RUSSIA: Russian Orthodox radicals protest against singer Madonna

Blackshirted members of a radical Russian Orthodox group drove a stake through a poster of U.S. pop star Madonna in central Moscow on Monday (September 4) and demanded she cancel her show there, which they consider blasphemous. Tickets to Madonna's September 12 concert in Moscow -- part of her global 'Confessions' tour -- have all been sold in spite of protests from the main Christian churches. The Orthodox church has urged believers to stay away from the show, in which Madonna sings from a crucifix wearing a crown of thorns, describing it as blasphemy. "We demand that Madonna be turned away from Russia. If she flies over here, she must not be allowed to enter our territory, and must be confined to the neutral territory at the airport - let her stay in that neutral territory," said Leonid Simanovich-Nikshich, head of a group calling itself the Union of Orthodox Religious Banner Bearers, as he addressed protesters, numbering some 200 people, in Moscow's Pushkin Square. His views were echoed by another member of the radical Orthodox group. "She has no right to come to an Orthodox country, being a Kabalist and a Satanist, with all the acts she performs. This the position of the people here, the Russian people," said activist Igor Miroshnichenko. Simanovich-Nikshich and other blackshirted supporters then drove a stake through a poster of Madonna, ripping it up and stamping on the pieces. Many fringe Orthodox groups have expanded or appeared in post-Soviet Russia, exploiting a religious revival and public frustration with the painful transition to capitalism.

ITN Source | September 6, 2006

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