Religious diversity as a factor in public security

Abstract

The article deals with topical issues of religious diversity in the framework of the religious situation in modern Russia.
 The article analyzes important indicators of the religious situation. They include public sentiments created by the subjective perception of the country's population of their religiosity and non-religiousness, in the context of the realization of the freedom of conscience right.
 Additional indicators of the religious situation are the following: inter-religious, inter-denominational relations and relations between believers and non-believers; the state and nature of public opinion in relation to religion.
 The criteria for the "complexity" of a religious situation have been determined through delineating of 1) internal and 2) external circumstances that create the conditions for the tension of the religious situation. The first group (1) includes: the degree of satisfaction / dissatisfaction of believers and groups of believers with the implementation, provision and protection of their rights and interests; instability and unsettledness of inter-religious and ethno-religious relations; the presence of contradictions and conflicts within religious associations. The second group (2) includes: the condition of state-religious relations associated with the implementation of legislatively enshrined principles and norms in the sphere of freedom of conscience by state and local authorities; the degree of mutual trust, loyalty, law-abidingness of religious associations; the state of public opinion in relation to religion, its adequate / inadequate expression by the media; the presence of conflicts between believers and non-believers, as well as the nature and intensity of missionary activities of religious organizations.
 The study of the religious situation, its comprehensive and objective analysis, serve as the basis for information support of state-religious relations and as help in the implementation of the principles of the state's religious policy in the practical activities of the authorities and administration.
 Using the example of a number of religious organizations, it will be shown that their persecution, especially of religious minorities, does not strengthen the security of the country, but, on the contrary, creates a number of quite serious risks for the stable functioning of society both “inside” the state and internationally. Considered through the prism of various models of state-religious relations, the religious situation in the country seems to be most favorable (both for the state and for religious organizations of various types) when there is religious freedom and the corresponding state-religious relations.