Every year on October 18, we celebrate a national holiday - Spiritual Consent Day. This tradition in our country dates back to 1992, when the first World Congress of Spiritual Consent was held in Almaty on the initiative of Nursultan Nazarbayev, National Leader, which brought prominent religious and public figures together.
At this forum, Nursultan Nazarbayev, First President, said: "The Day of Spiritual Consent is a day of moratorium on conflicts and clashes, a day of search for reconciliation, a day of mercy and assistance to neighbors.
The republic has accumulated invaluable experience in strengthening mutual respect and constructive cooperation of leaders of different cultures and religions. This was said by Elbasy at the VI Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions: "More than 3.5 thousand religious subjects of 18 different confessions are registered in Kazakhstan. With such diversity, we were able to find a balance between ensuring national security and protecting religious freedoms. In our country, by all accounts, we have managed to form a special Kazakhstani model of interfaith peace and accord.
Religions in Kazakhstan are represented by people of different ethnicities, linguistic, cultural and social groups with different faiths, different religious practices and views on the world around them. Tolerance and spiritual harmony are the basis for the absence of confrontations, clashes with the use of force in the state, the most important elements of stability of the Kazakhstani society.
As President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev emphasized in his September Address, "consent and unity, wisdom and mutual understanding contribute to our progress". It is the inter-ethnic and inter-confessional accord that allowed us to carry out large-scale transformations in the economy and social sphere in such a short period of time. And on this platform we will be able to achieve a strategic goal - to enter the 50 developed countries of the world. For almost a quarter of a century now, the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan and its ethno-cultural associations united around the indigenous Kazakh people have been the conductor of the policy of peace and accord in our republic. By creating the institution of people's diplomacy, the Assembly, in 1995, we made multi-ethnicity and polylingualism our competitive advantage.
As noted by Elbasy at the XXVII session of the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan, "We have a solid legal basis for inter-ethnic and interfaith equality. It includes the whole system of laws - on freedom of religion, on languages, on public associations, on Assembly of People of Kazakhstan".
Ethno-confessional diversity of Kazakhstan is a huge wealth, the common heritage of our entire society. It creates a favorable opportunity for us to exchange cultural achievements and the best traditions of ethnic minorities.
Spirituality of Kazakhstanis is formed on ethnic and religious motives. The symbiosis of Islamic values and Western and Eastern culture has sculpted Kazakhstan's tolerance, which has become the basis for building a Kazakhstani model of interfaith peace and harmony. Despite different religions, all ethnic minorities have the same moral commandments: do not kill, do not steal, honor your father and mother...
Many foreign experts and politicians are now interested in the Kazakhstani model of public accord and interethnic unity. Almost every year we receive delegations from different countries of the world with whom we share the "recipe" of the formed alloy based on friendship and consent of numerous ethnicities and confessions.
Our model of relations between the state and religious associations is based on respect for the rights and freedoms of believers, partnership and mutual understanding. We have created all conditions to ensure freedom of conscience, religion and belief.
Thanks to the balanced policy of the state in the sphere of religion, efforts of religious and ethno-cultural associations aimed at ensuring spiritual harmony, we have managed to provide a solid barrier to conflicts on ethnic and religious grounds.
Our historical experience has greatly contributed to this. Thousands of representatives of different nationalities arrived in Kazakhstan in different years. Especially difficult was the military period associated with the forcible deportation of the people of the Caucasus.
Then the Kazakhs helped the people who had been torn from their homelands to overcome the hardships and survive by sharing roof, bread and water with the migrants. Therefore, Kazakhstanis are very close to consolidating age-old values such as Unity, Mercy, Goodness and Compassion.
The Assembly of People of Kazakhstan does a lot to support young people and to build their immunity to radical religious movements alien to our mentality. It is extremely important that the younger generation is brought up on the traditional spiritual and moral values of our people: patriotism, diligence, tolerance, religious tolerance, kindness, trust, forgiveness, respect for elders, the cult of ancestors, hospitality, strong traditional family.
Projects and events held by the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan are aimed at this end. These are Gratitude Day, Memory Day of victims of political repressions, cultural and educational project "Qazaqtanu", caravans of mercy, charitable actions, days of culture and traditions of ethnic groups. We will continue this work.
Yusup Keligov
Deputy Chairman of APK