Sarka's original reply to me was here:
Green Infidel:
If a group of Muslim (or of Muslim background) women went into a mosque, and cavorted a bit chanting a ditty that went “Oh Allah, oh for the sake of Ayesha, drive out (insert name of political leader in Muslim-maj state), and may crap fall on the head of (insert name of leading imam), oh we are feminists for Allah! etc etc…” Then THAT would be a sort of equivalent. An EDL group rushing into a mosque in shoes and chanting. “Allah Allah, who the fuck is Allah?”, would NOT be an equivalent.
As far as I know, all the convicted Pussy Rioters are at least vaguely Russian Orthodox Christian by background (none are of other faiths by background, anyway – I am sure if one had been Muslim, or Jewish by background we would have heard about that!), and they made reference to RO cultural traditions – as being their own, Russian traditions – in their statements.
To which I replied (banned by HP):
@sarka - what does "their own traditions" mean?! Did the families of Pussy Riot go to church - or were they perhaps a small part of the vast Soviet state apparatus that was, among their other activities, persecuting the Church? That makes a slight difference - for the latter, making fun of religious symbols is something that's likely been practiced for most of their lives... so how exactly would doing so in adulthood be "radical" in any way?! And would you say the descendants of Soviet security forces sending priests to Gulags also share Russian "Orthodox tradition" - and if they acted disrespectfully to Orthodox beliefs, that it would be comparable to people who were once Orthodox doing the same?!
If PR were once Orthodox then the above of course does not apply. But I'm still not sure how it would be any more acceptable - personally as a Catholic, if anything, I would find it more offensive if those from a Catholic background acted disrepectfully towards their former religion than the likes of Ian Paisley. After all, they should know better!
"Acting disrespectfully" is the operative phrase here - PR did not merely criticise Orthodox belief. They went way above that, invading the sacred area of a church to do something seriously offensive to Orthodox believers.
(by comparison, in the case in Pakistan, it is only alleged that a young girl who may have Down's Syndrome did something in any way comparable)
Apparently this was too much for HP's rules - but Sarka, if you're out there - this is my reply. Any on-topic replies posted here will not be removed!
