HOW SHOULD WE TREAT ISLAM AFTER BESLAN?

The Arabic word "Islam" means "peace". And yet, in the name of a religion that bears such a worthy name, the most abominable murders are committed. In modern society, it is not customary to ask neighbors about their nationality and religious views. But the tragedy in Beslan made us think about the extent of our differences. The tragedy of the Islamic world is that it has not yet developed a stable immunity simply of its own radicals. But this illness of his hurts us - his neighbors not only on the planet, but also on the street...

This collection brings together six of my speeches on the topic of the Chechen conflict and terrorism: articles in Izvestia, Trud, Ogonyok, Tribune, and a speech on the Echo of Moscow radio. The distance between them is almost ten years. The reality in Moscow and Chechnya has changed. Has Islam changed? I don't know. But my judgments on these topics have become harsher. And not only mine. More and more bewilderment, condemnation, and indignation against Islam are accumulating among Christians. And, therefore, it is becoming more difficult for Muslims to live next to us. In order for the precious guarantee of Russia's unity – peace between Christians and Muslims – not to collapse, it is necessary for the Islamic world itself to realize the problem of Islamic terror as its disease. The usual incantations on the topic "terrorists have no religion and nationality" are an aid in the spread of the concealed disease, and not a cure for it.

HOW SHOULD WE TREAT ISLAM AFTER BESLAN? [1]

....there is no need to say that these apples did not have an apple tree

Among the children captured in the Beslan school was 13-year-old Sasha Pogrebov. "- They (militants. -Note. Author.) In the morning, they began to mock us. We were all sitting naked, and the terrorist saw a cross around my neck. At this time, the first explosion had already exploded under the windows of the school. The boy was poked in the chest with a barrel, crushing the cross into his thin body, then they demanded: "Pray, infidel!" Sasha shouted: "Christ is Risen!" and then the bandits began to throw grenades into the crowded gym! Sasha realized that there was nothing more to lose. In the midst of the explosions and screams, he shouted something, but he did not remember what he himself remembered, and threw himself into the open window. And another hundred children ran after him" (this is how his story is reported by Komsomolskaya Pravda on September 6).

But even if this episode had not happened, we would still have to say that what happened in Beslan was not just a crime. This is a religious crime. Ritual murder. The killing of children committed with prayer and in the name of the terrorist's faith. With a cry of "Allahu Akbar", the terrorist kills people, sacrificing them to his religious idea[2].

Therefore, the assessment of these, legally speaking, "acts" cannot rise above the bar that Patriarch Alexy emphasized in his message to the President of the Russian Federation V. V. Putin in connection with the mass death of hostages in Beslan on September 3: Satanism ("Throwing off all masks, terrorism has revealed its satanic face: trampling on all that is holy, not fearing God and not ashamed of people, the so-called "freedom fighters" raised their hands, stained with innocent blood, against the children").

A Christian sacrificed by a Satanist undoubtedly falls to Christ - to the One Who sacrificed no one to Himself, but sacrificed Himself for all. Such was the path of the first Russian saints: the Martyrs Theodore and John (Comm. 12 July). In 983 – five years before the Baptism of Rus – the Kievan pagans decided to sacrifice Theodore's son, John, to their gods. The Christians did not express their consent to this – and were killed.