Moscow Patriarchate: anti-Islam film and vandalism against the Church, links in the same chain
Moscow (AsiaNews)
- The anti-Islam
film that has sparked violent protests in more than 20 countries worldwide can
be compared to the attacks on Christian symbols during the last month in Russia. This according to the Russian Orthodox
Patriarchate which affirms that 'freedom of expression must
comply with clear moral limits. The
speaker was the head of the Synodal Department for Relations between state and
society, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, in a recent interview with the Interfax news agency. "Personally
- denounced Chaplin - I think that the continuing actions in the Cathedral of
Christ the Saviour, the appearance of a film that insults the founder of Islam,
the attacks on U.S. embassies and swastikas on synagogues are links in the same
chain." The
cleric defines those who have desecrated symbols, extremely important for
specific social groups, long considered untouchable, vandalized buildings, such
as embassies and places of worship as "crazy" people.
He
said these crimes are far worse than normal because "when you desecrate a
symbol considered important to a community, you try to belittle and subjugate
the whole of that community." "It
is no coincidence - he added - that these actions have then led to large-scale
conflicts in history." The
priest also urged the international community to take the necessary measures to
prevent such action, calling for "serious and inevitable punishment"
for such crimes and noted that "freedom of expression must have clear
moral limits, because it is not absolute
and, according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the most
elementary logic, should not be taken beyond morality, public order and civil concord".
Since,
August 17, when Moscow's Khamovniceski court sentenced the three girls from punk
band Pussy Riot to two years in prison (guilty of "hooliganism motivated
by religious hatred" for a anti-Putin performance in the Cathedral of
Christ the Savior) incidents
of attacks
on religious symbols have increased in Russia: crosses hacked to pieces, anticlerical
graffiti and acts of vandalism against churches and icons.
06/05/2010
30/10/2017 10:09
31/07/2018 09:59