What religion are the Russians?

[RuggedJay]

I had always assumed they were some distant branch of Christianity since the Islamic terrorists hate them almost as much as the USA.

[colossians323]

Russian Orthodox. Many of the Orthodox churchs make the same claim as Catholics as 'the' church.

[Just Dave]

Eastern Orthodox IIRC

[Badmusic]

Which ones?

[spamsucker]

You mean ethnic Russians or people that live in Russia-proper or people that live in what we grew up knowing as the Soviet Union?

Among the latter group there are Eastern Orthodox Christians as the dominant majority in most areas with other forms of Christianity taking up a few percent. Muslims take up less than 10% overall but represent a majority in some areas (Chechnya). Jews are a minority throughout the middle and western former Soviet states. Buddhists are buttered around the periphery in fairly small numbers.

Observant Muslims don't hate "Russians" or Christians and observant Muslims aren't terrorists. Terrorists are the mall ninja's of religion. They put on all the decoration they can and forget completely about the point of the whole thing. The Q'uran like the Bible and Torah is full of poetry and parables, mysticism and murder. They're all vast books and do not define their religions, nor do the people that subscribe to them. If that were the case then Christians would probably be the most terroristic cult in the world (given the Christian record of slaughter and oppression throughout the ages). Militants do hate people but their religion is irrelevant to their hatred in reality. The confusing part of this is that religious militants tend to couch their hatred as being a response to sins committed by someone other group and they feel that they have to weigh in on said sin and that their opinion matters. Neither is true but they can't see past their ego's to the mirror and so we have conflicts as a result.

FWIW, I don't think terrorism is bad. It is a logical response to a situation in which some group has no voice in the political system but do have an issue that they'd like dealt with. It is a response to living in wretched and oppressive conditions with no chance to positively affect their own lives. I think it's funny as hell that countries everywhere say, "We do not negotiate with terrorists!" and then the FIRST thing they do is begin negotiations. We clearly do negotiate and doing so changes those terrorists into politicians who then have to begin to make headway on their issues or face the fact that their own supporters will cease doing so if real progress is not made and conditions don't change.

[colossians323]

Eastern Orthodox IIRC

yes.........................thats what I meant

[American Samurai]

The Religion of Vodka.

[Magazineman]

Is this a serious question? Because the answer is the simmilar to asking what religion "they" are in Canada or the US.

Religious Russians are Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, & Buddist. All the major brands have a following & most of the minors as well.

An odd thing to ask in my opinion.

What kind of guns do Americans own? Same answer.

[sdkevin]

Look up Christian persecution in Russia..

[Wicked Pete]

The Religion of Vodka.

Right on!

[SanDiegoMan]

I had always assumed they were some distant branch of Christianity since the Islamic terrorists hate them almost as much as the USA.

A lot of the muslim terrorists in that region are from Chechnya which has been oppressed by Russia since Soviet times. They relocated them and tried to force them to not speak their own language, later the Russian Federation fought two wars against them.

[Sunday]

Communism.

[SanDiegoMan]

Communism.

Fail. Communist ideology typically supports atheism. Also the Russians haven't been communist since the early 90s....over 20 years ago.

[ap1040]

A lot of the muslim terrorists in that region are from Chechnya which has been oppressed by Russia since Soviet times. They relocated them and tried to force them to not speak their own language, later the Russian Federation fought two wars against them.

Actually Chechnya was taken over by the Roman Empire long before the Soviets were thought of or took power. The jokes about sending someone to Siberia started long before the Soviets came along too.

So they were oppressed by the Russian Empire, Soviet Union and Russian Federation . . . the more things change, the more they stay the same

[ap1040]

RUSSIAN not Roman Empire, edit didn't take