Petr
11-15-2005, 01:28 PM
Yes, death to the suffocating "Religion of Civility," the mother of Political Correctness!
http://www.fsumonitor.com/stories/111005Russia.shtml
Window on Eurasia: Russian Novelist Consigns Civil Society to the Past and Muslims to Hell
(November 10, 2005)
Paul Goble
Tallinn, November 9 - The author of the controversial Russian anti-utopian novel, "The Mosque of Notre Dame de Paris," says that religious wars are inevitable in today's world, that Russia will turn away from a secular civil society, and that all Muslims will go to hell unless they convert.
In an interview posted on the Religion and Media portal over the weekend, Elena Chudiniova, expressed her views on a wide variety of questions in the same uncompromising spirit she displayed in her book, which describes the efforts of a underground Christian movement to overthrow a Muslim-dominated Europe in 2048.
Because of the violence across France and the fears this has generated in Moscow (see, for example, the comments of various Russian leaders just surveyed by "Nezavisimaya gazeta-Religii" at http://www.ng.ru/printed/politics/2005-11-07/1_uroki.html ), Chudinova and her outspoken positions are attracting ever greater notice.
In this interview, she said she was pleased that her book and ideas were gaining an audience, noting that she had heard from a wide variety of Russians who share her views and insisting that "not a single Orthodox priest had spoken out against her," despite the efforts of some in the media to suggest that she was at odds with the Church.
Chudinova said that she had written her book not as a utopia or anti-utopia about the future but as "warning" about the threat that Islam poses to the Christian world and as a call to arms. Arguing that "in the contemporary world, a religious war is inevitable" and even ongoing, she said that she was in favor of Crusades against Islam.
Asked whether a modus vivendi might be achieved between the Christian world and the Muslim one, Chudinova, who gained renown as the author of Orthodox stories for children, said that it might be possible but only if the Christian world was strong enough to make sure than no one in the Islamic world could challenge it.
She said that she supported the decision of the Dutch government following the murder of a filmmaker there by a Muslim extremist to ban the wearing of certain Muslim clothing because "no [such clothing] can become part of European civilization." If Muslims want to wear it in their own countries, she said, that was OK, but they must not outside their borders.
Chudinova dismissed suggestions by Eurasianist Aleksandr Dugin that Russians were afraid of Muslims because of some weakness in Russian identity. That is simply absurd, she continued, arguing that Russians don't want the streets dominated by people from the Caucasus because "they want their daughters to be able to return home safely."
She suggested that Christians must take the initiative in promoting their faith among Muslims because "we must remember that these peoples will go to hell after their deaths, and we must try to arrange things so that does not happen. If we do not think that they will go to hell, then we are not Christians, and if we are Christians, then we must proselytize."
But "because we are not what they are and we are not terrorists," Christians must work within the limits of the law of their secular societies, even as they work to transform those societies into Christian ones. And the day will come, she insisted, when "we will inevitably leave secular society in the past."
In this interview, Chudinova touched on one of the most sensitive issues of Christian-Muslim relations in Russia: the number of ethnic Russians who have converted to Islam. According to her, the number is "not as small as it seems." Muslim "recruiters" are working in rural areas, and they have won over many "naive" and "illiterate" young people.
But despite all these statements and despite her ringing conclusion that Christians must end what she called the "double standard" under which all criticism of Orthodoxy is fine but all criticism of Islam is illegitimate, Chudinova ended this interview in the same way she has ended others:
She insisted that she does not have "anything personal against Muslims. On the contrary, I have encountered only good people [among them]. But truth is something dearer, as is well known."
http://www.fsumonitor.com/stories/111005Russia.shtml
Window on Eurasia: Russian Novelist Consigns Civil Society to the Past and Muslims to Hell
(November 10, 2005)
Paul Goble
Tallinn, November 9 - The author of the controversial Russian anti-utopian novel, "The Mosque of Notre Dame de Paris," says that religious wars are inevitable in today's world, that Russia will turn away from a secular civil society, and that all Muslims will go to hell unless they convert.
In an interview posted on the Religion and Media portal over the weekend, Elena Chudiniova, expressed her views on a wide variety of questions in the same uncompromising spirit she displayed in her book, which describes the efforts of a underground Christian movement to overthrow a Muslim-dominated Europe in 2048.
Because of the violence across France and the fears this has generated in Moscow (see, for example, the comments of various Russian leaders just surveyed by "Nezavisimaya gazeta-Religii" at http://www.ng.ru/printed/politics/2005-11-07/1_uroki.html ), Chudinova and her outspoken positions are attracting ever greater notice.
In this interview, she said she was pleased that her book and ideas were gaining an audience, noting that she had heard from a wide variety of Russians who share her views and insisting that "not a single Orthodox priest had spoken out against her," despite the efforts of some in the media to suggest that she was at odds with the Church.
Chudinova said that she had written her book not as a utopia or anti-utopia about the future but as "warning" about the threat that Islam poses to the Christian world and as a call to arms. Arguing that "in the contemporary world, a religious war is inevitable" and even ongoing, she said that she was in favor of Crusades against Islam.
Asked whether a modus vivendi might be achieved between the Christian world and the Muslim one, Chudinova, who gained renown as the author of Orthodox stories for children, said that it might be possible but only if the Christian world was strong enough to make sure than no one in the Islamic world could challenge it.
She said that she supported the decision of the Dutch government following the murder of a filmmaker there by a Muslim extremist to ban the wearing of certain Muslim clothing because "no [such clothing] can become part of European civilization." If Muslims want to wear it in their own countries, she said, that was OK, but they must not outside their borders.
Chudinova dismissed suggestions by Eurasianist Aleksandr Dugin that Russians were afraid of Muslims because of some weakness in Russian identity. That is simply absurd, she continued, arguing that Russians don't want the streets dominated by people from the Caucasus because "they want their daughters to be able to return home safely."
She suggested that Christians must take the initiative in promoting their faith among Muslims because "we must remember that these peoples will go to hell after their deaths, and we must try to arrange things so that does not happen. If we do not think that they will go to hell, then we are not Christians, and if we are Christians, then we must proselytize."
But "because we are not what they are and we are not terrorists," Christians must work within the limits of the law of their secular societies, even as they work to transform those societies into Christian ones. And the day will come, she insisted, when "we will inevitably leave secular society in the past."
In this interview, Chudinova touched on one of the most sensitive issues of Christian-Muslim relations in Russia: the number of ethnic Russians who have converted to Islam. According to her, the number is "not as small as it seems." Muslim "recruiters" are working in rural areas, and they have won over many "naive" and "illiterate" young people.
But despite all these statements and despite her ringing conclusion that Christians must end what she called the "double standard" under which all criticism of Orthodoxy is fine but all criticism of Islam is illegitimate, Chudinova ended this interview in the same way she has ended others:
She insisted that she does not have "anything personal against Muslims. On the contrary, I have encountered only good people [among them]. But truth is something dearer, as is well known."