Range of measures for religious extremism prevention amongst youth held in Astana

On these days for students and teachers of city colleges and universities there were lectures, round tables and meetings with the participation of psychologists, theologians, clergy representatives and hot line specialists of the information and consulting center “114”. This has been announced today by a project manager of PF “Ules 2020” Andrey Savchuk.

“In total the campaign covered 500 people. It was no coincidence that the youth was chosen as the target audience. A good rule of thumb is that young people are subject of manipulations by representatives of religious movements”, - reported he.

In the course of lectures with students, the main emphasis was laid on explanation of establishment stages of interethnic and interreligious stability, and on improvement of religious knowledge of young people. The purpose of the campaign was to activate information and propaganda work on prevention of religious extremism, inform on the history of traditional religions, disclose activity of destructive decisions, and promote history of traditional religions.

The lecturer of this campaign was the director of the association of legal entities “Associations of help centers for victims of destructive religious movements” Yuliya Denisenko.

“Young people aged 14-30 years are the most active part of our population. They are very assuming, active, they want to grow and develop. Many of them depend on organizations so much that they leave school, leave their families referring to new brothers and sisters in the new religion”, - says she.

As of today there are 19 forbidden extremist organizations within the territory of Kazakhstan. In the future, following the results of the campaign, it’s planned to publish study guides about these organizations for designated companies engaged in the sphere of religious and interreligious issues.