Dear editors,

In the sphere of interfaith relations in our country, an event has taken place that, due to its historical significance, should not, in my opinion, remain out of the field of view of the scientific community, especially Orientalists - historians, cultural scientists, political scientists, and religious scholars. This is the first forum of Muslims and Catholics in Russia, which undoubtedly marks the beginning of a new stage in their interaction - the conference "Islam and Christianity: Towards Dialogue", held in Moscow on November 24, 2005.

The Moscow conference was devoted to discussing a specific document - the Declaration on the Attitude to Non-Christian Religions "Nostra Aetate" ("Our Times"), adopted 40 years ago by the Second Vatican Council, or rather, its third section, which outlined the new view of Catholicism on Islam.

The status of the first forum of Catholics and Muslims was high: Metropolitan Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, Head of the Catholics of Russia, and Mufti Ravil Gainutdin, Chairman of the Council of Muftis of Russia (SMR), welcomed and evaluated the event. 14 reports were read out and the final Joint Statement was adopted. Both religious and secular media took part in the coverage of the event. The meeting was organized by: Council of Muftis of Russia, Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the European Part of Russia, Archdiocese of the Mother of God in Moscow, St. Andrew's Bible and Theological Institute (BBI), Institute of European Civilization.

It is worth noting that 40 years ago, neither discussion nor practical application of "Nostra Aetate" in Russia was impossible. During the Russian Empire, and later in the USSR, both Catholics and Muslims were sometimes openly persecuted, sometimes barely tolerated by the minority (although not equal in number). Only after the collapse of the Soviet atheist regime, in parallel with the restoration of religious traditions, including Catholic and Islamic, did a free dialogue between Muslims and Catholics begin. At first, these were diplomatic meetings of a protocol nature. But the Moscow conference on November 24, 2005 brought this process to a qualitatively new, working level.

As religious minorities within Russia, Muslims and Catholics are part of huge confessional massifs: the 1.3 billion Muslim Ummah. There are also 1.2 billion Catholics-in other words, more than a third of humanity. Globalization, which accelerates the exchange of people, makes the internal life of both religious and State entities more open and mutually transparent. Both positive and negative processes are accelerating.

On the one hand, since 2001, after the terrorist attack on the Twin skyscrapers in New York, a massive anti-Islamic campaign has been waged in the Western media. It intensified after the US invasion of Iraq. And on the eve of the Moscow conference, mass arson attacks began in the vicinity of Paris, which then engulfed other cities in France. Some of the world's press tried to give the hooliganism of marginals a religious character, quoting S. Huntington's theory "about the inevitability of a clash between Islamic and Christian civilizations."

On the other hand, for 40 years since 1965, meetings have been held in different countries within the framework of the Islamic-Catholic dialogue and practical cooperation has been carried out. So, on the eve of the Moscow meeting in Vienna, the conference" Islam in a pluralistic world " was held, prepared by the Vatican, the Austrian Government and leaders of Islamic countries. Former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, the author of the "Dialogue of Civilizations" concept, and the heads of the Occupied Territories of the Islamic Republic of Iran spoke at the event.-

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U.S. Government of Iraq and Afghanistan, Islamic and Christian scholars. The choice of Vienna is not accidental-the country was preparing to become the president of the European Union in 2006 and with the help of Catholics tried to establish cooperation with Muslims.

Do not forget that Nostra Aetate has generated several areas of interreligious work of the Vatican, not only with Muslims. And speaking about the Islamic-Catholic dialogue, we must take into account the context of inter-confessional dialogues with other religions. The dialogue between Catholics and Jews seems to be the most effective and fruitful at the moment.

For Russia, the extremely important (both spiritually and politically) dialogue between the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (ROC MP) and the Vatican, alas, was reduced to "problems of proselytism and uniatism" and thereby slowed down the fruitful cooperation that had begun. Practically, it is frozen at a dead point and does not realize its huge potential.

On the contrary, the Moscow conference was constructive. At the same time, it turned out that the Catholic Church is better prepared for it: It is well-structured and quickly formulates and responds to modern realities. It has the institution of the Papacy, Ecumenical councils, specialized commissions and institutions that collect and analyze information on the Islamic-Catholic dialogue on a daily basis around the world. In Russia, however, confessional institutions for interreligious dialogue began to develop only after the collapse of the atheist regime. But even the first borrowings from the Vatican experience are useful. For example, the adoption of the social doctrine of the Russian Orthodox Church at the Local Council of 2000 was conceptually provoked by the corresponding body of Vatican documents that were developed back in the XIX century. The Council of Muftis of Russia, following the Orthodox Christians, carried out a similar work, creating a social doctrine of Russian Muslims.

In the world of Islam, there is no single institution that collects such information, but there are separate centers where authoritative alims issue fatwas on various issues of modern society. For example, in Shiite Iran, there is a Center for the Rapprochement of madhhabs, which is gradually, step by step, but successfully sorting out the "blockages" that have accumulated in relations between different trends in Islam. A consolidated response to the problems of madhhabs is given in the Amman Declaration of 6.06.2005. As for Russia, we should be aware of how heavy losses the Muslim Ummah suffered here in the past and how difficult it is to restore the tradition of the alimovuchen! Of all the Islamic organizations, only the Council of Muftis of Russia is capable of modern professional interfaith work, both in spiritual and intellectual terms, and in terms of the availability of personnel. However, the SMR represents only one of the realities of Islam - the Sunnism of the Hanafi madhhab in the Russian Federation.

Potentially, it was the Islamic side that was better prepared for the dialogue: after all, the Koran sets out the rules for cohabitation of the faithful with "people of the Book" (Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians), moreover, there is a centuries-old practice of accepting Christians "under the protection of the Islamic state", as well as the instruction "not to argue about faith with people of the Book", but "compete in piety"! So, we can summarize: Islam has long been ready for a dialogue with Christianity in theory, had a centuries-old practice, but Catholicism is dynamically implementing its new developments in practice, using the technologies of modern civilization.

Since the Islamic-Catholic dialogue is conducted in a multi-confessional society today, the conference adopted a quadrilateral format-diplomacy of balance. In addition to representatives of the Catholic Church and the Muslim Ummah, it was attended by representatives of the largest denomination in the Russian Federation - the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, as well as secular religious scholars.

Priest Igor Vyzhanov, Secretary for Inter-Christian Relations of the Department for External Church Relations (DECR), spoke on behalf of the Russian Orthodox Church. He warmly welcomed the participants of the conference and shared his personal memories of Tatars and Russians, Muslim and Orthodox children who lived and studied together in Moscow schools during his childhood.

The conference was hosted by Sheikh Farid Asadullin and the rector of the BBI, Orthodox Professor Alexey Bodrov.

Thus, the Islamic-Catholic dialogue, both now and in the future, is based not on the tactic of "friendship of two against the third or all the others", but on the strategy of "dialogue of two in front of and with the teacher".-

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let's take everyone in." In other words, this dialogue will focus on specific issues, but in a context and in a dialogue with all parties willing to cooperate. This experience is well established abroad, and there is reason to hope that it will be useful in Russia, in particular, for the development of civil society.

Without a doubt, the main task of the meeting, as an "intellectual assault" , is to develop concepts, in practical application, as Western scholastics say, "Occam's razor". And the participants coped with this task.

Against this general academic background, the sincere statements of the Secretary of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Russia, Father Igor Kovalevsky, and Orthodox Professor Anatoly Krasikov (Head of the Center for Social and Religious Studies of the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences), who emphasized the existential significance of this meeting for its participants, were very personal. Father Igor said that every participant in the dialogue should ask themselves: "Why do I personally participate in this, if not to deepen my personal understanding of God?!" Professor Krasikov called on all Orthodox Christians and Muslims to do the same work of repentance that the Catholic Church did in the 20th century: "Imagine how difficult it was to rethink your historical past first in the face of God, and then to do penance in front of people and bear the fruits of repentance. I am an Orthodox believer and scholar. And I am amazed at the courage of the Catholic Church in understanding the crimes of its fellow christians against non-believers. At the Second Vatican Council, all of us - Catholics, Orthodox and Muslims - were given an example of repentance before the Lord and before people. It's worth following this example!" As the opposite of such spiritual aspiration, prof. Krasikov noted extremist manifestations in the Orthodox environment, which is familiar to him, and attacks against Islam, which sow inter-religious hostility and destroy the outlined contours of dialogue.

The main theological presentations were made by the leaders of Islam and Catholicism in Russia. While representing their communities, they still claimed intellectual representation of Islam as a whole and Christianity as a whole. If the conference did not have a multilateral and open format, this might seem like a claim - but as a first step, with openness to other subjects, it was, in my opinion, justified. And even promising. "I sincerely believe that the Islam-Christian dialogue in Russia can be fruitful if it also includes other branches of Christianity that are historically rooted in Russia, and Catholicism in Russia has very deep historical roots," Gainutdin said. At the same time, the title of the Moscow meeting "on the way to dialogue" emphasizes that these are just the first cautious steps. The dialog itself is ahead of you, because it involves multi - level, mass - scale, and necessarily practical content.

"40 years ago, the era of interfaith cooperation and dialogue began," Mufti R. Gainutdin opened the meeting. In his report "Islam and the decisions of the Second Vatican Council", "Nostra Aetate"was highly appreciated. For the first time in the history of Christian-Islamic relations, R. Gainutdin noted, the church saw in Muslims not enemies or heretics, but " equal participants in interpersonal communication." According to the Mufti, Nostra Aetate " marked the beginning of a systematic interaction between Muslims and Catholics on a global scale." The report also noted the contribution of Pope John Paul II to the development of this interaction: "We, Muslims, recognize John Paul II as a great religious reformer who had a great influence on the dissemination of the ideas of the Second Vatican Council and interreligious dialogue." The beginning of Benedict XVI's pontificate also raises hopes for the continuation of the Catholic-Muslim dialogue based on "spiritual kinship and commitment to the One God".

The second speaker was Metropolitan T. Kondrusevich: "The Nostra Aetate Declaration opened a new era in relations between the Catholic Church and non-Christian religions," he stressed. He went on to describe in detail the history of the adoption at the Second Vatican Council of a document calling for " respect for Muslims who worship the One God, Living and Existent, Merciful and Omnipotent, Creator of heaven and earth, recognizing Abraham and the prophets." A number of doctrinal provisions of the two religions encourage them to engage in dialogue:" According to Nostra Aetate, Islam is very close to Catholicism, since its adherents glorify one God.

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They recognize Christ as a prophet, honor His Mother Mary, highly value the moral life, and honor God through prayer, alms, and fasting." According to the Metropolitan, "The Council condemned the practice of 'crusades', presented positive characteristics of the Islamic faith, called for the search for common foundations in the legacy of Abraham, as well as for joint social projects." The speaker called" truly revolutionary " the decisions of the Second Vatican Council, which for the first time in history recognized "that other religions also possess the truth." Along with the "aggiornamento" - the renewal of church life in relation to modern conditions - came the" approfondimento " - the deepening of both the self-knowledge of the church and its relations with the world.

Kondrusevich also noted the special relevance of the provisions of Nostra Aetate in our time and stressed "the great importance of the interreligious dialogue held in our country, with the aim of both developing relations and serving society and consolidating it." In this regard, he expressed his conviction that the presence of more representatives of religious organizations in the Inter-Religious Council of Russia and the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation would make the work of these institutions more effective.

The next word was given to the cleric of the Russian Orthodox Church MP Fr. To Igor Vyzhanov. He also spoke about the increased relevance of the principles of "Nostra Aetate" in the life of both our country and Europe, where recent events in France (fires set by marginalized youth) have particularly raised the issue of the coexistence of Muslim and Christian cultures. According to the DECR representative, "The Russian Orthodox Church can provide a good example of practical dialogue", the general tone of which he assessed as "undoubtedly positive and peaceful". The relationship between representatives of different religions should be based on love - then there will be no place for hostility, extremism and terrorism. Igor.

Alexey Bodrov, rector of the BBI, a theological university that has been developing the topic of Islamic-Catholic dialogue for many years (publishes translations, articles and anthologies, conducts a special course on interreligious dialogue of different religions), noted in a brief speech that "Nostra Aetate" is of great importance not only for the Catholic Church, but also for other Christian Churches. also for other religions. A comprehensive and detailed historiography of the Islamic-Catholic dialogue was given by Alexey Zhuravsky, a leading Russian expert on this subject, Professor of the BIH, a religious scholar.

Sheikh Farid Asadullin (Head of the Information and Analytical center of the Russian Orthodox Church) made a report "Forming a culture of dialogue: past experience in refraction to the tasks of interreligious cooperation". He was the only one who not only analyzed the experience of his predecessors, but also put forward new theological initiatives that will require bilateral discussions in the future.

Later, he explained his initiatives in more detail: "The use of the Koran as the "Third Testament" in an inter-religious context is quite acceptable and productive. This appeal is addressed to the modern "people of the Book" - Jews and Christians, and it is not a question of any"theological revolution". First of all, there is an urgent need to create a certain metalanguage, a single system of concepts, a single toolkit for people who follow a single, monotheistic tradition that comes from the Prophet Ibrahim (peace be upon him!). After all, it is the lack of such a universal communication tool for representatives of various monotheistic traditions that leads them away from the Truth <...> In Islam, as the religion that completes the Abrahamic triad, the idea of Quranic pluralism is most fully expressed. The Qur'an does not claim to have a monopoly on religious truth. He also preaches faithfulness to the revelations given to the great prophets of the past, noting that there is no distinction between the prophets (Surah "Cow", verse 136). And among these prophets are Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and Jesus." Asadullina to the "Portal-Credo" correspondent, 2.12.2005).

Speech by fr. Igor Kovalevsky's " On the Dialogue of Christianity with Other Religions "was devoted to explaining the reasons that prompted the First Vatican Council to enter into a dialogue with other religions that were previously defined as"false, hostile or heretical". This explanation is important both for the Catholic flock in Russia, which has not yet mastered all the innovations of the First Vatican Council, and for Muslims, most of whom still do not know about it. After all, the intellectual breakthrough "Nostra Aetate" has not yet erased the usual stereotypes from the mass consciousness. In addition, O. I. Kovalevsky recalled the definition of modern Western civilization and the current "consumer society",

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The name given by Pope John Paul II is the "civilization of death", which has lost the experience of the Sacred, reduced religiosity to ghettos or got rid of it altogether, and to which all believers (Catholics and non-Catholics) must oppose the "civilization of love". This is a very important point-it shows that" Western civilization " is criticized not only by Muslims, but the Vatican itself no longer identifies with it and, of course, does not give its adherents the right to attribute themselves to Christianity! Therefore, those who try to reinforce the idea that "Muslims are against the West, against Europe and its civilization" through the mass media are wrong. The Vatican itself is clearly and argumentatively opposed to the irreligious nature of modern societies in Europe and North America. And here there is a clear common field for mutual understanding and interaction with Muslims.

Elder of the Russian Religious Studies Community, Prof. Mikhail Mchedlov, a leading official expert on Catholicism and Vatican politics during the Soviet era, spoke about his observations of the Vatican Council, where he was present as a correspondent for TASS and Literaturnaya Gazeta. Another veteran, Prof. Friedrich Ovsienko shared his memories of Krakow, where he worked for two years and went to listen to the sermons of Karol Wojtyla, then Archbishop.

Imam-khatib Mustafa Kyutyukcu, an alim from Turkey working at the Moscow Cathedral Mosque, made a report on " The experience of the Islamic-Christian dialogue in Turkey (an aspect of interaction with Catholics)". According to him, "The Ottoman state, which was succeeded by modern Turkey at the beginning of the 20th century, has played a leading role in world politics for more than 600 years. The experience of the Ottoman State, as the successor to the Eastern Roman Empire, deserves careful analysis not only because of its effective control over vast territories in Europe, Asia and Africa, but also because of the incorporation of 22 peoples who professed different religions and beliefs into a single state body. It is also important that in the European territories of this state, as well as in Anatolia, there lived nationalities that were ethnically and confessionally close to the Western states of that time. These peoples, together with the indigenous population, made a significant contribution to the formation and development of the Ottoman State as a primary subject of world politics. Obviously, the relatively long retention of power and control over these vast territories cannot be explained simply by superior military power...

Many verses of the Qur'an and hadiths have become the starting point for the rulers of Muslim states throughout the history of Islam when interacting with representatives of other religions, and have contributed to the implementation of a policy of maximum tolerance and broad dialogue. In Islamic States, non-Muslims were guaranteed personal security, rights and freedoms, and respect for their religion. This policy was followed by the Turkic states formed on the basis of tribes that converted to Islam. Among them are the great Seljuks, Anatolian Seljuks, and Ottomans. It would be absolutely unwise for them to pursue a national and religious policy based on xenophobia. This would not only be inconsistent with the principles of Islam. Such a policy would simply be unacceptable from the point of view of the national security of these multi-ethnic and multi-confessional states."

Imam-khatib from Tver Rustam Musin spoke about the centenary interaction of Muslims in his city with Catholics: 145 years ago Poles built a church there, and 100 years ago Tatars built a mosque near it, and since then good neighborliness reigns between the two communities, and Tatar blacksmiths even forged metal parts for the church. Neither wars nor years of atheistic repression could destroy these traditions - Metropolitan T. Kondrusiewicz, who recently arrived for the anniversary of the church, participated in a friendly tea party with Muslims.

Speaking about the great predecessor of the modern Islamic-Catholic dialogue, Francis of Assisi, J. S. Marcus gave a comparative description of the Franciscan experience in the light of the Islamic tradition, putting together both signs of similarity in spiritual experience and terms in Arabic, Latin and Italian.

The conference concluded with a speech by Ali Viacheslav Polosin, PhD, Adviser to the Russian Orthodox Church, who stressed that " Catholicism is the oldest and most authoritative tradition of Christianity." Obviously, by this definition, he indirectly pointed out that there is still no similar theological level of dialogue between Islam and Christianity within Russia, in particular between the SMR and the ROC MP. The group responsible for the con-

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takty with Muslims in the DECR, by the way, has been willing to travel abroad for such dialogues for several years, to Shiite Iran, Yemen and other countries. But the intra-Russian Orthodox-Muslim dialogue is still a matter of uncertain future.

So, on November 24, 2005, at the Moscow conference "they didn't reinvent the wheel" - but summed up the past 40 years for the free world and 15 years of religious freedom in Russia. A clear awareness of the past provided an incentive to move forward: a Joint Statement was adopted. I enclose its text.

Djannat Sergey MARKUS, host of Islamic programs of Radio Russia

PS Here are the first fruits of the last conference. The insert "In the name of One God" appeared in the Russian Catholic newspaper Svet Gospeliya. A Commission for Islamic-Christian Dialogue (CIHD) has been established under the SMR.

Application

JOINT STATEMENT

We, the participants of the conference "Islam and Christianity: towards Dialogue", dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the declaration of the Second Vatican Council "Nostra Aetate", taking into account that:

* the scope of activities incompatible with religious beliefs is expanding in public life.

* the processes of secularization and moral relativism ignore the interests and needs of religious associations and believers;

* the world does not cope with the growing problems only within the framework of a secular approach; convinced that:

* everyone has the right to freedom of conscience and worship in accordance with their religious beliefs;

* Extremism is not religious in nature, and Almighty God does not bless violence and terrorism.

* mutual understanding, dialogue and tolerance between different faiths is the way to solve the current problems of society;

* religious associations have adequate resources to optimize the activities of individuals and communities;

* Christian and Muslim social teachings contain a number of mutually acceptable provisions, familiarization with which could ease tensions and encourage followers of these world religions to cooperate fruitfully;

* Christians and Muslims should do everything possible to jointly meet the challenges of the time.

we consider it necessary:

* conduct regular inter-religious peace-making meetings at the regional and federal levels, which are fundamentally open to followers of any religion who are committed to mutual understanding and dialogue;

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* establish an exchange of documents that clearly and unambiguously state the positions of our religions on the most pressing social problems of our time for deeper mutual knowledge;

* consider the possibility of organizing an exchange of students of theological educational institutions for a better knowledge of the creeds of other religions;

* to counteract the growing secularization, plan a series of consultations to develop joint positions in the fields of education, mass media, charity, social protection, etc.;

* Inform the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and the most authoritative structures of Muslims, such as the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the League of Islamic Peace, the World Association of Islamic Appeal, the World Organization for the Rapprochement of Madhhabs, and others, about these initiatives.

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