VOA常速英语:哈萨克斯坦致力于肃清极端主义

Honors pay their respects for police officers killed in July, 2016 in Kazakhstan’s Almaty.A gunman said to have Islamist links is blamed.

It came on the hills of a series of attacks in June that killed four civilians and three soldiers.

Several young people went to Syria.But there are those who came back home and they go through rehabilitation."

But Kazakh authorities estimate several hundred of its citizens joined Islamist militant groups in Syria and Iraq.

They say the 2016 terrorist attacks unusual in Kazakhstan were ordered from Syria.

If peace will be established in the territories of Syria and Iraq, it will sanitize the religious situation as a whole in Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan’s Akniet Rehabilitation Center works to reintegrate those extremists who return to the country and counsels others who want to leave.

The radical ideology, that is spread via foreign international terrorist web-sites,influences mostly young people who fall under such propaganda easily."

This former al-Qaida adherent, who does not wish to be identified, wanted to go fight in Pakistan.He was prevented from travelling there, but he says he’s been ostracized by childhood friends who are extremists.

As they are my friends, I worry about them, I like them, actually, they are good people.If they find the right way in their lives, they will do many good things, I try not to destroy our relations as I can."

Astana’s central mosque has its own media operation and distributes a video condemning Islamist extremists and terrorists.

Our aim is to de-radicalize our community.And to be able to do that, we should relentlessly pursue some activities in this direction."

While the threat to Kazakhstan is comparatively minimal,authorities here say educating youth about true Islam is key to preventing the spread of extremism.

Daniel Schearf, VOA news, Astana.