Public opinion on religious privileges in the republics of the North Caucasian federal district of the Russian Federation: ethnic-sociological analysis

The article is based on materials of ethnic-sociological research conducted in 2016 on the territory of the republic of the North Caucasus Federal District of the Russian Federation: Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, Chechen Republic, Karachay-Cherkess Republic, Republic of Ingushetia, Republic of Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkarian Republic. The survey involved 1200 respondents - 200 people from each republic. The article analyzes the question of the validity of granting state and legal privileges of religious organizations. Respondents were asked to express their opinion about granting the state privileges only to the Russian Orthodox Church; only Islam - the most popular religion in the religion; only three traditional religions of Russia (Orthodoxy, Islam, Buddhism); granting equal rights to all religions or depriving all religions of any privilege. The author comes to the conclusion about almost complete unanimity in the issues of granting religious privileges to the inhabitants of the region -regardless of their religious affiliation, people want equal rights for all religions, they are less willing to grant rights only for all religions. All groups unanimously denied the rights of the privileges of the Russian Orthodox Church, Islam was also unwilling to grant rights to all groups except Chechens, but this option is far inferior to equal treatment of the three traditional or all religions.