ISLAM – RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH RELATIONS AND THE STATE IN THE POST-COMMUNIST RUSSIA

Abstract

After the fall of Soviet Union we can state a fact of a religious heritage in Russia. It is applied not only to the traditional religious institutions, like Moscow Patriarchy, but also to different heterodox religious movements. Now we can state a fact of the originally shaped religion policy of Moscow. Orthodox Christianity in Russia has one universally recognized center – Moscow Patriarchy. Its position is shared by 90% of Russian Christians. But we can’t say that the leaders have one consolidated opinion about the problems of the relations between Islam and Christianity. We can single out two groups; one can be called „For Islam” and the second „Against Islam”. Their followers have different views on the problems of proselytism, inter-religious dialogue and religion policy of the state and the foreign policy of Russia. The same, but much more multifaceted situation is in Russian Islam. Muslims in Russia don’t have any universally recognized authority. There are several organizations, regional or aspiring to the center position, authorities, sheikhs and popular homilists with their own opinions. Here we try to classify the main organizations and their views on the problem of a dialogue with Russian Orthodoxy, Christianity at all and the Russian State’s regional policy.