Religious leaders are discussing a proposal to create a committee for the affairs of religious associations

Valentina Matvienko's proposal to create a committee on the affairs of nationalities and religious associations caused widespread discussion.

The proposal made by the Speaker of the Federation Council to create a federal body in charge of national and religious issues evoked many responses. Religious leaders expressed their opinions. Many of them drew parallels with the “bad memory” Council for Religious Affairs in the USSR.

According to the head of the Synodal Department for Relations between the Church and Society, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, the issue of creating such a body needs to be discussed - both with religious organizations and with officials supervising the sphere of interethnic and interfaith relations now.

The priest believes that they often try to involve experts in these issues, “who already failed national policy in the 90s and today do not notice reality, trying to repeat Western cliches of twenty years ago, which are being abandoned today in Western Europe itself.”

To such cliches about. Vsevolod attributed the ideas of tolerance and multiculturalism, which, according to the priest, have no relation to modern Russian reality.

In addition, the head of the OCR reminded that the Council for Religious Affairs in the USSR was “an extremely corrupt and inert body,” and the new body may inherit the same qualities.

Priest Mikhail Dudko shares the same opinion. “The first consequence of the revival of such a body would be a deterioration and slowdown in interaction between the Church and the state, which is now at a fairly good level,” he is sure.

The representative of the Coordination Center for Muslims of the North Caucasus in Moscow, Shafig Pshikhachev, on the contrary, believes that the creation of such a body would be useful: “This body could not only monitor the situation in this area, but also develop recommendations that could be discussed in the State Duma, at high meetings."

The head of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, Umar Idrisov, agrees with him. “The strengthening of Russia on the world stage, its socio-economic development largely depends on interethnic cohesion and interreligious harmony, especially now when the influx of migrants consisting of representatives of various nationalities and religious movements is increasing,” he said.

The head of the Council of Ulema of the Russian Association of Islamic Accord noted that in many regions similar bodies already operate, but the creation of a similar federal structure “requires detailed discussion with all interested parties.”

The head of the Department of Public Relations of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, Borukh Gorin, believes that the feasibility of creating a special committee depends on who will join it. If these are experienced experts who have studied international experience in this area, and if they do “instead of reports with real work, do it subtly and wisely, then this, of course, can be very useful.”

Sources

• The Church calls for a broad discussion of Matvienko’s idea to create a committee on nationalities // Interfax-religion. 2013. October 17.
• The re-establishment of the Council for Religious Affairs will harm relations between the Church and the state, a representative of the Russian Orthodox Church believes // Newru.com. 2013. October 18.
• Russian muftis spoke about the creation of a committee on nationalities // Ibid.
• The Committee on Nationalities Affairs can be useful only if it involves high-quality experts, the Jewish community believes // Interfax-religion. 2013. October 17.