Moscow Patriarchate: anti-Islam film and vandalism against the Church, links in the same chain

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.