Muslim understudy

The Russian Orthodox Church is outraged by the creation of an interreligious commission under the Council of Muftis

The Russian Orthodox Church fears that the Christian-Islamic dialogue in Russia is being “shredded” and will turn into a tool for solving momentary problems of individual faiths and religious associations. Concern about this was expressed yesterday in an interview with the Interfax agency by the deputy head of the department for external church relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Bishop Mark of Yegoryevsk. Commenting on the establishment last week of a commission on Islamic-Christian dialogue under the Council of Muftis of Russia (RMC), he called this step a “short-sighted short-sighted approach”, an “ill-considered initiative” that “undermines the trust in the head of the Council of Muftis from the Russian Orthodox Church and deprives him of that credit her trust and respect, which he enjoyed from the beginning of our cooperation.” According to Bishop Mark, there was no need to create a duplicate structure for the already existing Interreligious Council, “which enjoys well-deserved authority not only in our country, but also abroad.”

As you know, the Interreligious Council of Russia includes representatives of the traditional religions of our country: Orthodoxy, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism. Despite the equal status of all members of the association by definition, it is the Russian Orthodox Church that plays the leading role in this union, offering its brothers of other faiths even their territories for meetings and for holding press conferences.

The new structure created by the Council of Muftis promises to become much more democratic in composition. According to the deputy chairman of the CMR, Sheikh Mohammed Karachay, the new unit intends to cooperate with all Christian denominations and organizations recognized in Russia and the world. Thus, Russian Catholics, who are regularly denied entry into the Interreligious Council on the grounds that Christianity is already represented there by the Orthodox Church, will finally have the opportunity to have their say in interreligious dialogue.

However, the other side of the new organization is also obvious, which is a priori opposed to both the Russian Orthodox Church and other Russian Muslim centers. As for the Moscow Patriarchate, the very establishment of its own personal commission under the SMR is a public expression of distrust in the Interreligious Council existing under the Russian Orthodox Church. There is also no unity among Muslim brothers. As is known, very heated disputes often arise among the supporters of Mufti Ravil Gainutdin, who “patronizes” the SMR, and the Supreme Mufti Talgat Tadjudin, to the resolution of which from now on it will be possible to involve a new supposedly independent and multi-confessional structure.

The conclusion about the political circumstances of the moment at which the creation of the commission was announced is also obvious. It seems that supporters of Mufti Ravil Gainutdin hoped that no one would condemn the peace initiative of Muslims in the wake of the “cartoon scandal.”

Kirill VASILENKO