World Bulletin / News Desk

The head of the Duma State's Constitutional Legislation Committee has blasted as a suggestion to regulate some laws in certain regions by adhering to the norms of Sharia law.

“We cannot leave an excessively large space of unregulated relations because when we do, other regulators start to fill that space in, and these other regulators are extremely dangerous,” MP Vladimir Pligin (United Russia) told a parliamentary expert council on Wednesday, according to the Interfax news agency.

“Even if we discuss territories which have a certain mentality, it is not possible to let even a part of legal relations be regulated by Sharia law. This space must be regulated by Russian law and there is no doubt about it,” he said.

Due to the fact that several regions in South and Central Russia are predominantly Muslim, there have been calls to bring secular laws into line with religious ones. 

One such occasion was followed by nationwide controversy in April 2012 when Dagestani lawyer Dagir Khasavov called for the introduction of Sharia courts in an interview with the Russian channel REN-TV.