Islam and Muslims in Russian Orthodox Church sources

Islam is the most populous religion in Russia after Orthodoxy. This has not changed for eleven centuries, including Tsarist Russia, the USSR period and the Russian Federation today. The Russians first entered the history scene with their religious lives. Their meeting with Islam and their acceptance of Orthodoxy equivalent to the 9th century. Therefore, in order to understand the views of the Russian Orthodox Church about Islam and Muslims, the history of the church must be well known. The Byzantine influence, evident in the first sources, laid the groundwork for the negative interpretation of Islam by the Russians. At the point of researching Islam, the church, which has faced obstacles throughout history both for political and for socio-cultural reasons, has shown a far-from-objective attitude until today The aim of this study is to present objectively the views of important figures, regarding Islam and Muslims, for the Russian Orthodox Church from past to present. In addition, the course of the view on Islam in the historical process has been examined and it has been determined how much this view is reflected in Islamic religious education by the church today.