Michael Cromarty: "Your society is a model of harmonious relations between faiths"

On June 27, President of Tatarstan Mintimer Shaimiev received at the Kazan Kremlin the delegation of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) headed by the Chairman Michael Cromarty.

The meeting was attended by State Advisor to President of Tatarstan on Political Issues Rafail Khakimov, US Commission on International Religious Freedom Executive Director Joseph Crapa, Deputy Executive Director Ted Stanke, Chief of the President of Tatarstan Department of Internal Policy Alexander Terentiev, Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of Tatarstan Council on Religious Affairs Renat Nabiev, US Commission on International Religious Freedom expert on international law Robert Blitt, US Embassy in Russia Third Secretary James Morris and other officials.

"If such a respected commission has arrived in Tatarstan, it reflects concern of the global community about the present-day issues related to religious freedom," opening the meeting said President of Tatarstan. "The world is changing, some of its problems get new overtones to them and escalate. Undeniably, these processes need to be monitored, properly assessed and, based on that, most sensible policies should be developed. This is very important as Russia and other states situated in the post-Soviet territory have made attempts to build an atheistic society. Religious practice was then on the verge of extinction. But faith so much fills the souls of men that as soon as in the perestroika years there appeared an opportunity to use the constitutional right of religious freedom, everything very quickly restored - this shows the strength of people's faith."

Following the meeting, Michael Cromarty and Rafail Khakimov answered questions from journalists.

"Tatarstan has a specific model of developing relations between faiths that is interesting to our guests, while we in turn are interested to learn about the situation with religious freedoms in the world, so we in this republic could further strengthen consent between religions," said Rafail Khakimov. "Naturally, the members of the commission have the question often asked by the press: how big is the danger of extremism penetrating into Tatarstan and manifesting itself here. Considering our positive experience, steps are being made in politics and education system aimed at our traditions of tolerance to always dominate."

"Before Kazan, we spent two days in Saint-Petersburg, five days in Moscow and two days in Kazan," told the journalists Michael Cromarty. "We have not yet made any particular conclusions but we are impressed with the relations between different faiths, their co-existence in peace and harmony. This is best symbolized by a Muslim mosque and a Christian cathedral standing next to each other in the Kazan Kremlin.

We have met with different people and asked whether they felt their religious rights were infringed on. We had an opportunity to openly and honestly talk to representatives of all the religious groups.

On the whole, we have discovered that your society, we can say, is a model in the issues of harmonious relations between different religions."