WORLD RELIGIOUS LEADERS SUMMIT IN RUSSIA CALLS FOR

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 MOSCOW 007493

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/10/2016
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM SOCI PINR RS
SUBJECT: WORLD RELIGIOUS LEADERS SUMMIT IN RUSSIA CALLS FOR
ACTIVE DEFENSE OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

Classified By: DCM Daniel Russell. Reasons 1.4 (B/D).


1. (C) SUMMARY: Meeting in Moscow July 3-5, more than 200
religious leaders and clergy from over 40 countries called on
believers of all faiths to engage in dialogue and partnership
to resolve global problems, as well as to challenge
terrorism, extremism, and efforts to restrict religious
freedom. President Putin echoed this theme in his remarks to
the group when he underscored the powerful unifying force of
religion and encouraged interfaith dialogue to mitigate
extremist tendencies that could lead to violence. Most of
the world's major religions were represented at the summit,
which was organized by the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and
timed to take place just prior to the G8 Summit in St.
Petersburg. The final declaration encouraged interfaith
cooperation and could signal easing of tensions between the
ROC and some other denominations -- most notably the Roman
Catholic Church -- but it will require considerable effort by
all sides to follow up the soaring rhetoric with concrete
action. END SUMMARY.
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WORLD RELIGIOUS LEADERS CONVENE IN MOSCOW
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2. (SBU) More than 200 religious leaders and clergy from
over 40 countries met in Moscow July 3-5 at the World Summit
of Religious Leaders to promote interfaith dialogue and
cooperation. Representatives of the Christian, Muslim,
Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, and Shinto faiths responded to an
invitation from Russia's ROC-dominated Interreligious Council
to convene in advance of the St. Petersburg G8 Summit.
Pointedly missing from the invitation list were Pope
Benedict, the Dalai Lama, Muslim leaders from Iraq, and
leaders of some of the so-called (by the ROC) "new
religions," such as the Hare Krishnas, the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints, Jehovah's Witnesses, and other
Protestant groups. ROC spokesman Vsevelod Chaplin was quoted
as saying: "It would be difficult for us to sit at the same
table as Jehovah's Witnesses, who strongly distort the
teaching of Christianity." The Vatican sent a senior
delegation consisting of five cardinals, and the Pope offered
his personal greetings to participants, which ROC spiritual
leader Patriarch Aleksey II subsequently acknowledged as a
testimony to the "positive development of relations between
the Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches."
Metropolitan Kirill, head of the ROC's External Church
Relations Department, was the nominal chairman of the
three-day event.


3. (SBU) In addition to senior religious figures, the summit
attracted a number of political leaders. Putin opened the
meeting with an address in which he underscored the power of
religion and encouraged believers to work together to counter
extremism, xenophobia, and ethnic and religious intolerance,
as well as to guard against those who used religion as a
justification to advance political goals, including terrorism
and separatism. He warned participants that a "conflict of
civilizations was unfolding in the world and that it was
necessary to understand the consequences of this
confrontation." Putin described attempts to drive wedges
between Christian and Muslim communities as a new global
challenge. He encouraged the religious summit leaders to
develop recommendations, which he promised to convey to his
G8 counterparts when they met in St. Petersburg July 15-17.
Other senior GOR officials participating in the summit
included Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and First Deputy
Prime Minister Dmitriy Medvedev. UN Secretary General Kofi
Annan reportedly also sent greetings to the participants.


4. (SBU) Many participants of the summit addressed the issue
of extremism, and religious education was proposed as an
antidote to it. "One of the reasons behind extremism is
ignorance of religious tradition," said Kirill. "An absence
of positive knowledge about religion allows dishonest people
to encourage others to embrace extremist views," he
continued. "We are facing international terrorism that
misuses religion, especially when it is used for a pretext
for hatred and murder," said Cardinal Walther Kasper, the top
Catholic representative at the summit. Armenia's Catholicos
Garegin II also blamed secularism for extremist violence, and
Russia's chief rabbi, Berl Lazar, said that international
terrorism "is recruiting militants by using religion."
Religious leaders should, in his view, play a more active
role in society as "spiritual leaders." "It is not religion
at all that causes terrorism and extremism," said Mufti Ravil
Gaynutdin, chairman of the Council of Muftis of Russia.
"Religious feelings are fueled to the boiling point only
against the background of social and economic problems, and
it usually happens in the service of someone's concrete
political interests," he added.

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5. (SBU) There was obvious tension at the conference between
Jewish leaders and Iran's leading ayatollah for interfaith
relations, Muhammed Ali Muhammed Taskhiri. At the opening
ceremony, Israel's Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger
pointedly said with reference to Iran's president Mahmud
Ahmadinejad: "There are leaders in the world who deny the
Holocaust and speak of genocide against themselves only, and
it is our duty to tell these people that not a single person
in the world has the right to say that another country should
disappear." In response, at the final press conference,
Taskhiri said he could have a dialogue with Judaism but not
with Zionism: "If you mean dialogue between Iran and Israel,
I see nothing in common here on which to base a dialogue."


6. (SBU) The final declaration, which had been drafted
before the summit, underscored the importance of religion for
social order, cross-cultural dialogue, and international
peace. It has two basic premises: first, that religion
should be a unifying and pacifying force, rather than a
divisive tool that incites conflict; and second, that
religion, government, and civil society should partner to
fight major threats at both the domestic and international
levels. It called for respect for all religions, encouraged
state-civil-religious partnerships to enhance ethical values
in domestic society and promotion of global development --
from fighting poverty to dealing with AIDS and drug
addiction. The declaration also addressed social issues,
emphasizing the value of human life "from conception to final
breath and natural death" and the importance of the family.
The declaration emphasized the importance of human rights as
a concern for religious leaders, but within the confines of a
religious re-interpretation of human rights, similar to the
one announced at a national forum organized by the ROC in
April. The declaration also included several statements on
international affairs that clearly echoed GOR thinking. For
example, it referred to the virtue of combining democracy
with the "moral feeling, way of life, various legal and
political systems, and national and religious traditions of
people," and to the desirability of a multipolar world with
many different but equal types of government. It also stated
that religious leaders should have a "more systematic
partnership" with the United Nations.


7. (C) Participants at the summit told us that in general
they were pleased with the event. They said it was mainly a
showpiece for the ROC and another feather in Putin's cap in
the run-up to the G8, but nevertheless it gave the
participants a chance to interact with one another. Those
who were not invited -- such as the Hare Krishnas, who asked
to attend but were denied -- complained that it was just
another sign the ROC did not really believe in a
multidenominational society and that the ROC thought it could
cherry-pick which religions were "legitimate" in Russia. The
Hare Krishnas also made the point that, although Hinduism is
the world's third largest religion with around 850 million
followers, only two Hindus were invited to the summit.
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COMMENT
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8. (C) Carefully orchestrated to take place just prior to
this year's G8 Summit, the World Summit of Religious Leaders
was an opportunity to portray Russian society as tolerant and
magnanimous, as well as to showcase Putin's acknowledgment of
religion as a powerful social and political force that should
be harnessed to benefit society. The summit was also
designed to bolster the credentials of the ROC, casting the
Church as inclusive and welcoming. The deliberate failure to
invite the Dalai Lama, however, demonstrates that the ROC is
still not ready to ignore political realities, i.e., Chinese
objections to the Dalai Lama, for the sake of religious
harmony. It is also worth noting that the final declaration
issued by summit leaders incorporated several themes of
Russian foreign policy, such as a reference to double
standards and the importance of fighting terrorism, and
implicitly acknowledged the increasingly intimate
relationship between the GOR and the ROC.


9. (C) That said, the summit was an important event that
brought together in one place senior religious figures who
represented the vast majority of the world's population.
They produced an uplifting declaration that balances the
demands of religious believers for tolerance and acceptance
with a pragmatic acknowledgment that secular problems must
also be addressed if the effort to shape healthy community
attitudes is to succeed. In addition, the exchange of
positive messages between Pope Benedict and Aleksey II is
evidence of the continuing thaw in relations between the two
churches. Nonetheless, it will take considerably more than

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soaring rhetoric and good feelings to transform the summit
leaders' declaration into a concrete action plan that
tangibly advances religious tolerance.
BURNS