Pussy Verdict: Putin, Hooliganism, and the Orthodox Church

Friday will see the verdict, but last Saturday Reason TV posted this clip: ‘Amnesty International called Russian punk feminist collective Pussy Riot “prisoners of conscience,” after a February 21 anti-Putin protest landed three members of the band on trial for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.” The plight of Pussy Riot has provoked international attention — and pressure for lenience — as the women face three to seven years in prison. On August 10, Reason TV headed down to the Solidarity Concert for Pussy Riot, right across from the Russian embassy (11 August 2012)’.

On Friday, 17 August 2012, the Pussy Riot girls were convicted of hooliganism. The wording employed by the judge, however, sounded more like a blasphemy charge: “The girls’ actions were sacrilegious, blasphemous and broke the church’s rules”.[1]  The three jailed members of Pussy Riot now face a two year jail sentence . . . for performing a “punk prayer” in a Russian Orthodox cathedral. Judge Marina Syrova appears to toe the line very well. The news agency Reuters’ Timothy Heritage and Maria Tsvetkova opine that the judge “declared all three guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred, saying they had deliberately offended Russian Orthodox believers by storming the altar of Moscow’s main cathedral in February to belt out a song deriding Putin. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Marina Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, giggled as the judge read out the sentences one by one. They have already been in jail for about five months, meaning they will serve another 19. They say they were protesting against Putin’s close ties with the church when they burst into Moscow’s golden-domed Christ the Saviour Cathedral wearing bright ski masks, tights and short skirts”.[2]  In fact, the girls came off lifghtly, as “[s]tate prosecutors had requested a three-year jail term”.[3]  It seems to me that the Russian judiciary was “lenient” in only handing out a two-year verdict, possibly a result of Putin’s intercession as a reaction to the global outcry. Marina Syrova could have gone up to seven years in jail, and by way of good from the prosecution’s demand for three appears somewhere in the middle. The Reuters report quotes the following statement: ‘”They are in jail because it is Putin’s personal revenge,” Alexei Navalny, one of the organizers of big protests against Putin during the winter, told reporters outside the court. “This verdict was written by Vladimir Putin”’.[4]  Under Putin’s benign rule, state and church work together in Mother Russia. On the other hand, nationalism and racism are on the rise and lead to many unprosecuted and unpunished crimes in Russia.

The independent advocacy and action organization Human Rights First’s Innokenty Grekov writes recently that the Russian “government ignored problem of violent, racially-motivated attacks for many years. Only recently have authorities stopped calling skinheads ‘hooligans’, and gone after the neo-Nazi gangs that were responsible for hate crimes. Having arrested and prosecuted the bulk of violent racists, the government turned up the heat on others whom it could potentially view as intolerant, but wound up targeting those with differences of opinion.  As a result we ended up with a mountain of cases in which journalists, religious believers, and artists face persecution in Russia. Though racially motivated attacks continue to occur—an African man and a policeman who came to his rescue were just severely beaten in Moscow three days ago—the police and courts nowadays have much more time on their hands to pursue other extremist enemies of Russia”, adding bleakly that “[o]ne of them is, of course, Pussy Riot”.[5]

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[1] “Russia’s Pussy Riot protesters sentenced to two years” Reuters (17 August 2012). http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/17/entertainment-us-russia-pussyriot-idUSBRE87F1E520120817.

[2] Timothy Heritage and Maria Tsvetkova, “Russia’s Pussy Riot protesters sentenced to two years” Reuters (17 August 2012). http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/17/entertainment-us-russia-pussyriot-idUSBRE87F1E520120817.

[3] Timothy Heritage and Maria Tsvetkova, “Russia’s Pussy Riot protesters sentenced to two years”.

[4] Timothy Heritage and Maria Tsvetkova, “Russia’s Pussy Riot protesters sentenced to two years”.

[5] Innokenty Grekov, “The Enemies of Russia’s Freedom” Human Rights First (16 August 2012). http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/2012/08/16/the-enemies-of-russia%E2%80%99s-freedom/.

Pussy Punishment: Punk Protest gone Awry

The trial of the female punk band, Pussy Riot, has resumed in Moscow after a weekend recess. With public opinion over the controversial case divided, the question on everyone’s lips is just what the verdict will be (6 August 2012).

Bob Dylan Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom

This happened some time ago, but would appear to deserve some commentary, as I am a big fan of the singer and his songs: ‘President Barack Obama awarded the great Bob Dylan the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award at a ceremony at the White House’.

On the White House website this explanation can be read: ‘The Medal of Freedom is the Nation’s highest civilian honor, presented to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors’.[i]  And this year, the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize Winner Barrack Obama awarded these prestigious tokens of appreciation to many outstanding individuals, including the protest singer of protest singers, Bob Dylan or Mister Robert Zimmermann. In addition, ‘President Obama honored . . . former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, Israeli President Shimon Peres, author Toni Morrison, civil rights campaigner and National Farm Workers Association co-founder Dolores Huerta and astronaut John Glenn’.[2]

President Obama said that “There is not a bigger giant in the history of American music”, [and that Dylan with the] “unique gravel-y power” of his voice helped redefine “not just what music sounded like, but the message it carried and how it made people feel”.[3]  Never a truer word was spoken . . .

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[1] “2010 Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipients” The White House. http://www.whitehouse.gov/medal-of-freedom.

[2] Bob Dylan Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom” Rolling Stone (29 May 2012). http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/bob-dylan-awarded-presidential-medal-of-freedom-20120529

[3] “Bob Dylan Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom”.

Religious Fundamentalism Is Wrong???

Via the BBC: “Officials in Pakistan are travelling to a remote north-western region to find out if four women, who apparently sang and watched as two men danced, have been murdered in an honour killing”. Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur share their take on religious fundamentalism and judging a culture (11 June 2012).

The BBC reported this story some days ago: ‘Officials in Pakistanare travelling to a remote north-western region to find out if four women, who apparently sang and watched as two men danced, have been murdered in an honour killing. Video footage of the men and women, who gathered as part of a wedding celebration, has been widely seen. Villagers say the women were later killed. Local officials deny this. The men in the video appeared in court on Wednesday charged with creating conditions for tribal violence. Local officials not only failed to produce the women in the court on Wednesday [, 6 June] but were also unable to produce any proof they were still alive, as directed by the court earlier’.[1]  The events took place in the remote area of Kohistan (or the Land of the Mountains).

And as it turns out, the culprit is not necessarily the “culture” of the area, but more likely the influence of a man, namely Maulvi Abdul Haleem. This religious leader, able to issue fatwas among other things, is a well-known enemy of women’s rights.

People, men as well as women, seldom act as a result of their own volition. A certain degree of persuasion and manipulation always helps. Last May, for instance, Abdul Haleem issued this decree, as he told a diligent journalist taking notes: “I issued a decree during Friday sermon [on 4 May 2012] that getting education for degrees by women is repugnant to Islamic injunctions because if a woman gets degree, she may use it for job, an act which Islam doesn’t allow in absence of mehram [close relatives]”.[2]  Rather than simply blaming “religion” or “culture”, these facets of human civilization are easily manipulated by power-hungry leaders of men, such as Maulvi Abdul Haleem, who unscrupulously further their own cause by exploiting the weak. The fact that Mister Abdul Haleem uses the sobriquet maulvi, denoting a high rank of seniority as a scholar of Islam, discloses his envious grip on power of his fellow-men in Kohistan. In a proud voice, the Maulvi even stated that “That’s why girls are not going to schools in Kohistan and girl schools are used as cattle pen”, [3] obviously referring to his own decrees and judgements.

 In order to give an idea of the terrible power wielded by the frustrated maulvi, here is a clip of two Pakistani Girls who have the good fortune not to be living in Kohistan and formed a band called The Cheapmunks.

 And here is a clip of Zeb & Haniya performing their surprise  hit song “Chup”.

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[1] “Pakistan probes ‘honour killings’ of four women” BBC News (06 June 2012). http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18341379.

[2] “Ex MNA from Kohistan Threatens Working Women” Dawn (05 May 2012). http://www.aboardthedemocracytrain.com/ex-mna-from-kohistan-threatens-working-women.

[3] “Ex MNA from Kohistan Threatens Working Women”.

Pussy Riot: Feminism against Putin

From Moscow, FT’s Charles Clover reported last month that “[t]wo members of an all-girl punk band have been jailed and may face stiff prison sentences for a prank-like performance inside Moscow’s main Orthodox cathedral last month. The harsh treatment of the musicians seemed to signal a rising intolerance for dissent in the wake of Sunday’s presidential elections which won Vladimir Putin a third term as Russian president. It is also a test of sorts for radical feminism – a fringe ideology in macho Russia, yet one which seems to be catching on amid three months of protests against the Kremlin”.[1]

The all-girl punk band mentioned above is the “feminist punk-rock collective” called Pussy Riot. They stage ‘politically provocative impromptu performances in Moscow, on subjects such as the status of women in Russia, and most recently against the election campaign of Prime Minister Putin for president of Russia. Their usual costume is skimpy dresses and tights, even in bitterly cold weather, with their faces masked by brightly colored balaclavas, both while performing and giving interviews, for which they always use pseudonyms. The collective is made up of about 10 performers, and about 15 people who handle the technical work of shooting and editing their videos, which are posted to the Internet. The group cites American punk rock band Bikini Kill and the Riot Grrrl movement of 1990s as an inspiration. “What we have in common is impudence, politically loaded lyrics, the importance of feminist discourse and a non-standard female image,” Pussy Riot said’, as related by the ever-trustworthy Wikipedia.[2]

The Wiki entry goes on to explain: ‘On February 21, 2012, as a part of the growing protest movement against Vladimir Putin, Pussy Riot performed a punk rock song in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour of the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow. In the song, the group prayed to the “Holy Mother, Blessed Virgin” to “chase Putin out.” On March 3, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, two alleged members of Pussy Riot, were arrested by Russian authorities and accused of “hooliganism”, for which they face up to 7 years in prison. Both arrested women deny being members of the group and started a hunger strike in protest against being held in jail away from their young children until their case comes to trial in April. On March 16, another woman, Irina Loktina, who had earlier acted as a witness in this case, was similarly arrested and charged. According to Union of Solidarity with Political Prisoners, all women are charged with “hooliganism” according to article 213/2 of the Russian Criminal Code, without any evidence for incriminating such charges, which makes both pre-trial arrest and the charges illegal. This action may cost the women up to seven years in prison, if convicted. All three are recognized as political prisoners by the Union of Solidarity with Political Prisoners (SPP). Amnesty International named them prisoners of conscience due to “the severity of the response of the Russian authorities”. However, opinions in Russia about this act and its social acceptability differ significantly. ­Speaking at a liturgy in Moscow’s Deposition of the Robe Cathedral on March 21, 2012, the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill I of Moscow condemned Pussy Riot’s actions at Christ the Savior Cathedral as “blasphemous” saying that the “Devil has laughed at all of us. We have no future if we allow mocking in front of great shrines, and if some see such mocking as some sort of valour, as an expression of political protest, as an acceptable action or a harmless joke,” the Patriarch said. Meanwhile, several thousands of Orthodox and Catholic believers, the believers of other religions and even atheists signed a petition to Patriarch Kirill, begging the head of the Russian Orthodox Church to stand up for the girls. inger Alla Pugachyova appealed on the women’s behalf, stating that they should be ordered to perform community service rather than be imprisoned’.[3]

On 19 April 2012, the news agency Reuters reports that ‘Russian police detained at least 13 people who demonstrated outside a courthouse on Thursday against the arrest of three members of a women’s punk rock group that performed a protest song in Moscow’s main cathedral, witnesses said. The court was to decide whether to extend the detention of the three women over the performance, in which the group known as Pussy Riot sang a song against president-elect Vladimir Putin in short dresses and coloured masks in Christ the Saviour Cathedral. About 60 of the group’s supporters chanted “Freedom! Freedom!” outside the beige brick Moscow courthouse and some released green, pink and yellow balloons with Pussy Riot’s trademark masks drawn on them. Scuffles broke out when a Russian Orthodox bystander threw an egg at the husband of one of the three detainees. A Reuters reporter saw police drag at least 13 people off into police vans, two of them for throwing a smoke bomb. The three women could face seven years in jail on hooliganism charges but deny taking part in the protest in February. No date has been set for trial and the court was expected to extend their pre-trial detention. Anger over their arrest has fuelled criticism of the Russian Orthodox Church, whose status has improved vastly since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and which has played an increasingly active role in politics since then’.[4]

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[1] Charles Clover, “Russia jails female punk band members” FT (08 March 2012). http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/0112976c-6938-11e1-9618-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1sWY1y9yQ.

[2] “Pussy Riot” Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pussy_Riot.

[3] “Pussy Riot” Wikipedia.

[4] “Pussy Riot hearing sparks protest in Moscow” Reuters (19 April 2012). http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/89eaa2ec-8a39-11e1-93c9-00144feab49a.html?ftcamp=published_links/rss/world/feed//product#axzz1sWY1y9yQ.

Radioactive Material: You Can’t See It, and You Can’t Smell It Either

Japan reggae artists MC Rankin and Dub Ainu Band deliver a cautionary message about radioactive material through this song and music video “You Can’t See It, and You Can’t Smell It Either” (14 October 2011).

 

Fat, Beauty, and the Power of Images

In more than one way, the world’s population is getting bigger and bigger; governments the world over are talking about ways to tackle the obesity epidemic; and all the while, the fashion industry and the ubiquitous media continue to propagate the message that FAT is a bad three-letter-word and that it is “in” to be “thin”. Still, in the face of this constant onslaught there are a few brave “voices” that speak out . . . voices belonging to people like Thibault Guerin, the creator of the below propaganda clip Plastik.

Below is another clip showcasing Guerin, propounding his message against the dictatorship of the beauty industry and its insistence upon thin as the norm for acceptable and desirable “objects of beauty” to be imitated and aspired to by one and all. Nevertheless, his above-featured piece of agitprop still seems to push the idea that blonde hair dye is a prerequisite for achieving wide and wider appeal. You win some, you lose some . . .

 

The BBW activist J. T. Marquis writes on The BBW Lifestyle Gazette blog that “it’s not just ‘thin’ that’s in, but more accurately, ‘ultra-thin.’ Such an ideal is understandably quite intimidating to a majority of women. They know instinctively that the image is unnatural. And yet it seems to remain compelling, for reasons that resist articulation. It’s like a magic spell, bidding women to embrace what they know to be insane for the promise of ultimate cultural acceptance. That’s the function of Image in the media. It is calculated to override logic”.[1]

 

And then, there are some artists who unashamedly depict big and bigger ladies for the delight of the few and the many in between. For example, the Italian photographer Yossi Loloi, who seems to have started working on his current project in 2006. Loloi hails from the northern Italian city of Milano. And this is his credo: “In my work I portray what larger women represent to me. I focus on their fullness and femininity, as a form of protest against discrimination set by media and by today’s society. What larger women embody to me is simply a different form of beauty. I believe we own ‘freedom of taste’ and one shouldn’t be reluctant of expressing his inclination towards it. Limiting this freedom is living in a dictatorship of esthetics”. His work is on display on his website the Full Beauty Project and here are some samples.[2]

ZOOM Magazine’s verbose Renato Corsini had this to say: Yossi Loloi’s “most recent work, “Full Beauty”, is powerful, provocative and ironic. It turns on its head the role of the female nude and its depiction made up of stereotypes tied to fashion and the cult of a sculpted and constructed body focused on glamour and eroticism to the point of being a fetish. And for Yossi, it offered the  opportunity of showing his ability to break the rules and to interpret a world – that of the nude – which seemed to have said all that it had to say. With irony, but also deep respect for his models, he places before us obese women who even go beyond what is commonly considered “fat”, individuals relegated to the daily existence of “clothes” and highlighted in the special context of the
“nude” that exaggeratedly accentuates the emotional impact through his choice to utilize large format photographs. All done with tremendous professionalism and supported by an impeccable technical knowledge of the photographic medium. It would have been easier, and perhaps sufficient, to exploit the concept and provocation by merely focusing on these bodies that, in their own right, attract attention, but Yossi went a step further: he set his models in elegant, inviting surroundings with chromatic compositions and furnishings the result of detailed study that leaves nothing to chance. The result is a gallery of unusual characters, proud of their extraordinariness and not at all willing to remain in the wings, here conspirators in a project of a photographer they know capable of immortalizing their bodies and turning them into icons that are destabilizing and consciously different. The colors and framing introduce us into a rigorously essential world; the objects become an integral part of the bodies and the source of light work towards highlighting the compositional symmetry. A stylistic study that is never an end in itself, but rather an attempt to attain that ‘harmony of opposites’ represented by the rotundity of the nude bodies against the angularness of the furnishings”.[3]

In addition, the interwebz have also opened up horizons for many people in the “movement”, the Fat Acceptance Movement. On YouTube for instance, there is Project Lifesize: Just Your Average-Sized Collaboration. This project was created by the singer-songwriter Meghan Tonjes,[4] whose angelic voice and delicious melodies are slowly conquering the world via the internet. With regard to Project Lifesize, she states the following: “I started Project Lifesize September 2008. It was a reaction to harassing comments and messages I was receiving on my Youtube videos, often centered around my weight and physical appearance. While I was rarely affected by these comments, I didn’t want my younger subscribers to see them. I knew many people avoided posting their own videos in fear of receiving the same hate. I initially put out a casting call, looking for 6 other women who could portray a more accurate and hopefully a more positive view of curvy women. The goal was always to create a dialogue,not about weight acceptance, but self love . . . Project Lifesize definitely opened a new world up to me. Until then I had never considered myself a part of a plus size community, mostly because there was no community around me. I was always the biggest girl and often felt alone because of it. The women and men who have been a part of the channel, on a regular basis or as Viewers of the Month, have really opened my eyes to different issues that we all are dealing with. It’s easier for me to tell my own story now, whether the stories are funny or sad, because I’ve interacted with the most supportive group of people. I’ve become more comfortable and confident with who I am inside and outside as I’ve seen all of the people who have dealt with the exact same issues. Beyond just men and women who struggle with weight, we’ve connected with people who have felt outcast in general”.[5]

 

(8 November 2008)

Nowadays a whole subculture has sprung up around the issue of big and bigger ladies (as well as gents), a subculture whose proponents make enthusiastic use of numerous acronyms to spread the word: BBW or Big Beautiful Woman. SSBBW or Super-Sized Big Beautiful Woman. The acronym BBBW then refers to Big Beautiful Black Woman. BHM or Big Handsome Man, or sometimes a BBM or Big Beautiful Man. Fat Admirer or FA and a Female Fat Admirer or FFA. Additionally, there are also such concepts as Feeder and Feedee: “Feedee: A person who fantasizes about being fed, or being fed for sexual pleasure. Feeder: A person who derives pleasure from feeding or feeds for sexual pleasure”. To each his or her own, and beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder. In order to put an academic gloss on the subculture relating to the preference of big and bigger ladies (and/or gents), I would here like to quote a report published in Journal of Sex Research: “Related to the discussion of fat acceptance is the phenomenon of “fat admiration” (i.e., a sexual attraction to heavier partners) . . . Fat admiration is difficult to define precisely, but is usually used in relation to individuals (typically, heterosexual men) who find attractive someone considered clinically  overweight (a body mass index [BMI] higher than 25 kg or obese (BMI above 30kg). The issue is complicated by the fact that some fat acceptance authors reject terms such as “overweight” and “obese,” which are considered to stigmatize fat . . .  Moreover, the preferences of fat admirers (FAs) themselves can be wide ranging, and the targets of those preferences can range from being slightly overweight to morbidly obese. Even so, a consistent thread among FAs appears to be their rejection of the thin ideal as an unnecessarily prescriptive societal construct”.[6]

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[1] J. T. Marquis, “Anorexia Wars: The Media’s Eternal Obsession With Emaciation” The BBW Lifestyle Gazette (22 December 2008). http://bbwgazette.blogspot.com/2008/12/anorexia-wars-medias-eternal-obsession.html.

[2] http://www.fullbeautyproject.com/.

[3] “Renato Corsini – “ZOOM Magazine” New Talent Special Issue – Spring 2011” Full Beauty Project. http://www.fullbeautyproject.com/index.php?/about/about/.

[4] To listen to Meghan Tonjes, visit her YouTube channels at  http://www.youtube.com/user/tonjesml.

[5] “End Fat Talk Follow-Up: Project Lifesize & Meghan Tonjes” 700stories (24 October 2009).  http://700stories.wordpress.com/2009/10/24/end-fat-talk-follow-up-project-lifesize-meghan-tonjes/.

[6] Viren Swami and Martin J. Tovee, “Big beautiful women: the body size preferences of male fat admirers.” The Journal of Sex Research (01 January 2009). http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Big+beautiful+women:+the+body+size+preferences+of+male+fat+admirers-a0196534094.

To What Strange Place: Ottoman Music in America

When producer Ian Nagoski started collecting the 78′s that make up To What Strange Place, he initially thought he was collecting music of the former Ottoman Empire recorded in Greece, Turkey, and Syria. What he learned instead was that he was collecting some of the earliest recordings made in America — until now almost completely forgotten. This short film explores Nagoski’s search for the lives behind the music of “To What Strange Place,” and what his search says about his own need to reclaim these lost
voices from obscurity (4 July 2011).

 

Oklahoma City travels to Scandinavia, #2: The Oslo Suspect borrowed from Unabomber’s Manifesto

 

As reported by AP’s Kristen Wyatt, ‘[p]arts of the manifesto written by the suspect in Norway’s terrorist attack were taken almost word for word from the writings of “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski. The passages copied by Anders Behring Breivik appear in the first few pages of Kaczynski’s manifesto. Breivik changed a Kaczynski screed on leftism and what he considered to be leftists’ “feelings of inferiority” — mainly by substituting the words “multiculturalism” or “cultural Marxism” for “leftism.” For instance, Kaczynski wrote: “One of the most widespread manifestations of the craziness of our world is leftism, so a discussion of the psychology of leftism can serve as an introduction to the discussion of the problems of modern society in general.” Breivik’s manifesto reads: “One of the most widespread manifestations of the craziness of our world is multiculturalism, so a discussion of the psychology of multiculturalists can serve as an introduction to the discussion of the problems of Western Europe in general.” Breivik did not cite Kaczynski, though he did for many other people whose writings he used in his 1,500-page manifesto. He used at least one portion verbatim: “Feminists are desperately anxious to prove that women are as strong and capable as men. Clearly they are nagged by a fear that women may NOT be as strong and as capable as men”‘. (1)

 

Norway is a small yet extremely affluent country with a tiny population. The North Sea oil has turned Norway into a welfare paradise where Norwergian citizens are enjoying the proverbial good life. This easy lifestyle no doubt aided Breivik in planning and then executing his murderous campaign. As a self-proclaimed Islamophobic Crusader trying to ignite a Europe-wide civil war against Muslims and other dark-skinned people present in the white-skinned and blonde-haired continent, Breivik has taken the rhetoric of the “Clash of Civilizations” to its logical extreme. His reasoning appeared to be that, in the absence of an outright violent Muslim attempt to overthrow Europe, it was up to people like himself to precipitate a violent (re-)action to Islam and Muslims living in Europe. But, was it really such a surprise that a Norwegian would come up with such a plan??? As the New York Times‘ film reviewer Mike Hale informs us, there seems to a whole array of ill-smelling things brewing in Norway: ‘Aaron Aites and Audrey Ewell’s absorbing, low-key documentary Until the Light Takes Us recounts how a few Norwegian musicians hijacked an obscure offshoot of heavy metal and made it world famous, by moving from clown paint and anti-Christian imagery into vandalism, church burning and killing. Between interviews, it illustrates the Norwegian context — cold and dark, liberal but ultra-conformist, increasingly globalized — in which these diffident, smart, polite young men came to feel alienated and racially and culturally oppressed’.(2)

 

Hale continue that the ‘film focuses on Varg Vikernes and Gylve Nagell, a Mutt-and-Jeff pairing better known by their black-metal stage names, Count Grishnackh and Fenriz. The doctrinaire Mr. Vikernes is interviewed at the prison in Trondheim where he is serving a maximum sentence for murder and arson; this being Norway, the sentence is 21 years, and colorful curtains hang in the sunny interview room, encapsulating some of the paradoxes of Norwegian rebelliousness. Mr. Nagell, who was not implicated in the violence of the early 1990s and continues to make metal music with his band Darkthrone, is introspective and focused on the art’.(3)  Now, the fact that Anders Behring Breivik, also living in “cold and dark, liberal but ultra-conformist, [and] increasingly globalized” Norway and feeling equally “alienated and racially and culturally oppressed”, has taken the whole discourse to a hitherto unimaginable level might lead to certain changes in Norwegian society, changes which might lead to better relations with Muslims and other minorities living in the “liberal but ultra-conformist” country, or maybe not . . . In the below short television interview, the father of Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik disowns his son, saying he “should have taken his own life”.  

 

　

(1) Kristen Wyatt, “Norway suspect borrowed from Unabomber’s manifesto” AP (25 July 2011). http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/national/norway-suspect-borrowed-from-unabombers-manifesto.

(2) Mike Hale, “The Music of Church Burning” The New York Times (04 December 2009). http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/12/04/movies/04until.html?partner=Rotten%20Tomatoes&ei=5083.

(3) Mike Hale, “The Music of Church Burning”.

Disharmony from the Minarets | European Journal (Deutsche Welle)

In Turkey, the muezzin calls Muslims to prayer five times daily. But not all of them hit the correct notes. Now they are receiving singing lessons to help them stay in tune.Many muezzins in Istanbul deliver an impassioned call to prayer, but it is not always music to the ears. Overamplified external speakers also impact on the voice quality, making it sound tinny and distorted. Residents living near mosques often complain about the noise. Now the Mufti of Istanbul has decided to tackle the problem. The muezzins have been ordered to take classes. Any muezzin found unable to sing will have his voice replaced by a professional recording.