CLERGY SUPPORTS DRAFT LAW ON LEGAL IMMUNITY OF SACRED TEXTS
Interfax-Religiia, 19 October 2015
Representatives of traditional religions of Russia approve the draft law of the president of the RF concerning the prohibition of finding texts and quotes from the Bible, Quran, Tanakh, and Kangyur to be extremist.
"We know that this is an extremely important draft law because the religious life of society is growing, and it is very important that people have the possibility to believe without distortions and not feel themselves inferior. And at the same time it is necessary to combat extremism and terrorism, as we see in the Middle East, and this also is a big problem," Archpriest Alexander Pelin, a member of the Public Chamber, told an Interfax-Religiia correspondent on Monday.
He noted that some sacred texts appeared very long ago. For example, the first parts of the Bible were recorded 3 to 3.5 thousand years ago and therefore they were written in a language which now may seem brutal and crude. "Because these texts are profound and it is necessary to understand them within the context of religious teachings, this initiative is completely justified," the priest thinks.
In his opinion, it is not sufficient that some individual bureaucrat, even a judge, can suddenly decide to prohibit certain parts of the book of the Quran that is sacred for Muslims, as happened in South Sakhalinsk. "It turns out that the whole book can fall under a ban. Or that phrases and texts individually extracted from the Bible may be perceived as calls to extremism and violence, but this does not correspond to reality" the representative of the church emphasizes.
He considers that the decision to protect representatives of traditional religions of Russia from having their doctrinal texts subjected to some kinds of discussions or explanations by modern experimenters or judges is completely justified.
Rafik Muhametshin, the rector of the Russian Islamic University of Kazan, also declared support for the draft law. "It is very important, because nowadays decisions are being made to ban books, including numerous citations of sacred scripture, at the level of district courts," the news agency's interlocutor said.
He incidentally called attention to the fact that the original language of sacred scriptures was not Russian and the question arises of how to treat translations, since they also may be different. "From this point of view, there may be a legal collision. But I think the presidential draft law is a first step, very important, and then it is possible there will be added to the adopted law certain commentaries so that it is interpreted correctly," the Islamic expert expressed hope.
In his turn, Rabbi Aaron Gurevich, the director of a department of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, is sure that sacred texts should not be subjected to review, and it goes without saying that in principle no law or individual ukase is needed
However he added that in Russia instances of judicial proceedings and prosecutorial audits connected with the search for extremism or elements of extremism in sacred texts, the Quran and Bible, are increasing. "This certainly is puzzling. However it should be said that all sacred texts, including medieval ones, cannot be subjected to any review for the simple reason that we live today in an entirely different reality, and we do not have the right to condemn this text from positions of the 21st century. It is possible to discuss and sometimes to prohibit texts that are written by our contemporaries," the rabbi thinks.
He also expressed the conviction that these texts must be studied and not prohibited. "If some uninformed person picks up a physics textbook and agrees with one thing or another, even though he is little informed about thermodynamics and other physical processes, or looks for mistakes there in some places that are unknown or dark for him, while he forgets that the texts should be examined by specialists," A. Gurevich gave as an example.
"This is a time of general ignorance, which unfortunately engenders such chimeras as the attempts to prohibit sacred texts," the rabbi complained. He acknowledged that in ancient sacred texts "there are spots where violence against peoples who are bearers of filth is reflected," but he urged remembering that in talking about these texts today we have in mind "some prototype or metaphor, and not at all people who should be destroyed."
"This is the difference between the understanding of an ancient text by a modern person and what it contained when the Almighty through his prophets imparted knowledge and revealed his divine nature to this world," the rabbi explained.
On Wednesday, 14 October, Russian President Vladimir Putin introduced into the State Duma a draft of a federal law according to which the Bible, Quran, Tanakh, and Knagyur, their contents, and quotations from them cannot be ruled to be extremist materials.
As reported earlier, Natalia Perchenko, a judge of a South Sakhalinsk city court, on 12 August, ruled in a lawsuit from prosecutor Bilobrovets that the book Prayer to God: its Significance and Place in Islam is extremist material. The basis for this was "Al-Fatiha" and other suras of the Quran. In particular, quotations from the Quran were found to be extremist: "It is you we worship and to you we pray for help" (Al-Fatiha), "Do not invoke anyone besides Allah" (Al-Jinn). (tr. by PDS, posted 21 October 2015)
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