By Free Pussy Riot Now - Свободу девушкам из Pussy Riot!
Religious fanatics are the same everywhere, just dressed differently. - Религиозные фанатики повсюду одинаковые, только одеваются по-разному.
They tell you how you shoud live. - Они учат вас жить.
Stone you for 'immodesty'. - Забрасывают камнями за 'нескромность'.
Jail you for 'blasphemy'. - Сажают в тюрьму за 'кощунство'.
Join our cause! - Присоединяйтесь к нашей акции!
FREE PUSSY RIOT!
PUSSY RIOT AND THE THREAT TO GOD
by Nick Revell, Huffington Post 06/07/2012
PUSSY RIOT AND THE THREAT TO GOD
Don't know whether you saw this - but God appeared and spoke to someone the other day. I'm surprised it didn't get wider coverage, but that's aggressive secularism in the modern world for you. Anyway, he spoke to a member of the Russian Orthodox Church. The famously reclusive deity, dubbed the JD Salinger of the Supreme Being Community, has seen no reason to issue any kind of comment or statement on any human activity, no matter how morally questionable or indeed challenging to the whole idea of His/Her/Its very existence, for the last several thousand years. (The last appearance was possibly when he whispered in Mohammed's ear and told him that people who didn't worship Him in the same way as Mohammed did, needed to be killed immediately.)
Well, after two or three millennia of completely refraining from any further spiteful shit-stirring in human affairs, God finally showed up again about 10 days ago. Some speculate it was a pre-emptive attempt to counter-spin imminent proof of the existence of the Higgs boson, which in turn disproves the existence of God in anything but metaphorical terms: An existential crisis of such severity that God decided to contact a Russian Orthodox Priest called Vsevolod Chaplin and express his opinion on the punk band Pussy Riot. That's right, no new commandments or dietary stipulations; no additional ambiguous moral precepts open to hair-splitting and murderous multi-interpretation; no apologies or even explanations for the holocaust, homophobia or Mark Lawrenson. No, God breaks hundreds of years of silence... to slag off some musicians.
Pussy Riot are a feminist political music collective who in February, dressed in colourful balaclavas, mini-dresses, and tights, stormed into the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow to perform their song Punk Prayer, which denounces human rights abuses in Russia and calls on the Virgin Mary to save the country from Vladimir Putin.
Punk-Prayer "Virgin Mary, Put Putin Away"
(choir)
Virgin Mary, Mother of God, put Putin away
Рut Putin away, put Putin away
(end chorus)
...
Black robe, golden epaulettes
All parishioners crawl to bow
The phantom of liberty is in heaven
Gay-pride sent to Siberia in chains
The head of the KGB, their chief saint,
Leads protesters to prison under escort
In order not to offend His Holiness
Women must give birth and love
Shit, shit, the Lord's shit!
Shit, shit, the Lord's shit!
(Chorus)
Virgin Mary, Mother of God, become a feminist
Become a feminist, become a feminist
(end chorus)
The Church’s praise of rotten dictators
The cross-bearer procession of black limousines
A teacher-preacher will meet you at school
Go to class - bring him money!
Patriarch Gundyaev believes in Putin
Bitch, better believe in God instead
The belt of the Virgin can’t replace mass-meetings
Mary, Mother of God, is with us in protest!
(Chorus)
Virgin Mary, Mother of God, put Putin away
Рut Putin away, put Putin away
(end chorus)
Vladimir Putin: a man who understands the fragile nature of post-dictatorship Russian democracy better than any other Russian ruler. Which is why he never lets anyone else have a go.
Three members of Pussy Riot - Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Ekaterina Samutsevich - were arrested shortly after the protest and have been in detention ever since. If they get convicted they face a seven year sentence. Mind you, given the illegality of their arrest and continued postponements of trial dates, it looks like they face a seven year sentence even before they are convicted. In fairness to the Russian authorities, though, there is a hearing going on as I write; proceedings were suddenly rushed forward to ensure both speedy carriage of justice, and that the defence lawyers have not nearly enough time to properly review the prosecution case.
