Orthodox priest Milan Radulovic, originally from Bar, Montenegro, now living in Toronto, Canada, translated the Islamic Holy book Quran from Arabic into the Ukrainian language. His aim was to bring Christians and Muslims closer together through this translation.
“The message is that those who love Islam should love it even more and for non-Muslims to make friends with Muslims. My goal was to bring Christians and Muslims closer together, to love each other, to make the faiths into something that binds us, not something that divides us,” Radulovic told N1. “My goal was to bring people together.”
He graduated from the Orthodox faculty in Chicago and received his master's degree in Thessaloniki, Greece. Radulovic completed his Islamic studies in Beirut and received his PhD in Rome. He currently lives in Toronto, Canada where he is a priest in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. Priest Radulovic is also a professor of History of Philosophy at the Islamic faculty there. The reason why he translated the Holy Quran was to make an attractive, yet correct translation of the Book.
“No message, especially the religious one, has an expiration date, and it is eternal. Biblical and Quranic messages are very beautiful. They inspire generations to do good. That message is infinite and linger and more beautiful than all the galaxies in the universe,” he said for N1.
Speaking about himself, Radulovic said he is an ordinary priest and a theologist, someone who likes to make friends.
“Being a professional priest is a wasted investment, just like being a professional Imam (a Muslim priest). Being a priest is something one should feel deep down in one’s soul, one needs to be human first,” the priest noted.
“I like to make friends with people who are of a different religion, who are monotheists outside the Christianity, but also who are polytheists. I like to convey God’s peace and make people around me feel at ease, relaxed and wonderful.”
According to him, nationalism is a great deception created to divide people.
“Nationalism appeared after the French Revolution, and it brought so much evil onto this world like xenophobia, racism and intolerance. Patriotism is something completely different, but too much patriotism can turn into nationalism.”
Looking at people leaving his church, he noticed they always leave with frowning faces. The same thing happens in mosques and synagogues, he said.
“When one enters a place of worship, they should leave all their concerns behind. One should be at peace with God, and they should convey this peace onto others. Whoever isolates themselves into their ghetto or their church or mosque, then they are rejecting God’s love. People who don’t live Islam, don’t love other religions either,” he noted.
Modern man is bothered by someone who has certain principles in life, he added. No man should be disturbed by another man. One must respect other people and their freedoms.
“We are made to be different,” Radulovic concluded.
Apart from Arabic and Ukrainian, he speaks Albanian, Italian, Russian, Greek, French, English and as he likes to put it ‘Serbo-Croatian’ language.
