Interethnic Conflicts: Social And Legal Aspects

Abstract

Modern contacts between representatives of different cultures, arising both within one and different states, carry many problems and rarely do without misunderstanding or conflicts in communication. Among the main problems in intercultural communication are nationalism, chauvinism, racism, fascism, extremism, terrorism, religious contradictions, etc. All these concepts, in our opinion, can be combined in one term “xenophobia”. Xenophobia has the following reasons: moral disorganization and lack of civil-patriotic education, lack of religious literacy, legal nihilism, manipulation of public consciousness through the media and social and economic insecurity of the population. The work proposed the following measures to overcome this problem: the formation of a tolerant outlook, special attention to the patriotic education of the younger generation, the need to strengthen antiterrorist legislation, the development of legal culture, and an increase in the social and material security of the population. The purpose of the study is to consider ethnic conflicts in the socio - legal aspect. To do research, the following methods were used: analysis, synthesis, modeling, ascent from abstract to specific. It should be concluded that the process of overcoming this phenomenon is probably endless. The diversity of nations, cultures, religions is not a reason for clashes and conflicts, but the possibility of mutual enrichment with new experience and new knowledge.

Keywords: Xenophobiatolerancepatrioticnihilismlegalanti-terrorism

Introduction

Modern contacts between representatives of different cultures, arising both within one and different states, have many problems and rarely do without misunderstanding or conflicts in communication. Each case is manifested in some subtraction, rejection, or even fear of other cultures. We should note that all these conflicts have recently become extremist and terrorist.

Article 1 of the Federal Law dated July 25, 2002, No. 114-FL (Federal Law, 2015) contains norms validating the legal concept of extremist activity and organizations of an extremist type. This law qualifies extremism, highlighting a wide range of illegal public actions. The essence of this concept is that extremism is viewed as the activity of public and religious associations, or other organizations, or mass media, or individuals in planning, organizing, preparing and committing actions aimed at inciting racial, national or religious hatred, as well as social discord associated with violence or incitement to violence.

Problem Statement

One of the most odious forms of extremism known in history is fascism. This most dangerous and terrible phenomenon of the 20th century shocked the world community. A dangerous tendency is that now fascism is being revived in some countries. In these countries, neo-fascist parties and organizations that act to destroy democracy and replace it with a fascist regime. The danger today is also represented by public organizations whose activities are directly related to the propaganda of fascist and neo-fascist ideas. Neo-fascism as right-wing organizations and movements in a number of states of the world in political and ideological terms are the successors of the fascist organizations dissolved after the Second World War. Neo-fascists are prone to political extremism, using terrorist forms of activity.

On the territory of Russia, the country that defeated fascism, who saved not only our country, but the whole world from fascism, unfortunately, there are also neo-fascist organizations. Some researchers refer to them: the Slavic Union, the Russian National Unity, the Movement against Illegal Immigration, and some others. One of the most common is the union of "Skinheads", which is a world neo-fascist organization. Their main idea is the superiority of one over the other. This movement originated back in the 60s in Great Britain, later spreading to the whole world (Rakhimova & Denislamova, 2012).

In modern scientific and ordinary consciousness, along with the concepts of fascism, neo-fascism, some related concepts are also used. Nationalism is ideology and politics, as well as psychology in the national question. The basis is the ideas of national superiority and national exclusivity, the interpretation of a nation as the highest outside historical and supraclass form of community. It is used to establish "class world", the split of people of different nations and countries. Another variety is chauvinism. Chauvinism is an extreme aggressive policy of nationalism.

The problems of nationalism and patriotism have always troubled the minds of thinkers. Thus, the Russian philosopher S. Bulgakov argued on this point that the national feeling must always be kept in check and never surrendered to it completely. The idea of election degenerates too easily in the consciousness of special privilege, meanwhile, as it should give rise to a heightened sense of responsibility and exacerbate the demands on oneself. However, going further in this direction, we encounter a peculiar difficulty. The fact is that nationality not only needs to be humble in ourselves, but at the same time it must also be defended, as everything is being developed in opposition in this world. And as far as nationalism is prejudicial, as indispensable patriotism is (Kara-Murza, 2015).

Racial dislike towards a person also occurs in our modern life. Racism is a set of anti-scientific concepts, which basis is the provisions on the physical and mental disparity of the human races and on the decisive influence of racial differences on the history and culture of society, on the age-old division of people into higher and lower races, of which the first are supposedly the only creators of civilization, are called to domination, and the latter are not capable of creating and even assimilating high culture and are doomed to exploitation.

A separate type of discrimination is inequality, restriction of the rights of persons with disabilities who do not have the opportunity to participate as full members in society. (Taktaeva, Murtazina & Maksyutova, 2017).

All these concepts, in our opinion, can be combined in one term “xenophobia”. Xenophobia can be described as a person’s dislike for people of a different culture. Xenophobia is interpreted by the Legal Encyclopedic Dictionary as “hatred, intolerance to any or something else, unfamiliar, unfamiliar” or, in a narrower sense, as rejection of people to a different nationality or other culture (Taktaeva & Isandandavletova, 2013).

In the National Security Strategy of the Russian Federation, the activities of radical public associations and groups that use nationalistic and extremist religious ideology, as well as activities using information and communication technologies for dissemination and propaganda of the ideology of fascism, extremism, terrorism and separatism, causing damage to the civilian world, political and social stability in society, are defined as the main threats to the state and public safety Hazard (Uzembaeva, 2016). However, statistics show that recently there has been an increase in the number of such crimes. In accordance with the legal statistics of the General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation for the Russian Federation, between January and September 2018, crimes of a terrorist nature and of an extremist nature were registered - 2,506 crimes; in 2017 - 237 crimes ; in 2016 - 241 (The Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian, 2018).

Research Questions

In our opinion the current state of affairs associated with the growth of such negative phenomena in the Russian society is due to the following reasons:

1) Moral disorganization and the lack of civil-patriotic education. In the 90s the Russian society was in a state of system crisis: political, economic, social, cultural, etc. That gave birth to the so-called “moral vacuum” of the population, when the old values are the values of the Soviet past with its atheistic upbringing and education had been lost, and the new values of the market economy, preaching religious freedom, had not been formed. Under these conditions, the cult of violence becomes an integral part of society.

2) Lack of religious literacy. The crisis of all systems has affected the religious sphere of life. In those years there was religious disorientation of society. Under those conditions, religious education had been formulated. For example, in relation to Islam, professed mainly in the Republic of Bashkortostan, at the initial stage of re-Islamization in modern Russia, an emerging stratum of the “young” Muslim clergy, mainly studying abroad, where education has a fundamentalist nature, began to play an important role. Therefore, a fundamentalist model of Muslim education began to spread in Russia. Such an ideology served to substantiate the practice of separatist nationalist movements in Russia, and most importantly led to the deformation of Islamic values (Yunusova, 2009). Consequently, in particular, Islamic education in many regions of our country began to acquire an extremist character. In this regard, such a phenomenon as Islamophobia arose when the activities of Islam are associated with terrorism. Thus, the politicization of Islam caused conflicts and contradictions in society.

3) Legal nihilism. In the modern Russian society young people have formed a negative and disrespectful attitude towards laws, an open hostility towards the existing government, its decisions and actions, as well as to certain social groups that are allocated according to national, racial, religious and other grounds. In addition, legal nihilism is also due to excessive softness of domestic legislation. This is due to the overestimated age of administrative and criminal responsibility and the understated terms and the size of criminal penalties.

4) Manipulation of public consciousness through the media. Publication of information that incites hatred or enmity, degrades human dignity, and calls for extremist activity on the Internet has become a mass phenomenon. It is young people, including minors, who are the most affected by the materials of the Internet and the media, are actively involved in the activities of extremist and terrorist communities and organizations.

5) Social and economic insecurity of the population. Unemployment, hopelessness, population differentiation according to income, weak state power, its inability to ensure the security of individuals and property — all these negative trends activate the processes of social exclusion of the Russian youth. Due to such escapist behavior, young people can fall under the influence of various social and nihilistic subcultures and organizations of extremist orientation.

It should be noted, that the most noticeable growth of these dangerous tendencies, conflicts related to the spread of xenophobia, prevails especially among young people. It is quite difficult to change the world outlook of the middle and older generation of Russians, therefore the state should be oriented towards young people in the policy of state-confessional relations. The future of our country depends on those who are still “sitting at the desk” today. The future of inter-ethnic and interfaith relations also depends on them.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study is to consider ethnic conflicts in the socio - legal aspect.

Research Methods

To do research the following methods were used: analysis, synthesis, modeling, ascent from abstract to specific.

Findings

To reduce radical manifestations in the youth environment, we propose the following measures:

First, a tolerant world view plays a major role in eradicating these problems. Therefore, a model of tolerant behavior and ideology should be formed in the younger generation. Such phenomena as interethnic, interfaith conflicts, and xenophobia have always existed. Therefore, it is necessary to cultivate a tolerant, respectful attitude towards all people, regardless of nationality, religion or race. People cannot be divided into “friend-or-foe”, to evaluate them on the principle of “high-low”. Moreover, tolerance should be considered not as “tolerance” alone, but as a willingness to accept the “other” as a representative of another culture. It should be noted that in this case the role of education is great, which should become an effective system of cultivating moral and value orientations of Russian citizens, especially the younger generation (Taktaeva, 2013).

Secondly, special attention should be paid to the upbringing of children in the family, since it is in childhood when character is being formed, children try to imitate the behavior models of close people. A healthy, calm atmosphere in the family is very important. Children grew up in dysfunctional families are more susceptible to the influence of antisocial organizations; it is easier to involve them in various extremist groups. A significant impact on the younger generation has a social environment: friends, schoolmates, neighbors. It is necessary to pay sufficient attention to where and with whom children spend their free time, what their company does.

A particular danger represents by the Internet, where extremist organizations disseminate information, seek supporters, prepare and train people. Therefore, it is important to limit the Internet resources of your child and monitor the sites that they visit, install various programs that block prohibited pages on the network. In addition, there is less possibility that a child will be affected by dangerous groups if he/she is busy in hobby groups or sport classes, i.e. you need to direct adolescent activity in a positive direction. Parents should organize leisure activities for their children, help them find a suitable type of activity or encourage their hobbies and interests.

In the light of searching for solutions of the mentioned problems, the attention should be paid to the patriotic education of the younger generation, which main task is to form and develop a personality having qualities of the homeland citizen. In modern conditions, when there is a gradual loss of the traditional for Russia patriotic consciousness, this problem should equally concern both society and the state. It is no coincidence that, the Russian Federation Government issued decree No. 795 of October 5, 2010 “On the State Program “Patriotic Education of Citizens of the Russian Federation for 2011-2015”, and there is also a discussion of the law that could create a single federal military education system.

The patriotic upbringing in the modern family is not entirely satisfactory. A modern man is a consumer type of morality. He strives to take advantage and benefit of everything, forgetting about moral and spiritual values. Therefore, parents engaged in "chasing money", bring up the idea of the consumer in their children. That is why, according to sociological research, modern young people put material wealth on one of the first places, but patriotism is put on one of the last places (Kotlyarova, Makushenko & Rodionova, 2017).

In our opinion, patriotism should be educated by studying the history of its people. The current task of modernity is to bring to modern youth the true idea that the historical past is the main teacher of life, an indicator of how to build life in the future. But folk (national) culture and the moral principles of people are the main defenders and guarantors of civilization and humanity. Having forgotten the past, easy refused the culture of its people, country, it is not difficult to occur in the center of mistakes. We should remind young people about the importance of maintaining the link between times and historical generations. Such an approach to the role of the historical past can contribute to fostering respect and lively interest among today's youth for the past of the country and the people, for that generation that survived the infernal war with Hitler Germany, who defeated it and gave this wonderful life to all of us. It is important to reach an understanding by modern youth of the truth that the Victory of our ancestors, the present world would not have been possible without this great and tragic history (Suleymanov, 2015).

Moreover, it is very important to instill the respect for national heroes in modern youth. Educating young people through examples of local heroes will contribute to a more realistic understanding of particular people heroic role in the victories of the country in past centuries and instill a sense of pride in their people and love for their homeland (Suleymanov, 2013).

As a result, in modern conditions for our country the role of the patriotic education of the younger generation is very important. In order to avoid the war today, a state should not only have a high level of defense capability, modern weapons, a disciplined, combat-ready, well trained in military affairs and having undergone the necessary physical training , but most important, people with strong patriotic and high moral spirit (Suleymanov, 2015).

Thirdly, in modern conditions the growing wave of terrorism and extremism leads the states to the necessity of strengthening antiterrorist legislation. As it is known, the terrorist ideology in the Internet is complicated by the global nature and complexity of the telecommunication system. In most cases, terrorist and extremist sites are in foreign segments that are not under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation. In this regard, Russia is taking measures to create an appropriate interstate legal framework at the international level, as well as to develop mechanisms for implementing such interaction in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 12 of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy. Thus, at the present time international organizations together with the state by means of making international agreements, are actively fighting against terrorism in the world. In 2005, the UN General Assembly approved the Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force (CTITF). In the framework of the United Nations, there is Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC), which carries out interstate coordination, coherence of counterterrorism activities of the UN system and provides technical assistance to member countries in creating the most effective systems in the fight against terrorism. (Martirosyan, Muratov & Trofimova, 2017). In addition, in 2011, to assist and strengthen the capacity of Member States in the field of preventing and responding to terrorist attacks the UN Counter-Terrorism Center was established, and in 2017 the Counter-Terrorism Directorate based on the UN General Assembly resolution 71/291.

A significant breakthrough in improving the regulatory framework had been done in 2008-2012. Federal laws were amended in transport security, and the Federal Target Program “Antiterror 2009-2012” was approved. Today, despite the increasing level of training security companies and strengthening the equipment and facilities with mass stay of people by engineering and technical means is being enhanced by, antiterrorist activity does not reach the required level of protection. This is due to the fact that there are no uniform requirements for providing anti-terrorist protection of objects (Engovatova, 2014).

We suppose that the improvement of anti-terrorism legislation should be conducted in two directions: by strengthening punitive sanctions for committing terrorist acts and increasing preventive measures to fight against them. Primarily, it is an advance operational work, allowing to identify terrorist and extremist organizations at the stage of their occurrence and to suppress their actions at the planning and preparation stage. Law enforcement agencies should more responsibly carry out activities aimed at identifying the facts of illegal arms sales, strengthening the protection of important state facilities.

The analysis testifies that the state needs to improve legislation in the field of protecting citizens from terrorist and extremist actions both within the state and at the international level.

Fourthly, it is an increase in the legal culture and literacy of the young generation, the education of a respectful attitude, both to the laws and to religions. In general, the fight against extremism must be done not only at the state level by various police methods. To cope with this terrible, terrifying phenomenon of modernity, it is necessary to form a legal culture among all segments of the population, educate morality in the younger generation. Indeed, legal culture is an indicator of the maturity of the legal system of society. Knowledge of their own rights and freedoms will contribute to the development of a younger generation of feelings of respect to the rights and freedoms of others, including their life, health and dignity. Legal awareness and legal culture stipulate not only the spiritual and moral stands and actions motivation of young people, but also formulate respect towards people of other cultural backgrounds. This is the task beyond every teacher and educator, though their role in this should not be underestimated. First of all, every parent should pay their children’s attention to this problem, because the main risk group is the younger generation, which, due to the age peculiarities, psychological immaturity, is prone to extremism.

Fifth, due to the fact that xenophobia is especially characteristic of those social strata, where the main element is young people whose well-being and status are unsustainable, the state should increase the level of their social and material security, assist in the employment of young specialists, support various dwelling programs. These measures will help young people to realize that the state cares about them, and there is no need to commit illegal actions.

Conclusion

Thus, all these problems - issues of extremism, racial, national, religious and other contradictions, have always existed, accompanying the history of human development. Therefore, xenophobia cannot be eradicated at all, it can be reduced to a more or less acceptable and non-dangerous level. Taking into account the increasing and entire nature of this problem it should be concluded that the process of overcoming this phenomenon is probably endless. The diversity of nations, cultures, religions is not a reason for clashes and conflicts, but the possibility of mutual enrichment with new experience and new knowledge. Intercultural interaction, revealed in tolerance and dialogue, patriotism and legal culture, will allow finding ways to overcome xenophobia and prevent possible conflicts in the future. .

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29 March 2019

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Cite this article as:

Baizigitova, R. R., Rakhimova, L. M., Suleymanov, F. M., Taktaeva, Z. R., & Alexandrovna, T. O. (2019). Interethnic Conflicts: Social And Legal Aspects. In D. K. Bataev (Ed.), Social and Cultural Transformations in the Context of Modern Globalism, vol 58. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 2284-2291). Future Academy. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2019.03.02.264