International Orthodox Christian News

Moscow, February 20, Interfax - Chairman of the boards of trustees of the Russian National Glory Center and the Saint Andrew Foundation thinks that critics of teaching the basics of Orthodox culture at Russian schools make another "clumsy attempt to suppress the national self-identification of Russians."

"Our citizens should be brought up with regard to our national traditions and roots. Basics of Islam must be taught in regions with a predominantly Muslim population. This would be far better than the situation where people return from countries where they were taught an incorrect interpretation of Islam and then become mullahs in our cities," Yakunin said in an interview with the Izvestia daily published on Wednesday.

In all times, "it is primarily the Russian people who bear all problems of multiethnic Russia. Just by default: it is larger. There are more of us," Yakunin said.

"Most Russians died in wars and most Russians suffered repressions. We want to maintain our culture, our traditions and our faith - what is bad about this? This country was built by the effort of many generations of Russian Orthodox people. One should not be boasting, but Russians should demand to be shown no less respect to them than any other nationality living in Russia," Yakunin said.

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