Legal Policy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Counteracting Terrorism and Religious Extremism

Abstract

The article discusses the problems of legal policy of the Republic of Kazakhstan aimed at counteracting terrorism and religious extremism. The goal of research is the development of political and legal mechanisms of preventing terrorism and religious extremism in modern Kazakh society, the analysis of key reasons behind the spread of extremist attitudes among some believers, the study of key factors behind the extremist religious ideology. The methodological basis of this research is the dialectic method freed from materialistic or idealistic monism and grounded in pluralistic, multi-linear interdependence of all political and legal phenomena. The authors used formal-legal and comparative-legal methods. They researched the State Program of Counteracting Religious Extremism and Terrorism in the Republic of Kazakhstan in 2018–2022, which foresees predominantly preventive measures. The key task of ensuring state security in a rule-of-law state with a well-developed legal system, which the Republic of Kazakhstan is, mainly consists in the development and successful enforcement of legal mechanisms of governance. In the modern world, religious and political extremism remains a phenomenon that destroys the basis of state power and the system of state governance, instigates hatred of representatives of other religious denominations, and contradicts the standards of morality and public behavior. Terrorism and religious extremism are a real threat to stability not only for the Republic of Kazakhstan, but for all countries of the world. The improvement of basic aspects in the criminal sphere, including the prevention of specific terrorism-related crimes, remains very topical today. The classification of criminal law norms connected with counteracting terrorism and religious extremism is based on a number of key indicators of criminal policy and fundamental criminal law institutes, whose description constitutes the main body of this article.