THERE IS
NO RELIGIOUS
WAR IN UKRAINE—MINISTER BORODIANSKY
Minister
of Culture,
Youth, and Athletics Vladimir Borodiansky is sure that in
inter-church
relations, there are no critically acute conflicts. He spoke
about this in an
interview with RISU.
"Ukraine
is a
multiconfessional, multireligious country. I never knew about
this, but we are
the most protestant country of eastern Europe and the most
Baptist in all of
Europe as a whole. We have more than 100 religious denominations
and 36 to 38
thousand registered religious organizations. In this regard our
country is very
colorful. In my view, if we look at such a context, we are
living very
peacefully. We have no clear, critically acute conflicts,
judging by the
monitoring that is conducted by the Department for Religious and
Nationality
Affairs," Borodiansky noted.
Responding
to a
question of whether there is in Ukraine a religious war, he
said:
"Religious war—I cannot say so. There are disputes and there is
a complex
dialogue, but war as such, as you say, of course not."
Borodiansky
also said
that in the event of religious bullying one should go to the
police or to his
ministry.
"If you
know
about such an incident, then in my view you, first, must turn
either to law enforcement
agencies or to us. In the Ministry of Youth, Culture, and
Athletics there is a
monitoring function; we conduct monitoring and keep track of
such things. And
if we see a violation, we talk with those religious
organizations, with their
leaders and primates. If these violations are not removed, or
there are extreme
violations, then law enforcement agencies must work. Nobody can
substitute his
own law enforcement system. If any subject in the legislative
field violates
the law, there is a governmental system of prevention or
punishment so that
there will not be such violations or so that such violations be
brought to
accountability—administrative or criminal," the official
emphasized. (tr.
by PDS, posted 7 November 2019)
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