Modern clerical and religious discourse in terms of forensic linguistics issues

In the paper the topical issues of linguo-conflictology and forensic linguistics are considered, provi­sions of the law of the Russian Federation «On Countering Extremist Activity» concerning verbal extrem­ism, which manifests itself in clerical and religious texts, are analyzed. It is noted that texts of the religious discourse «resist» the objective categorization and law enforcement practice to a greater extent than other texts of the «discourse of enmity» (e.g., the ones aimed at incitement to ethnic or social hatred). The authors believe that solution of the law enforcement issues in the sphere of religious extremism requires mutual par­ticipation of both legislators and linguists-experts, providing they are not only issues of juridical linguistics and methods of linguistic expertise of conflictogenic texts, but also linguistic support of the law-making process that come within the competence of linguistics (especially, in the case of legal regulation of verbal communication). The linguistic and semiotic peculiarities of texts of different genres of the clerical and religious discourse are identified. It is noted that so-called «God-inspired» texts, that is, sacred texts of the world religions (such as the Bible, the Quran, the Avesta, etc.), which appeared in ancient times and for many centuries have been serving as the semiotic basis for spiritual culture of ethnic groups belonging to different world religions, can not be the subject of legal regulation, in contrast to modern preaching and other texts of the religious discourse, which present certain parts of the sacred texts being interpreted with a particular purpose. The authors come to the conclusion that legal and linguistic law enforcement practice relating to communication activity of so-called destructive (totalitarian) sects, such as Scientology, Jehovah's witnesses, etc., requires significant improvement. It is particularly pointed out that anti-extremism legislation in Russia does not give reasonable grounds for imposing a ban on preaching activity of the leaders of most sects, at the same time there is no doubt that in many cases this activity carries threat to the society and, therefore, it must be forbidden. It is accentuated that categorization of oral activity of the preachers of destructive religious organizations is provided by a multi-discipline expert panel with the participation of not only linguists, but also specialists from many other areas of knowledge.