Russia is a multi-religious state. Russia is a multinational and multi-religious state. Possibilities for satisfying religious needs

The Constitution of the Russian Federation says: “Everyone is guaranteed freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, including the right to profess individually or together with others any religion or not to profess any, to freely choose, have and disseminate religious and other beliefs and act in accordance with them.” (v. 28)

Law of the Russian Federation “On freedom of conscience and religious associations” Art. 4, paragraph 1 “The Russian Federation is a secular state. No religion can be established as state or compulsory. Religious associations are separated from the state and are equal before the law." Art. 5, paragraph 1 “Everyone has the right to receive religious education of his choice, individually or together with others.” Answer the question: which state is called secular?

Religion is from the Latin verb “religare” - to bind, unite faith, a special view of the world, a set of ritual and cult actions; the unification of believers in a certain organization; belief in the supernatural, going beyond the usual, natural, understandable, explainable.

Religion has two sides: On the inner side, religion is a special spiritual life that opens a supernatural world to man.

From the outside, it appears to an outside observer and is: an organization with a certain management structure (church), rules of life; worldview, which includes a system of specific provisions (truths)

The truths of religion God is the source of all living things, man is capable of communication and unity with God, there is a world of the supernatural, where man determines his life by his actions

Religious faith is a special emotional state of a person associated with an appeal to higher powers (God) for help, advice and reinforced by the performance of special rituals and ceremonies.

The main signs of religious faith: extreme individualization - there is a mediator between God and a specific person; personal attitude to the subject of faith; emotional and sensual character. Answer the question: religion is always faith, and faith is always religion?

Living religions are currently existing religions that influence the consciousness and behavior of people Christianity Islam

National religions are those religions that have spread only within one nationality Judaism Shinto

World religions are religions that have gone beyond the boundaries of one nation or state and have spread throughout the world. Christianity Islam Buddhism

Revealed religions are religions whose origin is associated with the personality of the founder and the fact of supernatural revelation or illumination; have written sources - revelations, holy scriptures Christianity Islam

Homework Using notes in a notebook and diagrams, compose an oral story on the topic “What is religion.” Learn concepts. Complete the tasks: a) what religions are common in our country? b) characterize them using the “Types of Religions” diagram

...We should completely forget this common term: multi-religious country. Russia is an Orthodox country with national and religious minorities. Because all the statistics that are carried out in our country give a completely clear picture of the presence of minorities and an absolute Orthodox majority. By the way, sometimes we timidly say that yes, you know, maybe there is no need to include the “religion” column in the census. But I think it should be included. And put an end to all this speculation about multi-religiousness once and for all. If we have 4-5% Muslims (here are the statistics), then this is not multi-religious, it is a minority. If we have less than 1% of people who are non-Orthodox Christians, this is a minority. Another thing is that minorities cannot be discriminated against. The minority should feel just as good as the majority. If we want to be a normal society, we should not oppress anyone, but based on the very fact of the presence of a minority in our society, it is impossible to discriminate against the majority. ...

No government can ignore the fact that the majority of the population belongs to one religion or another. Imagine if we had 73% Muslims. You can imagine? How would the Government “stretch out” in front of these 73 percent! Therefore this is a serious question. Any normal state cannot ignore the opinion of the majority of its people. And references to multi-confessionalism should not hide the anti-Orthodox tendencies that exist in our media. Therefore, our task is to resist this.

From an interview with Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad to the Orthodox Newspaper, Yekaterinburg, No. 13 (382) for 2006.

Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov called the assertion that Russia is multi-confessional a myth

The head of the Synodal Department of the Moscow Patriarchate for interaction with the Armed Forces and law enforcement agencies, Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov, called the assertion that Russia is a multi-confessional country a myth.

Speaking on Tuesday, October 10, 2006, at a round table meeting in the State Duma, he expressed the opinion that today, with the help of the media, “myths that have no scientific basis” are sometimes introduced. “For example, Russia is a multinational country. UNESCO believes that if 60% of the inhabitants represent one ethnic group, then it is a mononational country. In our country, accordingly, 84% of the population is one ethnic group, but we are told that this is a multinational country,” noted priest.

In his opinion, statements that Russia is a multi-confessional country are also unfounded. “Okay,” said Father Dimitri, “name me a country that is not multi-religious, for example, Armenia. Orthodox Christians, Buddhists, Jews, even Baptists live in Armenia, but no one will ever say about Armenia that it is a multi-confessional country.” "They only talk about Russia," he added.

The priest also denied the assertion that Russia allegedly inherited multi-confessionalism from the USSR. “Yes, the USSR was such a country, but half the population left Russia, and now we are again, as in 1913, a mono-ethnic and mono-confessional country. Of course, our country lives with the participation of our Muslims, Jews and Buddhists, who are in the Orthodox tradition, by the way , it is not customary to offend or oppress,” Father Dimitri emphasized.

Deacon Andrey Kuraev. “Russia, as a whole, can be defined as a mono-national country...”

In recent years, it has been consistently declared that Russia is a multi-religious country, but according to statistics, we know that about 80% of its population profess Orthodoxy. We asked the professor of the Moscow Theological Academy, Deacon Andrei Kuraev, about this.

- Father Deacon, is Russia an Orthodox or multi-confessional country?

By UNESCO standards and by sociological and demographic standards, Russia, in general, can be defined as a mono-ethnic country, but this fact is not reflected in our legislation in any way. As for multi-confessionalism, it is more complicated, and I would give an ambiguous answer to this.

I will categorically protest against the definition of Russia as an Orthodox country. Saint Nicholas of Japan spoke out against this at the beginning of the 20th century, in 1905, when he received an alarming letter from Archbishop Nikon Rozhdestvensky, who asked the Saint about sectarians, revolutions and strikes, as a picture of the end of the world.

Saint Nicholas, reassuring Archbishop Nikon, wrote to him that Russia is far from becoming a Christian country and it will take a thousand years for it to really be imbued with the Gospel. Now, especially, we have no reason to consider our country to have become Christianized over the past century.

Church people themselves must be realistic, and, depending on how we assess the environment in which we find ourselves, the choice of our style of behavior, language, arguments, calls with which we address our neighbors in the country and on the planet will depend on this . If I proceed from the fact that I live in an Orthodox country, then as a church preacher I can perch myself on the pulpit and preach and edify in an aggressively pastoral manner.

But if I believe that the world around us is non-Orthodox, a pagan world, then I must look for holy examples, for example, in the life of St. Cyprian of Carthage, in the life of Methodius of Olympus, in the life of the Holy Fathers of the 3rd century. I believe that from a pastoral and missionary point of view, we are now precisely in the 3rd century, when there were whole decades of quiet life and periods of persecution. Something similar is happening now. I think that it is important for the Church itself to maintain a spirit of sobriety and soberly assess what is happening around us. Just in case, let me remind you that it never occurred to Saint Cyprian of Carthage to come out in protest, condemn the repertoire of Greek theaters, change the policy of the Roman Empire, call for the closure of pagan temples, etc.

The only thing that Christians insisted on in their prayers or in the courts to which they were summoned was: give us the opportunity to live according to our conscience, at least to have Christ in our hearts - we don’t need anything more from you. In modern life, it would be more logical for us to behave this way.

Our speech is addressed to the external, completely external, when we must understand that Russia is being integrated into the global village. And rhetoric in the style: we are Orthodox, we are the majority and therefore we demand - it does not pass. Today, the future of the Church depends on how much we are able to master a language that was once hostile to us - the language of liberalism. Once upon a time, the Holy Fathers were able to do this by mastering the language of Plotinus, the Stoics, and philosophers, which was hostile to the Church, and churched it.

Late ancient philosophy, which was a conscious enemy of the Church, became in some way an instrument of church preaching and thought. The ideology of liberalism was born in anti-church, Masonic circles of the 18th century and was used for several centuries as a battering ram in the destruction of traditional Christian values, states and societies. And yet, today the elite of the Western world is ready to abandon this ideology; it happens that when a person comes to power, he puts forward only slogans, and when he comes, he tries to renounce this.

It is obvious that after September 11, 2001, the decline of liberalism began in the West. In these conditions, it is very important for the Church to master the weapon that our opponents are refusing, to assimilate it for ourselves and begin to speak from the position of individual freedom, from the position of the minority. There are few of us and therefore we ask you to give us the opportunity to preserve our language, our theater, our school, our faith. In this global village, there are few of us Orthodox Christians and give us the opportunity to preserve our eccentricities, in particular, we do not want to live with these electronic passports or something else.

The next level of conversation is with our officials who control our information and educational space. The intonation of the conversation is appropriate here on behalf of a large group of the population, on behalf of people who culturally identify themselves as people associated with Orthodoxy, we ask for the opportunity to tell our children about our culture.

Here it is appropriate to refer to the 1997 law on freedom of conscience, which asserts the unique role of Christianity in the history and culture of Russia, and Article 18 states that the state provides support to religious organizations when they carry out cultural and religious activities of great public importance. Here we can also talk about teaching the Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture in schools.

Usually at this moment, when it comes to the possibility of teaching the Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture, our opponents remember that Russia is a multi-religious country. I would agree Yes, Russia is a multinational country, moreover.

Russia is a country with a rapidly changing ethno-confessional map, when millions of people from their traditional places of residence come to traditional Russian cities, this means that the children of our new compatriots, fellow citizens (literally, as living in the same city) must be given the ability to live among us. The difference between nations is a difference in the so-called cultural scripts, and a cultural script is a model of basic human behavior in typical life situations.

How they raise children, how they care for a girl, how boys fight, how they celebrate weddings, how they get sick, how they fight, how they die, how they bury. It is very important that people coming to us at least know, if not accept, about these scenarios, know “how it is customary with us.”

Among us live people with a completely different culture, and therefore it is important in every school to teach all Azerbaijanis, Chechens, Chinese, and Vietnamese the Fundamentals of Orthodox culture, the Law of God - this is precisely culture. At the same time, we must remember that our new compatriots at home often receive lessons in hatred towards Russia, they are taught to despise everything connected with Russians - our faith, our lifestyle, language, etc. I must say that we Russians also give a reason for this. The planetary availability of our girls is known. All the brothels in the world are filled with Russian girls, the corruption of our officials, including those in uniform, and the inability of our men to protect our women are known. We ourselves give reasons for people to talk about us in a negative tone. And in these conditions, it is very important that public schools give lessons in love for Russian culture, for Russian faith, for the Russian language, for Russian history.

- Can we consider ourselves to be part of the “little flock”, remembering the famous saying of Christ “Fear not, little flock, for I have overcome the world”? We have a huge country, but there are very few Orthodox believers.

The small flock is the Church. Each of us is partly in the Church, partly outside it. Moreover, each of us excommunicates himself from the Church ten times a day through sin, a sinful thought, and if after this he finds the strength to remember God again and ask to return in repentance, he can be rejoined to the Church. The boundary of the “small flock” is also not entirely clear; even for me it is not always clear at what moment I am in the Church.

- How do you imagine the ideal relationship between the Russian Orthodox Church and society? Sometimes our society remembers the Church and demands its intervention: why is the Church silent?

I have already said, but I want to once again voice, perhaps, the main thesis - Orthodoxy should strive to become not a state religion, but a people's religion.

Ilya Barabash

One of the questions directly related to the problem of religious tolerance in Russia is the question of whether Russia is a multi-religious country.

In recent years, the Russian Orthodox Church has always maintained that Orthodox Christians are the majority in Russia, although it itself does not keep statistical records (the pre-revolutionary practice of recording baptisms and, most importantly, registering parishioners has long been forgotten). A milestone in this sense is the statement made by Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, Chairman of the DECR MP, on September 23, 2002 at a press conference during the 8th International Festival of Television and Radio Programs “Radonezh”: “We must completely forget this common term : multi-religious country: Russia is an Orthodox country with national and religious minorities. Because all the statistical studies that are carried out in our country give a completely clear picture - the presence of religious minorities and an absolute Orthodox majority. By the way, sometimes we timidly talk about that yes, you know, maybe there is no need to include the “religion” column in the census. But I think that it would be necessary to include it. And, once and for all, put an end to all this speculation about multi-religion. If we have 4-5% "Muslims (that's the statistics), it's not multi-confessionalism, it's a minority. If we have less than 1% of people who are non-Orthodox Christians, it's a minority, it's a different matter that a minority cannot be discriminated against." Information and Analytical Center "SOVA"

Let's turn to statistics, which, as we know, know everything:

Let the reader draw his own conclusions. The format of the article does not allow us to consider the problem of religious and national identification and self-identification in our brief review. Let us cite just the data from another VTsIOM survey:

And also the words of one of the prominent representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church - Deputy Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin: “We need a careful attitude towards the religious life of people, because it is precisely this attitude that will allow us to preserve Russia, which for many centuries has been a multinational and multireligious state.” . "Portal-Credo.ru"
Let's hope that these are not just words, but a principled position.

for the magazine "Man Without Borders"

Historically, a large number of peoples lived on the territory of Russia. Despite the fact that they differed from each other in traditions, culture, and religion, all peoples communicated with each other, traded, exchanged experience, and even traditions and culture. It should be noted here that the peoples did not adopt other people's traditions and culture, but accepted it and treated it with respect, without condemning, humiliating or ridiculing. For example, we can include the traditional Tatar holiday Sabantuy. Recently, this holiday has become all-Russian and even international, that is, it is now celebrated not only in the Republic of Tatarstan, but throughout Russia and the World.

Religion and State

According to Article 14 of the current Constitution of the Russian Federation: “The Russian Federation is a secular state. No religion can be established as state or compulsory. Religious associations are separated from the state and are equal before the law.”

It follows from this that in Russia religious associations exist independently of the state, and professing any religion or not professing any is a personal matter for each citizen. This situation in modern Russia ensures freedom of religion - the cornerstone of democracy, which creates the precondition for the formation of a fair and free society.

The principle of separation of religious associations from the state provides for non-interference by the state, its bodies and officials in issues that determine the attitude of citizens towards religion, in the internal activities of religious associations, if this activity does not violate the requirements of the laws of the country. The state should not finance the activities of religious organizations, as well as activities to promote other beliefs. In turn, religious associations cannot interfere in the affairs of the state, do not participate in the elections of its bodies of power and administration, or in the activities of political parties. But the servants of these organizations have the right to participate in political activities on an equal basis with all citizens.

Despite the secularity of the state, religion nevertheless penetrates into almost all spheres of public life, including those areas that, according to the Constitution, are separated from religion: government bodies, schools, the army, science and education.

Interreligious relations

Opportunities to satisfy religious needs

To date, 7,200 mosques have been restored and built in the Russian Federation. There are 17,000 active Orthodox churches. There are 70 synagogues. The northernmost Buddhist temple in the world - the Gunzechoinei datsan, built in Petrograd before the revolution - now serves as a tourist and religious center of Buddhist culture. Preparations are underway to build a Buddhist temple in Moscow, which could unite Buddhists around it in joint practice. From all of the above it follows that adherents of each religion can freely visit temples and perform religious rituals.

Attitude towards religious organizations of other faiths

In Russia, the largest religions in terms of numbers are Orthodoxy and Hanafi Islam. It is for this reason that it will be appropriate to consider the relationship of these two faiths with each other, without including other faiths.

The peaceful coexistence of Christians and Muslims is an ancient tradition.

In Russia there were almost no conflicts between them on the basis of faith. The Volga, Astrakhan, Siberian Tatars, as well as the Caucasian Tatars (Azerbaijanis) adopted Islam in historical antiquity. Islam is undoubtedly the indigenous religion of Russia. Therefore, it is unacceptable to neglect the interests of our Muslim compatriots. After all, they have lived on this land – ours and theirs – from time immemorial.

As for the spiritual dialogue between traditional confessions, the discovery of doctrinal parallels, dogmatic coincidences and the identity of ethical postulates, then, undoubtedly, there is no need to talk about the prospects of the path of dialogue as an unambiguous rapprochement of positions. Delving into dogmatic and ethical details does not in itself lead to rapprochement, although it does promote mutual understanding. For example, one can find striking correspondences in Islamic and Christian eschatology, so significant that in this field one can even talk about these two faiths as closely related. However, in many other respects, Christianity and Islam share doctrinal chasms. However, this does not mean that there is no place for two traditions on the same land - Russian supernationalism, on the contrary, is aimed at a combination of fundamentally different, self-sustaining, spiritual, cultural, and ethnic worlds.

In the 19th century, the relationship between Orthodox Christians and Muslims in connection with the Russian-Turkish wars was vigorously discussed in Russian society. Many authors from the democratic camp stated the need to declare the “non-confessional” content of the war, so as not to provoke Russian Muslims into unrest. These statements of that time are very reminiscent of the speeches of modern liberals, who, for any convenient reason, scare the people with interreligious strife.

Based on the above, it follows that the issue of religious tolerance is extremely important in the society in which we live. Religious tolerance comes in several types, depending on the object:

— tolerance towards people of other faiths (Christian-Muslim, Buddhist-Muslim, Christian-Buddhist);

— tolerance towards representatives of other faiths (Catholic-Protestant, Sunni-Shiite);

— tolerance between believers in God and non-believers (believer-atheist).

Interfaith conflicts

Causes of interfaith conflicts

The main reasons for interfaith conflicts in Russia are the transfer of political and national contradictions to the religious sphere and clashes of economic interests of representatives of different national groups, which are hidden behind religious slogans. Also, the reasons may be such phenomena as religious fanaticism, intolerance of believers, selective, biased attitude of the authorities towards different religious organizations, as a result of which their constitutional rights are not ensured equally; the unfair attitude of the media towards the presentation of information can also fuel a conflict on religious grounds.

Any social conflict goes through three main stages:

- Pre-conflict - conflict situation. The parties are aware of the existing emotional tension, strive to overcome it, understand the causes of the conflict, and evaluate their capabilities;

— The conflict itself is distrust and lack of respect for the enemy; consent is impossible. The presence of an incident, i.e. social actions aimed at changing the behavior of rivals. Their overt and hidden actions.

— Conflict resolution — ending the incident, eliminating the causes of the conflict.

When a conflict is eliminated at the first stage, it is most often quickly forgotten and “painlessly” experienced by the participants, which is the most beneficial for both the participants and the state as a whole, but most often the conflict goes through all three stages.

Ways to resolve interfaith conflicts

Ensuring normal relations between religions, and hence between ethnic groups, is of great social importance. It is important here to ensure formal and, especially, actual equality between religious organizations, as well as their equality before the law and rights. No one religion should have an advantage over others. The state must be neutral in matters of freedom of conscience, etc. Moreover, it is necessary not only to fix the state’s obligation to ensure equality and tolerance between religions, but also in real politics to do everything necessary to ensure this in practice.

Very important in ensuring the normal development of interfaith relations is the rise of the general culture of the people, including legal consciousness, the establishment of tolerant traditions in society, in the family, in everyday life. The formation of public consciousness in the spirit of religious tolerance and ideological and spiritual pluralism largely depends on the maturation of a market economy, the creation of a civil society, a modern rule of law state, which is the guarantor of the rights and freedoms of man and citizen.

For a fundamental solution to the problem of interfaith relations, a single national idea that unites all the people is important. Such an idea must be higher than church and confessional ideas, the values ​​of one nation or social group. Insisting on the priority of one religion, on the priority of religion in general, is not the path to creating national unity, but to the collapse of statehood. A single idea is a value of the highest order; in modern conditions it should not be religious, but secular. It is necessary to develop and cultivate a national identity within which representatives of different nations and faiths will feel equally comfortable as citizens of one country, one society.

The former Soviet Union coped well with this task, and then there were no problems of interreligious relations as in modern times. And the merit here is not only in the fact that all the republics of the USSR were united by one goal and country, but also in the promotion of equality of all peoples and religions. Now we are increasingly seeing reverse propaganda, where, with the help of the media, intentionally or not, inequality between groups is very often emphasized. Conducting a small experiment in the form of a survey, you can observe a situation where a person says that he feels hostility towards a particular ethnic or religious group, but cannot explain why this is happening, referring only to information from TV or the Internet.

Conclusion

Harmonization of interethnic relations

Harmonization of the entire complex of interethnic relations is possible only with an appropriate level of democracy in socio-political and other relations, as well as their democratization and humanization between peoples, national consciousness and the activities of political institutions. The development of democracy in all these areas meets the genuine interests of all peoples and expands the possibilities of objective trends in the development of interethnic relations.

What are these trends? One of them is expressed in the development of economic and political independence of an increasing number of nations, the improvement of their statehood, and the development of spiritual culture. The other is the mutual rapprochement of large and small peoples (nations), deepening their cooperation, and integrating economic and political structures. Similar trends are at work all over the world. The processes of demarcation are followed by unification and integration processes. This is a reality that must be deeply understood. Our Russian fatherland is no exception. It is very important to implement state national policy taking into account these dialectically interrelated trends. Otherwise, this policy will be divorced from life, from objective trends in the development of nations and interethnic relations.

Within the framework of interethnic relations developing in the modern era, the following most characteristic processes can be distinguished:

• ethnic consolidation of peoples, i.e. development of their political, economic, linguistic and cultural independence, strengthening of national-state integrity;
• interethnic integration, which consists in expanding and deepening cooperation of peoples in all spheres of life in order to most fully meet their needs both now and in the future; assimilation, during which some peoples seem to dissolve into others, more developed ones; As a rule, small peoples are assimilated, who over time have lost their language, customs, traditions, ethnic culture and have adopted the language and culture of another people, which have become native to them. These processes occur throughout the modern world and must be taken into account when implementing one or another national policy. In any case, national policy must be balanced and take into account the entire complex of objective and subjective factors.

Interfaith relations in Syzran

R. Sharafutdinov: « First of all, as a representative of the Tatar community of our city, Chairman of the Council of the National-Cultural Autonomy of the Tatars. Syzran, as well as being a member of the Interdepartmental Working Group on strengthening interethnic and interfaith harmony, ensuring social adaptation of migrants, preventing interethnic (interethnic) conflicts in the urban district of Syzran, today, first of all, I would like to pay special attention to resolving issues regarding the current the situation of the Muslim faith, in general, in the territory of Syzran and the regions.

The fact is that at the moment it is practically impossible to coordinate, involve in public activities, and, as a result, preserve and maintain interfaith relations between communities and diasporas of Muslims.

In this current situation, each representative of the nation from the community of Muslims in our city needs a so-called curator - a representative of one or another nationality, who will directly interact, as a link, between representatives of their confession and the structures of the Administration, law enforcement agencies, the migration service and public organizations, and , thereby attracting to social activities, unification, friendliness and peaceful interfaith existence, as well as to respect

Thus, by gradually building this kind of relationship and form of interaction, it seems to me that we will gradually come to a decision on the need to create a House of Friendship of Peoples in Syzran, and the foundation for resolving this issue will already be laid, thereby further joint activities and work in the direction of interfaith situation, it will be much easier to design.

The issue of interfaith relations must be resolved not through conversations and theoretical theses, but through actions. This also applies to the activities of NGOs, and to questions about the Muslim faith, and, it seems to me, applies to all issues of our lives!

And as Chairman of the NKAT, I affirm with all responsibility and confidence that the autonomy of the Tatars is ready to strengthen and develop interethnic relations and is always open to dialogue, practical assistance and other issues.

At the Center of Tatar Culture, the doors are always open for good and necessary deeds!»

Conclusion

The objectives set in this work help us to conclude that Russia may well exist as an interfaith state in peaceful conditions. However, the emotional factor, the media, and conflicts in political life provoke interreligious strife. This phenomenon suggests that state and public life is closely connected and intertwined with religious relations: almost any external action is reflected in religion. In fact, it turns out that Article 14 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation contradicts: religious associations are not separated from the state, they depend on the state. The state has recently often made comments or made amendments to the so-called “charter” of religion, which is generally unacceptable.

This fact provokes a conflict at the next level, interfaith, when one confession is satisfied with this amendment, but the other is not. In our opinion, the cultural education of all citizens of the Russian Federation as a whole, awareness of the unity of the people, will help correct the current conflict. Each person should have his own personal opinion, not imposed by the media.

Russia is a multi-confessional state Municipal Educational Institution "Secondary School 6" of the year Responsible history teachers: Pushkova S.V. and Morozova Yu.A. CLASSES: 5 "A"; 5 "B"; 10 "A"; 9 "A"; 9 "B" 9 "C"

Goals and objectives Hello dear guys, dear teachers and guests. Today's meeting is dedicated to the topic “Russia is a multi-religious state.” We set ourselves the following goal: to conduct information work on this topic and organize a discussion. The objectives of our event include: 1) Find out whether the students of our school consider Russia to be a multi-religious state? 2) Identify students’ attitudes towards different faiths?

Questions for discussion What is a multi-religious state? What world religions do you know? (Christianity, Islam and Buddhism) What national religions do you know? (Judaism, Hinduism, Shintoism, Confucianism and others) What religious organizations do you know? Representatives of which faiths live in the Saratov region? (Orthodoxy Islam Buddhism Catholicism Protestanism Judaism Atheism) What religious organizations exist in Saratov and the Saratov region that you know? (Atkar Church, Great Choral Synagogue, Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Volga Region, Diocesan Training Center of Sisters of Mercy in the Name of Grand Duchess Elizabeth, Compound of the Diocesan Bishop of the Saratov Diocese, Church of the Venerable Seraphim of the Sarov City of Saratov.)

The concept of a multi-religious state A multi-religious state is a state in which the church is separated from the state, and each person can profess any religion or not profess any; At the same time, respect the many other peoples living in the state, who have the right to profess any religion.

“The Concept of State National Policy of the Russian Federation” Equality of rights and freedoms of man and citizen, regardless of his race, nationality and language; Prohibition of any form of restriction of a citizen’s rights based on race, nationality, language or religion; The right of every citizen to determine and indicate his nationality without any coercion; Equality of all subjects of the Russian Federation in relations with federal government bodies.

Russia is a multinational country. More than 160 peoples live on the territory of our country, the largest of which are Russians (115 million people or 80% of the country’s population), Tatars (5.5 million people), Ukrainians (about 3 million people), Bashkirs, Chuvashs, Chechens , Armenians, Georgians and other peoples whose number exceeds 1 million people.

Russia is a unique country in terms of the religious composition of the population: representatives of all three world religions of Christianity, Islam and Buddhism live on its territory. At the same time, many peoples of our country adhere to national and traditional beliefs.

% ratio of religions in Russia and in the Saratov region The upper limits of the number of leading religious groups in our country are as follows: Orthodoxy - 86.5% (approx. 126 million), Islam - 10% (approx. 14.5 million) Buddhism - 0. 25% (approx. 380 thousand) Catholicism - 0.35% (approx. 480 thousand) Protestanism - 0.2% (approx. 300 thousand) Judaism - 0.15% (230 thousand) Atheism - 7% Other (Armenians-Gregorians, Baptists, Jews, etc.) – 1.8% to no religion - 12.9% Religions professed in the Saratov region Orthodoxy 74% Islam 9% Buddhism

Vladimir Putin: Russia initially emerged as a multinational and multi-religious state. On August 24, 2012, in Saransk, Russian President Vladimir Putin held the first meeting of the Presidential Council on Interethnic Relations. The President of the country spoke about the need to pay attention to strengthening Russia as a unique world civilization. Vladimir Vladimirovich also noted that it is necessary to strengthen the civil unity of the multinational people of Russia and harmonize interethnic relations and prevent interethnic conflicts.

In Saratov, a speech was held by representatives of religious denominations of the Saratov region and the United Russia party. They made the following statement: “We, representatives of three religious faiths and the United Russia party, condemn the campaign to incite ethnic hatred in the Saratov region. We consider it unacceptable to drag religious denominations and political parties into artificially heating up the topic of interethnic relations. The joint work of confessions and the United Russia party in the Saratov region, aimed at achieving interethnic harmony, is an example of the tolerant attitude of representatives of different nationalities and beliefs towards each other. We all need to remember that representatives of many nationalities and religions live in the region. We are doing everything to prevent conflicts on ethnic and religious grounds in the region. We condemn the behavior of the media of the Saratov region, which makes attacks against any nationalities and beliefs, inciting interethnic hatred. We believe that such actions should be prosecuted in accordance with the laws of the Russian Federation. In our country, activities aimed at inciting national, racial and religious hatred are prohibited by law. Each such manifestation must be considered in court. And, if a violation of the law is recognized, one will be subject to not only criminal punishment, but also moral condemnation. We call on all political and public organizations for which peace and harmony in the Saratov region is the basis of their activities to support our appeal.”

Dmitry Medvedev: The Russian mind is experiencing a genuine revival today. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev also made a speech. On August 19, he congratulated the chairmen of the Spiritual Administrations of Muslims of Russia on the end of the holy month of Ramadan and the holiday of Eid al-Adha, ITAR-TASS reports. “This is one of the most important religious holidays for Muslims around the world. It is preceded by a period of spiritual improvement and care for those in need,” Medvedev noted. According to him, the Russian mind is today experiencing a real revival. “New mosques are being built, universities and madrassas are being created. It is important that in our multinational and multi-religious state, followers of traditional Islam actively participate in the public life of the country. And through their fruitful charitable and educational activities they contribute to the preservation of civil peace and harmony in Russia,” said the Prime Minister. Medvedev wished all Muslims well-being and health.

From the speech of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' at the grand opening of the III Assembly of the Russian World “The Russian Church is the most multinational Orthodox community in the world and strives to develop its multinational character. It plays a huge role in supporting faith. Today, all over Russia, new churches are being restored and built, monasteries are being opened and founded. The careful attitude of Russian people towards their faith and respect for the faith of others attracted representatives of various religions and nations to Russia. In the Russian state, compatriots of other faiths and nationalities have always had the opportunity to achieve a high social position. Another pillar of the Russian world is Russian culture and language. A Russian, a Tatar, a Ukrainian, and a Georgian can belong to Russian culture, because it has absorbed the traditions of many peoples living on the territory of our country.”

Thus, at today’s event we can conclude: All religions on the territory of our country are equal. Our state implements the principle of freedom of conscience, but much depends on us – citizens. Only a calm, respectful attitude towards representatives of other religions, religious tolerance, can prevent mistrust, disagreement and hostility in society.

Present at the discussion club meeting: 5th grade Zhumagalieva Victoria Sirotina Anastasia Yastrebova Anastasia Ovchinnikov Alexander Alshina Elmira Zatsipina Anastasia Zhdanova Anastasia Bocharova Elena Burmak Sergey 9th grade Asadov Rahim Dronova Vlada Shleshko Anna Ilyin Roman Lobanov Nikita Polovinkina Anastasia 10th grade Gigauri Nato Biblenov and Victoria