R. Silantyev apologized in connection with the conflict provoked by his book and asked to be relieved of his post as executive secretary of the MSR

of the executive secretary of the Interreligious Council of Russia, Roman Silantiev, has been published The statement in connection with the conflict that arose around his book "The Recent History of the Islamic Community of Russia." R. Silantiev apologized to the Muslims, emphasizing that "I did not want to offend or offend anyone."

The monograph, according to the author, reflects his personal point of view, and not the position of the MSR, although consultations were held with Muslim leaders during the preparation of the book.

“Unfortunately, my intentions were not correctly understood,” the statement said. “Attempts to show the background of the smear campaigns carried out against leading Islamic leaders in Russia, and documentary refutation of the accusations made against them, were regarded as replicating dirty rumors and gossip, and even attempts to interfere into the inner life of Muslims. Of course, this is also my fault - perhaps I should have expressed my personal negative attitude to each defamatory statement, and not call them slanderous in general. "

R. Silantiev also emphasized that he did not consider it necessary to coordinate the text of the book with the leadership of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Presidium of the Interreligious Council of Russia.

"Be that as it may, the current events are causing serious damage to the Christian-Muslim dialogue and strengthening the positions of extremists," the author believes. "I am sure that, regardless of the intentions, the activities of the executive secretary of the Interreligious Council of Russia should not provoke such conflicts." In this regard, R. Silantyev appealed to the Presidium of the ITS with a request to relieve him of the post of executive secretary of this organization and to conduct an independent examination of the book.

The Presidium of the ITS announced its intention to hold an extraordinary meeting in the coming days in connection with the current situation.

On December 5, Interfax published a selection of opinions of well-known Russian religious scholars on R. Silantiev's book: member of the scientific council of the Carnegie Moscow Center Alexei Malashenko, expert on political Islam Georgy Engelgardt, senior researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, project manager "Encyclopedia of Contemporary Religious Life in Russia" Sergei Filatov, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University Sergey Perevezentsev, Head of the Department of Anti-Crisis and Strategic Management of the Russian State University of Trade and Economics Marat Musin, Head of the Department of Religious Studies of the RAGS Olga Vasilyeva. All of them stated that this work cannot be considered Islamophobic. (See also S. Filatov's interview with Portal-Credo.ru .)

Meanwhile, the Writers' Union of Russia awarded R. Silantiev the Eduard Volodin Prize in the "History" nomination.

On December 8, the Union of Muslim Journalists issued a statement in which it welcomed "the fact that Roman Silantyev's book was awarded the prize of the Writers' Union, since this work belongs to the genre of fiction and is not a scientific study."

“Obviously,” the statement says, “the action of the book by R. Silantyev begins on March 33, 1996 in Russia and ends in 2048 in Paris. The continuation follows in the novel by Elena Chudinova “The Mosque of Notre Dame.” All matches of names and surnames with real characters completely accidental, since the action of the book turned out to be a creative invention.

The Union of Muslim Journalists also announced that it is nominating R. Silantyev's book for the "Best Work of 2005 in the Genre of Fiction" award.

On December 8, in an interview with an Interfax correspondent , Deacon Andrey Kuraev expressed his opinion on R. Silantyev's book. In his opinion, the executive secretary of the ITS was the victim of a "completely indecent ideological campaign." “I compared the accusations against the author and his book with the text itself: in half of the cases there is a complete mismatch, that is, on the indicated pages there is simply nothing similar to what is being charged. In other cases, Silantiev simply retells, without expressing his consent, the opinion one Muslim about another,” said A. Kuraev.

He also noted that the book was published in only a thousand copies and that "this is not a massive pamphlet written in order to take someone out into the streets, set fire to and point out the enemy to the crowd. This is a good doctoral dissertation in religious studies."

According to A. Kuraev, "Roman Silantiev's book on those pages that caused a negative reaction of some Muslims simply offers an anatomy of mutual antipathies of the people of the Muslim world. At the same time, this is not about transferring confidential information and gossip, but about summarizing published (including including on the Internet) judgments".

"There are no critics of Islamic shrines and beliefs in the book at all. And therefore, it is also very dishonest to retell the criticism of some Muslims by others as attacks on Islam as such and Islamophobia. Such an identification of an official with faith is an unexpected and acute attack of papism among Muslim critics of Roman Silantiev" - said the interlocutor of "Interfax".

On December 13, the Writers' Union of Russia held a round table "Dialogue of Cultures: Basic Values" dedicated to R. Silantiev's book (the author himself was not present, since consultations were taking place at the same time regarding the prospects for the activities of the IWR). Speakers included, in particular, Executive Editor of the National Security series of the Ikhtyus Publishing House and Secretary of the Writers' Union of Russia Sergei Kotkalo, Professor of History at Moscow State University Nikolai Perevezentsev, economist Marat Yusin, and religious scholar Anastasia Lotareva.

As Portal-Credo.ru writes, "those who spoke at the meeting agreed that Silantyev's book, from the point of view of law, fully complies with the principles of freedom of speech and the press, and in no way does the fact of its publication affect the fate of the Interreligious Council. Silantyev himself , noted at the round table, has many friends among the Muslim clergy, and all statements about various kinds of demarches and exits from the MSR were inspired by provocateurs among Muslim structures."

Sources

• Statement by the Executive Secretary of the Interreligious Council of Russia R. Silantiev in connection with the conflict around his scientific monograph // Interfax-religion. 2005. December 2.
• In connection with the conflict over the book of the executive secretary of the Interreligious Council of Russia, a meeting of its presidium will be held // There.
• Leading Russian religious scholars do not consider the book of the executive secretary of the Interreligious Council of Russia to be Islamophobic // There. 5th of December.
• Head of the Encyclopedia of Modern Religious Life in Russia project, sociologist of religion SERGEY FILATOV: "Mutual compromising evidence is the social atmosphere created by Muslims themselves" // Portal-Credo.ru. 2005. December 5th.
• The author of the book "The Recent History of the Islamic Community of Russia" was awarded the Prize of the Union of Writers // Interfax-religion. 2005. December 7th.
• The Union of Muslim Journalists nominated Roman Silantyev's book for the "Best Fiction Work of 2005" award // There. December 8th.
• Andrei Kuraev believes that the secretary of the Interreligious Council was the victim of an ideological campaign // There.
• In support of Roman Silantyev, the Union of Writers of Russia held a round table // Portal-Credo.ru. 2005. December 13.