By Vestnik Kavkaza
The video of the detention of Orkhan Zainalov, who is suspected of the murder of Egor Shcherbakov, in Biryulyovo causes absolutely negative emotions of anyone who watches the video. It is another element of the depressing atmosphere which occurred in the Russian societya few weeks ago. Several strong men beat a helpless guy who is begging them to stop – the video seems to calm down the society, according to its authors. But a normal person feels only disgust.
Anyway, the events make us think about moral issues. Disputes on forums and blogs take the crime to the level of inter-ethnic conflicts. It seems the events in Russia develop in the worst way.
Representatives of four traditional confessions tried to bring people to their senses.
This part is devoted to the position of the Russian Orthodox Church, which is voiced by Vsevolod Chaplin, the chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department for Relations between Church and Society.
“We have recently witnessed a very difficult event in Biryulyovo and a very complex discussion around these events.
On the first day of the Muslim holiday a provocation was committed against the Muslim community, a picture with an obscene caption with words blasphemous to any Muslim and offensive to any normal person, appeared on the hacked website of the Council of Muftis of Russia and its related websites.
On the same day an attack on an Orthodox church was committed, it is now being viewed as "everyday", but it is known that in addition to what was happening in the church, an attack on one of the parishioners was committed near the temple, and extremist slogans were chanted during the attack.
It is known that in St. Petersburg an extremist group of people is trying to organize a special provocation aimed at inciting ethnic hatred, staging an alleged attack by Caucasians on Russians,” Chaplin listed sad events.
It seems to him that “today someone really wants to embroil people of different nationalities and religions in Russia. There may be some doubts as to the fact that all these events are links in a chain, but these events seem to have taken place too closely to one another. In a number of cases, I think, it is worth closely looking at whether these provocations had some common scenario, a general plan. I think it is an important task not only for the law enforcement agencies, who certainly have to investigate all these resonant cases, but also for our social thought.”
Chaplin urges everybody to think together, “who would benefit today from inciting hatred among people of different nationalities and different religions? And whether it could be that in many cases either the performers of provocative actions or those who could incite people to commit these actions may well have been following somehow the logic of destruction of Russia.
Answering the question on what religious communities can do, Chaplin said: “Maintain a decent dialogue with each other and act against those provocative actions that are directed against one of our religions or against the other, but in any case against the whole of Russia together and only together. I think that we are ready for such joint actions. As the Patriarch has recently said, it is important not to limit inter-religious dialogue to oaths of friendship and peace. It has already happened to us in the Soviet era and the first post-Soviet years. Inter-religious dialogue should not be calming or soothing. We need to raise issues that bother our society and together suggest ways of resolving these problems. And we have so many of them.”
Chaplin named such problems as “extremism and the activities of radical groups that regularly attack the police, people who are meant to protect law, and attack civilians. We know about the recent murders of members of national minorities.”
Commenting on the problem of illegal migration, Chaplin said: “Here, there can be most serious suggestions about changing the status quo. Some now say that one cannot change anything about the employment of illegal immigrants or people who are not registered in the regions. A lot can be changed. I have recently proposed to employ in a given region only those people who have registration in this particular region and give registration only to those who have a right of ownership of a house or a long-term lease. Some say that it is impossible and that this will harm the economy, in particularly in Moscow and in the Moscow region, but in fact I am convinced that we do not need an economy as a result of which people suffer, as a result of which the majority of population suffer in certain regions. One can establish order in the labor legislation, by ensuring that only people who have permanent residency in a particular region can work in this region. And it is possible to establish order in this regard: if they succeeded in Switzerland and in Germany, we can do it too.”
