Date
Author
Лариса НИКИТИНА; Ростов-на-Дону
Source
Preserved copy
Translated material
Cross and crescent
Dmitry Kozak led the campaign of the Caucasian clergy against totalitarian sects
Yesterday, the Presidential Plenipotentiary Representative in the Southern Federal District, Dmitry Kozak, discussed with the clergy the main threats to stability in the North Caucasus. According to the plenipotentiary, this is interethnic and interreligious strife, as well as... totalitarian sects, “influencing the psyche of people and instilling enmity.”The interfaith peacekeeping council under the southern plenipotentiary appeared at the time when this position was held by General Viktor Kazantsev. The authority of spiritual leaders was called upon to contribute to the pacification of the North Caucasus. However, this body meets infrequently. But he always demonstrates complete unanimity with the plenipotentiary in “understanding the current moment.”
Yesterday, representatives of traditional religions were unanimously worried about the increasingly frequent manifestations of interethnic and interreligious hatred in Russia. And although the latest high-profile emergencies on this basis have bypassed the south of the country, Dmitry Kozak warned those gathered against complacency. In the Caucasus, such manifestations of extremism can have much more destructive and terrifying consequences than in the capital or central region of Russia. If only because more than a hundred nationalities live in the south of the country and, in addition, all traditional world religions are massively represented here: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Judaism. Moreover, not a single region of the Southern Federal District can boast of a mono-ethnic population or mono-religion. However, as one of the meeting participants noted, it was precisely this circumstance that over the course of many centuries fostered mutual respect and religious tolerance among the population of the North Caucasus. The plenipotentiary envoy called for cultivation yesterday.
At the same time, as usual, the Word was proclaimed as the main weapon in the struggle for peace in the North Caucasus. First, a word addressed to the flock. Secondly, the plenipotentiary proposed teaching the history of religion in secondary schools so that young people become familiar with traditional spiritual values and fall under the influence of marginal religious movements as little as possible. True, the initiative to introduce a new school subject belongs not to Kozak himself, but to the Main Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Rostov Region, which sent a corresponding appeal to the plenipotentiary a month ago. In it, Don Muslims propose to introduce the subject “religion” as an optional subject and teach it only with the written consent of parents. But first, the Main Spiritual Directorate of Muslims proposes to subject the expressed idea to the widest possible public discussion, which should have started at yesterday’s meeting of the Interfaith Peacemaking Council.
Dmitry Kozak also proposed that representatives of traditional religions form allied relations with the state in the fight against totalitarian sects. It is they who, at this historical stage, according to the plenipotentiary representative in the Southern Federal District, are more harmful than others to the formation of an atmosphere of religious tolerance and mutual respect in Russian society.