Many other bloggers, including Fr Ray Blake, have posted about the case of the Russian girl band who desecrated St Saviour's Cathedral in Moscow and have now been sentenced. There has been great outcry from the Western media and figures of popular culture, such as Madonna and Sting, whining about human rights and freedom of speech but contrast that with the many, many human rights abuses against vulnerable people with no voice going on every day in countries such as Pakistan, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia.
In Pakistan Rimsha Masih, an 11 year old Christian girl with Down's Syndrome, has been arrested for supposedly burning pages of the Quaran. (Fr Tim Finigan here and the British Pakistani Christian Association here.)
In Saudi Arabia 15 girls died in a school fire after police forced them back into the blazing building because they were not wearing the correct Islamic dress. (See here - even the BBC manged to report it!)
In Nigeria the ongoing attacks on the Christian community resulted in three more dead after a car bombing outside a church this week. See here.
At the Thinker Blog, Bill Warner posted on The Silence of the Pulpits yesterday suggesting some reasons for why we hear so little of these atrocities and others - not just against Christians - which makes interesting reading.
But for these outrages against human rights and attacks on freedom, where is the outrage we have seen against the women from Pussy Riot being arrested in Russia? Where are Madonna and Sting when it comes to defending disabled 11 year old Christian girls? NOWHERE. The women of Pussy Riot knew just what they were doing. They are articulate, middle class, politically active women with liberal views. I heard a piece on Radio Four the other day where the journalist had been with them at their rehearsals for the song they were to desecrate the Cathedral with, practising and being interviewed. It was an act that was conscious, well prepared and media aware.
But why is it the liberal establishment of press and pop stars will rush to defend these savvy types but not those who really need someone to speak out for them - those with no voice, those who are really vulnerable, those terrified for their lives to speak out or even profess their faith? Their liberal care and outrage of figures like Sting and Madonna is hollow and self-serving. Speaking out in support of the women of Pussy Riot gets the liberal media massaging their egos and they can present themselves as modern day heroes but who wants to speak up for disabled Christian girls in Pakistan that might only win you bad press in the Islamic world?
Not Sting or Madonna, it would seem.
5 comments:
Very well said! Deo gratias. atheistic liberalism taking over from atheistic communism aiming for the same goals, the destruction of Christianity. Where are the christian celebrities?
Father, no doubt Bishop Lang as Foreign Affairs lead for the CBCEW has issued a powerful condemnation of the Pakistani authorities and we just haven't noticed it.
I expect it's all covered by the justice 'n' peace bidding prayers.
Just one point: the incident where the Saudi girls were forced back into a burning building was indeed shocking and scandalous, but it was hardly recent. As the link to the BBC story shows, it happened in 2002!
Well said Father! Anyone with half a brain can see that Sting and Madonna and their like are only out for the attention and self-satisfying praise. I don't ever think I have ever read of a celebrity that has stood up for minority Christians- not in the media, not in charities, not in Hollywood movies even. Thank goodness we don't have Madonna as an example or model to look up to! She is waaaaay past her used by date, and is only wanting to stay relevant (rather than useful) in this world. What legacy to leave behind.
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