Ekaterina Elbakyan: "By recognizing the translation as extremist, we recognize the text itself as extremist"

"Some strange philological examination was made, which began with the words that this is the text of the translation of the Bible, and ended with the fact that it is not the Bible. Appealing to the fact that it is not written there, that it was published with the blessing of the patriarch.

There are a huge number of translations of the Bible and, regardless of the quality and number of these translations, they are all translations of the Bible. As we all know, none of these sacred texts are written in Russian language. All of them are presented in the Russian Federation to believers in one translation or another.

What does it mean that a translation can be considered extremist? The text itself can be recognized as extremist, while the translation is secondary to the text. That is, by recognizing a translation as extremist, we essentially recognize the text itself as extremist. And then any translation of it, into any language, will also be extremist.

Such trials of holy books can destabilize the religious situation in the country. Naturally, such a treatment of the Holy Book looks, of course, rather strange, and it can hardly please a believer of any religious direction.

When the ban on the Qur'an in Guliyev's translation was issued, we, probably three years ago, argued, I remember, with colleagues on this topic, and one of them, maybe even me, said: well: will the Bible be next? Unfortunately, our foresight came true."

Ekaterina Elbakyan, Doctor of Philosophy, religious scholar, executive secretary of the editorial board of the scientific and theoretical journal "Religious Studies".