Council suggests one world religion will be built around Russian Orthodox Church
FEOR and RMC are ready, together with the Russian Orthodox Church, to preserve the features of the country's civilizational development
03/06/2007
The Council of Muftis of Russia and the Federation of Jewish Communities of the country (FEOR) declared their agreement with the Russian Orthodox Church in recognizing the need to seek joint responses of traditional religions to the challenges of globalization and develop interreligious cooperation, Interfax reports.
"We share the approaches of the Russian Orthodox Church to the importance of comprehending the civilizational specifics of Russia," Farid Asadullin, head of the science department of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the European part of Russia, said on Tuesday at a section of the XI World Russian People's Council at the Pilgrimage Center of the Moscow Patriarchate in Moscow.
According to him, a common understanding of the peculiarities of Russian culture and civilization "can lead us to common conclusions, bring us closer to each other, and help to reject phobias."
"If the indigenous peoples of Russia live in peace, it has a great future. Without peace between religions, peace between peoples will remain an unrealizable dream," said F. Asadullin.
For his part, FEOR Executive Director Valery Engel noted that modern Eurasian civilization "is based on the Russian Orthodox culture of the Slavic peoples, but at the same time absorbs elements of the cultures of other civilizations."
"Russia, the Eurasian civilization, will be able tomorrow to work out a model of a mega-civilization based on the values of traditional religions," the FEOR representative emphasized.
The Russian Orthodox cultural tradition, surrounded by other religious cultures, according to V. Engel, constitutes the framework of Russian civilization - "like iron dressed in concrete, the most durable historical material."
V. Engel also called on the Interreligious Council of Russia to initiate a discussion on the principles and foundations of the Eurasian ideology, which "would demonstrate our priorities and views to the whole world."