Moscow (AsiaNews) – As they did when plans were unveiled for a new mosque, Muscovites are in uproar over Mayor Sergei Sobianin’s plans for new Orthodox churches in the city. An open letter signed by students, teachers and graduates from Moscow State University (MGU) on Monday appeared on line against the construction of a new church on their campus, which is located on Sparrow Hills overlooking the capital.
A day later, the letter already had 100 signatures, and the petition was going strong. For the signatories, the plan was “paradoxical” and “in contradiction with the spirit of a university education” if the institution “openly sided with one particular religious confession” over others.
The letter noted, “The situation in which ecclesiastical power tries to infiltrate the secular culture of a university discredits both civilian institutions and the Orthodox faith” since “religion, beyond any creed and including Orthodoxy, for many is a profoundly personal matter”.
The authors of the message emphasise that the Church in Russia is separate from the state and that a secular university “cannot become an arena for religious propaganda”. Instead, the MGU “must offer students a view on the world that is as pluralistic and broad as possible”.
In March, Sobianin approved and gave the green light for the construction of 60 new Orthodox churches in Moscow in response to requests from the Moscow Patriarchate.
The Muslim community, the second largest religious group in the country, is facing obstacles in obtaining the building permits for the city’s fifth mosque.
