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The Moscow Patriarchate: The United States is not objective in assessing religious freedom overseas |
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Written by The Free Copts
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Saturday, 01 April 2006 |
Moscow, March 30, Interfax - Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate
Department for external church relations metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad thinks that the USA use biased sources of information for assessing religious freedom in other countries.
'Objectiveness is obviously lacking. Why is it so? Is it politically predetermined or is it just an error?', metropolitan Kirill said at a news conference in Interfax while commenting on a recent positive assessment by the U.S. Department of State of religious freedom in Afghanistan and criticism of religious freedom in Russia.
He believes that the U.S. understanding of religious rights in
Russia is formed 'by marginal sources that lay outside the general flow of information. A distorted vision of the situation is inevitable because of that'.
Metropolitan Kirill thinks it strange that while forming its
assessment of religious freedom in Russia the U.S. Department of State never tries to dialogue - through the U.S. Embassy in Moscow - with the Russian Orthodox Church or other traditional religions in Russia.
Speaking about freedom of religion in Afghanistan, he described the recent trial for a former Muslim converted to Christianity as 'a gross violation of religious freedom' and noted that the Russian Church was deeply concerned over it.
'If the Afghan leadership use biased sources of information on
religious freedom, a false picture is inevitable', the metropolitan thinks
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