions – Islamism and Judaism – are being derogated, but primarily because a precedent of an infringement of the principle of the constitution is being established, – Mukhu Aliyev said. If we are speaking about religious education, it would be expedient to open a subject on “The
bases of the world’s religions” in Russian schools.