The Russian Church representative believes Islam in Russia to overcome radicalism

18 July 2008, 11:12

Moscow, July 18, Interfax - The Russian Orthodox Church believes that Islamic community of Russia gets rid of radical features.

"Muslim community is intensively cleaning out all elements of extremism and radicalism brought in by foreign missionaries 15 years ago. We believe it will finally manage to do it," deputy head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin said at a Moscow briefing.

The priest reminded that the same tendencies took place in the Russian Christian community in early 90s as due to its weakness after atheistic period it was exposed to foreign missionaries.

According to Fr. Vsevolod, today Muslims and Christians lead an active dialogue. He believes it important that this dialogue "is honest and based on respect to each other's traditions."

"The Russian Orthodox Church has always denounced any attempts to mix faiths," the priest stressed.

He also spoke against any attempts to unite followers of various faiths on the grounds of "earthly values," the idea to make feed everyone and leave theological differences aside as something outdated.

"We should denounce secular attitude that is imposed upon believers of various religions," the Russian Church representative stressed.

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