Some notes from the round-table discussion in the Russian
city of Togliatti
A fair of social and cultural projects in the Volga administrative district of
Russia entitled “Togliatti Dialogue 2002” took place on November 22-24. A
round-table discussion took place within the scope of this event. The
discussion was called “Interaction Between the State and Religious Associations
in the Field of Struggle with Extremism.” The conference was organized by the
Russian Federation government. The subject of the conference was devoted to
extending of the level of cooperation between governing bodies and religious
organizations. Another important issue of the conference was the development of
vital measures in order to resist religious extremism.
Experts from the governing bodies of various levels were invited to participate
in the conference, as well as scientific specialists and religious figures.
Below, you will find some excerpts from most remarkable speeches, interesting
opinions, and unusual ideas.
The discussion was chaired by Vladimir Zorin, the Minister for National Affairs
of the Russian Federation. Zorin hurried to specify the importance of the
issue: “Religious extremism is the prime danger, not only for our country, but
for the entire international community. We can resist this evil only if we join
our forces together, as a single country is unable to cope with this problem
alone.”
The first person who delivered a speech at the conference was the director of
the Language Institute of the Mary-El republic, Alexander Kazimov. Mr. Kazimov
stated that the Mary-El republic lives in peace. “The given issue is not actual
for us, although it is of incredible importance on the global scale,” said he.
“We have little in common with any connection between religious extremism of a
certain confession, whether it be Islam or something else. This extremism has
political and social roots. It is explained by social contradictions in the
society and with political instability. A confession is a bubble, which is used
by certain forces in order to obtain power over human souls,” said Mr.Kazimov.
Kazimov also said that the state often interfered in the spiritual side of
people’s lives. Someone in the audience asked him to clarify his statement.
However, Kazimov did not give any precise answer to the question. Instead, he
mentioned some statistics. He stated that 13% of Mary-El’s population are
pagans, and about 50% of the republic’s population observe pagan customs. About
53% of Mary-El’s people are Orthodox.
There was an important theme in Kazimov’s speech, which was later interpreted
in other speeches. “The result of the analysis to find out the reasons why
extremism appears in our country is as follows. There is a paragraph in the
Federal Law about public associations, which bans funding religious
organizations from abroad. However, this paragraph of the law is not observed
at all. This is the reason why there are so many various religious groups and
models appearing. The state must put an end to it.”
Archbishop of Samara and Syzran, Sergey, paid attention to the fact that it is
religious negligence that entails extremism and terrorism. “Religious education
is the major goal for the representatives of traditional confessions in
Russia,” the archbishop said.
Deputy chairman of the parliament of the Tatarstan republic, mufti
Valiula-Khazrat Yakupov, supported the archbishop’s thesis concerning the
necessity of profound religious education for the people. “In our republic, we
pay priority attention to the issues of education. There is a network of
professional education institutions for that, for example the Russian Institute
of Islam. Of course, traditional confessions can not be a source of religious
extremism. However, every confession has its sects, which create problems for
us. Therefore, the state must support official religions or traditional
confessions,” mufti Yakupov said.
Aleksey Shepkov, the regional projects manager of the company Media Union, suggested
to set up certain governing bodies for those purposes. There used to be a
council for religious affairs during the Soviet period. Mr. Shepkov believes
that the Russian government should have such a council as well.
Vladimir Konev, deputy chairman of the department for inner policy of the Perm
regional administration, said: “We have the unique experience of interaction
between religious groups. This experience is unique not only for Russia, but
for the whole of Europe. In 1998, the representatives of six traditional
confessions of the Volga administrative area set forth an initiative to
establish a special committee. Old Believers, Catholics, Lutherans, the Russian
Orthodox Church, Muslims, and Jews united to solve actual issues. The issues
included the struggle with alcohol and drug addiction, homeless children, and
so on. It was decided to set up a juridical organization. It was something like
a non-commercial partnership. Its representatives organized and conducted many
various events. They particularly initiated a large conference that was devoted
to the issues of religion and youth.”
The speech from former editor-in-chief Maksim Shevchenko was rather harsh. “I
think that using such a word combination – religious extremism – is not
correct. There is just extremism, a universal phenomenon for cultural, economic
and other fields. There cannot be any confessional difference when it comes to
struggle with extremism. We should not think only about Islam in this respect.
Let’s take ardent appeals to retrieve the monarchy in Russia, for instance.
This is extremism as well. This implies the elimination of presidential and
parliamentary governing. This implies that the president should be overthrown!
Confessions should deal with what happens with their own organizations.
Blame-shifting is the easiest thing that anyone can do.”
Archpriest Yevgeny Shestun said: “There is a religious factor in the base of
extremism and terrorism. This is a matter of sectarian outlook. It is not
correct to talk about the Islamic factor as it is. But we must talk about the
Vakhabit factor in Islam. We must not accept the people of sectarian outlook to
our informational space.”
Vladimir Zorin summed up the results of the discussion. “Everything is clear as
far as all traditional, world confessions are concerned. There was a wish
expressed concerning the amendment of the Russian law in this respect, and the
idea of religious education came up as well. We will take it into
consideration. A committee for religious organizations, which is attached to
the Russian President, is currently working on the law.”
According to Zorin’s opinion, Russia is in need of a concept regarding the
relations between the church and the state. Zorin believes that it should be a
concept in a broad sense of the word, not just a certain law. “Amending the
laws is definitely important, but the sate is unable to settle religious
extremism issue alone. This can be achieved only under the condition of close
cooperation between civil public and religious organizations,” concluded
Vladimir Zorin.