Religion Vs Russian Religion Essay

Iran and Russia are two cases in which the relationship between the religion and the state play an important role within the affairs of the country. The modern government of Iran was established as a result of the Islamic Revolution in 1979 in which Islam was codified into the constitution. Russia, on the other hand, had an extensive history of pushing atheism as the state’s religion in an effort to secularize the country. Nevertheless, religion was a significant element in the identity of the Russian people and therefore withstood the oppressive anti-religious policies from previous regimes. Using the parallel authority model on the cases of Iran and Russia, this paper will examine the historical importance of religion in shaping social and

Religion in Iran holds more power in terms of shaping political, customs, and norms within the state. Islam, for example, uses Iran to push its social and political policies on the state. Iran’s legitimacy is derived from religious scholars and leaders called the Mullahs, who use their moral interpretation of Islam to shape the direction of the state. Similarly, the ROC in Russia uses the state to control social policy by giving the government political legitimacy to rule. As a consequence, the state is legitimate because the ROC backs them up. The point in which these two countries differ relates to the parallel authority model and their informal power sharing agreement. There is a clear reciprocal relationship between the ROC and Russia in terms of the benefits they both receive. Russia’s inability to push a more secularized society prevented atheism from dominating the public sphere. The cultural and historical importance of the ROC allowed religion to survive decade’s worth of religious oppression and allowed the ROC to play a role in using its leverage to have a say in public policy. Islam, on the other hand, co-opted Iran through the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and has used it to shape social and political policies. Whereas there was an equal power share between the ROC and Russia, Islam was the clear dominant force in shaping both

For example, the Islamic revolution of 1979 resulted in Islamic religion dominating all aspects of Iranian society. This revolutionary government was an attempt to suppress western ideals that were promoted by the Shah and reinforce Islam’s role in the identity of Iranians. Islam was able to co-opt the state by giving legitimacy to the government in exchange for controlling various aspects of daily societal routines such as education policy. Additionally, the government’s ability to be legitimized resulted in using the power of the state to restrict other religions by giving a monopoly to Islam. Previous Russian regimes had pushed for the socialization of education in terms of promoting atheism as the state’s religion. The idea was to indoctrinate atheism into the political belief system using socialization as a vehicle to paint religion as a vice. Nevertheless, religion was viewed as having a higher authority among its adherents and therefore withstood efforts by the state to remove religion from the public sphere. The case in Russia with respect to the ROC is more reciprocal in nature and operates as a partnership. For example, the state receives its legitimacy from the ROC through political support and therefore allows the state to rule effectively. In return, the state monopolizes religion in terms of restricting religious