"It is religious ignorance that nourishes such phenomena as extremism and terrorism. Like all other leading world religions, Islam bears humanist values. Russia's getting rid of religious ignorance will eliminate a great deal of the radicals' cause," he said.
According to Zorin, today the nation has no document to define the state policies in regard to relations between religious confessions. In its relations with religious organizations, the state relies on laws that are imperfect, he said.
Zorin said that the recent fierce dispute around whether basic religious knowledge should be taught in secular high schools was caused by the lack of such a document.
"I don't think the issue would have become so urgent had there been a concept on which the society could agree to formulate the principles of state policies in regard to this issue. It is high time we came up with a concept of state policies in relations between confessions," Zorin went on.
A concept of relations between the state and confessions should define how Russia's Law on Freedom of Consciousness and Religious Associations should be developed in the future. Adopted in 1997, the law was a compromise adjusted for a transition period in the nation's history, Zorin thinks.
"A revision of this law is inevitable, this is the requirement of modern times. Religious associations, as well as state organizations, say that its articles are far from perfect," the ex-minister said.
The state has been more consistent in its ethnic than in religious policies lately, he said and explained that the concept for the federal ethnic policy was approved by a presidential decree in 1996.
"I can exemplify successful implementation of the concept by the fact that in the late 1980s about 40 national languages were taught in Russia's educational establishments, now there are about 80 languages," he said.
He also praised the ethnic policies concept for the increasing level of national language mastering. According to the latest census, the number of people who said they spoke their native [non-Russian] language grew by 2.7 %. In Zorin's opinion, that could be classified as the real development of a multilingual environment in the country.
However, Zorin said, now these policies require renovation and adjustment due to a tighter system of state governance; social, economic, and political stabilization; and new capabilities of the state.
"For example, we must practically analyze the new numbers of population [of various nationalities] of Russia," he said, "we have some ethnic groups that, according to the latest census, have grown considerably, which requires new resources to satisfy their cultural needs and let them learn their language."
Currently a Council under the President and a governmental commission on religious associations mediate between the state and the clergy.
Zorin described the governmental commission as a body that has been deliberately and consistently developing legislation on the activities and taxation of religious organizations, and on related issues. Some problems have not been solved yet, so it would be of great value to preserve the government-level status of the commission, he insisted.
As for the Culture and Mass Communications Ministry that is now in charge of ethnic and religious policies, Zorin said it should consult more actively with ethnic and religious organizations themselves, as well as civil society institutions and academia.
"If the work is done without account for their interests and needs, all documents in this field will remain on paper," he emphasized.
