Non-Orthodox believers in Tyumen are outraged by the course "Fundamentals of Religious Culture"

Non-Orthodox believers of Tyumen handed over to the Slavic Legal Center an audio recording of a lecture by Svetlana Shestakova, Candidate of Sociological Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Social Work of the Institute for the Humanities of the Tyumen State Oil and Gas University. The lecture was delivered in April 2008 for future teachers of the "Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture". The lecturer made offensive remarks against Catholics, Protestants, Muslims and Jews.

For example, speaking about the Catholics, S. Shestakova said that they are "heretics, the Catholic Church does not carry grace in itself and there is no salvation in it." The lecturer referred the Protestants to "pseudo-Christians". She called the Prophet Muhammad "possessed", with whom "there were simply occult influences of an evil spirit." Islam, in her opinion, is a "false teaching". Judeev S. Shestakova accused of using the blood of Christian babies to make matzah.

The course "Fundamentals of Religious Culture" at the Tyumen State Oil and Gas University has been taught for several years, with the support of the Orthodox diocese and the Tobolsk Theological Seminary, and is designed for school teachers of the military-industrial complex. Lawyers Anatoly Pchelintsev and Vladimir Ryakhovsky believe that this course contains signs of inciting hatred on the basis of religion.

On August 13, the Congress of Religious Associations of the Tyumen Region (CROTO) received an official letter from the Tyumen State Oil and Gas University with clarifications about S. Shestakova's lecture. It turned out that Associate Professor Shestakova is also an employee of the missionary department of the Orthodox diocese. CRTO members turned to Patriarch Alexy II and Archbishop of Tobolsk and Tyumen Dimitry (Kapalin) with a request to clarify whether the insulting statements about other confessions made in the lecture really correspond to the official position of the Russian Orthodox Church.

On August 26, the prosecutor's office of the Tyumen region opened a criminal case on the fact of a public lecture given by S. Shestakova.

MEMO message. 2008. August 18.

Sources

• The course "Fundamentals of Religious Culture" of the Tyumen Oil and Gas University for future teachers of Orthodoxy in schools offended Catholics, Protestants, Muslims and Jews // Slavic Legal Center. 2008. June 11.
• Document. Letter on behalf of Muslims, Jews, Catholics and Protestants of the Tyumen region to Patriarch Alexy II in connection with a lecture by S.Yu. Shestakova at the Tyumen Oil and Gas University containing attacks on non-Orthodox confessions // Slavic Legal Center. 2008. August 20.
• The course "Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture" by S. Shestakova is being studied by the prosecutor's office // Islam.ru. 2008. September 3rd.