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Mufti Hadjimurad Gatsalov, chairman of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of North Ossetia
Our society has lived for more than 70 years in a state that does not recognize religion, which has been aggressive towards religion.
And those people, including us, the older generation, grew up in such a society.
And many of them are unable to relax their minds and realize that religions exist, religion is good, and religion is not aggression.
They are wary of religious people. They do not understand them.
And many are calling the situation a "clash of civilizations."
I would say that there is no clash of civilizations. There are changes in society.
There is a change in the balance of power, which is located in the community, changing the ratio between believers and non-believers, people who perceive believers with sympathy and people who do not accepts faith.
This is not a clash of civilizations. This is a fracturing of society, the dialectic of life, the dialectic of time, and that takes time - five years, ten years, fifteen years.
We all - the authorities, society, the state as a whole, people of faith - should take part in making these changes not so painful for society.
You see, the state and the authorities... Today we can see that the attitude to religion is quite different.
It is not ready to realize that we are concerned, we are helped because, I say it again, that society, a part of society, a part of the state system, officials did not have time to think and to perceive the changes in society and try to restrict freedom, try to limit religious literature, trying to limit human rights.
It is a moment that affects Muslims, Christians, Jews, the representatives of all religious communities very hard, because people understand that their rights are infringed.
And if people are not religious - they do not realize that human rights are violated in this situation.
The president of our great country Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin said that the concept of "state" and "religion" are outdated in the sense in which they are perceived.
It's time to fill these concepts with new meaning. It's time to move forward.
And today, I would like to wish the state, represented by its officials and that part of society that does not understand us, to understand the motivation of religious people, the motivation of their life, faith and meaning of life.
I think realizing this – a person may not accept religion, but he can understand the motivation - they will begin to understand that religion is not evil.
If the state, society, all of us understand that we are united, each will be responsible for each step, for his every word, for every action, the strength and power of the state will not be defeated.
Do you recall the slogan of the Army – "For Faith, Tsar and Fatherland!"? "For Faith" stood first in it.
If today this concept is realized by all people, including non-believers, we will take our place befitting a great country, the highest place in the world that Russia should take.