Injecting a bit of humor into the stream while a cosmic surplus of rocks comes our way. (h/t Michael Wells)
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Injecting a bit of humor into the stream while a cosmic surplus of rocks comes our way.

(h/t Michael Wells)

The Russian punk band Pussy Riot have been found guilty of religious hatred for their protest inside the Cathedral of Christ the Savior today. The Interfax news agency translates the Khamovnichesky Court verdict as such:

“The Pussy Riot singers colluded under unestablished circumstances, for the purpose of offensively violating public peace in a sign of flagrant disrespect for citizens.,” the court said in a verdict being pronounced on Friday.

The women were motivated by religious enmity and hatred, and acted provocatively and in an insulting manner inside a religious building in the presence of a large number of believers,” the court said.

The court also has found that the Pussy Riot activists realized that their actions during the “punk prayer” in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior were insulting and intended to communicate information on the stunt to a broad range of believers.

“Intending to make the planned actions public and ensure that they drew public response, to draw the attention of the public to their illegal actions, and to communicate the expressed disrespect not only to the clergy and people in the church, but also to other citizens who were not present in the church at the time [of the punk prayer], but shared Orthodox traditions, Samutsevich, Tolokonnikova, Alyokhina, and their unidentified accomplice informed various media assistants and active bloggers on their action,” the sentence read in the Khamovnichesky Court on Friday says.

Up top is the video of the Pussy Riot “protest-as-prayer” performance for which three members of the band have found guilty.

~Trent Gilliss, senior editor

St. Petersburg Time-Lapse Symphony with Blazing Violins

by Trent Gilliss, senior editor

Andrew Efimov’s dramatic time-lapse of the St. Petersburg, Russia is bursting with violins, skylines, fireworks, cargo ships and racing cars. What  way to start the morning!

How do you show what’s happened to these women? You can’t. So you show their lives without their husbands and sons. You look for these moments where you see how hard it is for them, how they break down. From simple things, like putting a shelf up, to having somebody else help them with their kids.

— Diana Markosian, on photographing surviving women in the North Caucasus

Muslims in Russia
From “Muslims in Russia” (photo: ©Diana Markosian)

by Shubha Bala, associate producer

I love this interview with 21-year-old photographer Diana Markosian and what she says about how she gets her honest photographs:

“News photographers know exactly what shot they’re looking for. After they have it, they’ll leave. But you stick around for just a bit, and you’ll get something a little different.

It seems to me to be the visual version of what we do here at Krista Tippett on Being.

Tatarstan, A Model for Interfaith Dialogue Trent Gilliss, online editor The most unexpected connections are often made through the most unlikely sources. A couple of days ago, a friend of mine (whose name you might see in our photo credits from time to time) sent me an e-mail asking for advice on restaurants where he could entertain some diplomats from the republic of Tatarstan. Now, Marc’s got a sly, subtle, playful humor. I immediately thought he was joking and made a play on words — Tatar, as in cream of tartar or steak tartare, and a dining establishment. But, I know that he also served in Turkmenistan as a Peace Corps volunteer and that the NGO he works for conducts a fair amount of business in that area of the world where most countries end in “stan.” A quick search revealed that Tatarstan is an actual place, and part of the Russian Federation. My ignorance shining brightly, once again. In the most delightful way, I also happened upon a number of reports detailing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Kazan, its capital. And, more serendipitously, an article from Radio Free Europe reported she said that “the Russian republic of Tatarstan could serve as a model for tolerance and coexistence between Muslims and Christians.” Our current show, “Curiosity over Assumptions,” highlights the work of two women who are leading a Muslim-Jewish interfaith group in Los Angeles, and might serve as a new model for this type of dialogue within local communities. As we look domestically for people coming together with their religious identities intact, it’s helpful to be reminded that other countries in unimaginable areas have wrestled for centuries with these issues and have much to teach if we are only aware — and do a Google search. (photo: U.S Secretary of State Clinton visited the Kol Sharif mosque and later the Annunciation Cathedral in Kazan on October 14, 2009.)
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Tatarstan, A Model for Interfaith Dialogue
Trent Gilliss, online editor

The most unexpected connections are often made through the most unlikely sources. A couple of days ago, a friend of mine (whose name you might see in our photo credits from time to time) sent me an e-mail asking for advice on restaurants where he could entertain some diplomats from the republic of Tatarstan.

Now, Marc’s got a sly, subtle, playful humor. I immediately thought he was joking and made a play on words — Tatar, as in cream of tartar or steak tartare, and a dining establishment. But, I know that he also served in Turkmenistan as a Peace Corps volunteer and that the NGO he works for conducts a fair amount of business in that area of the world where most countries end in “stan.”

A quick search revealed that Tatarstan is an actual place, and part of the Russian Federation. My ignorance shining brightly, once again.

In the most delightful way, I also happened upon a number of reports detailing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Kazan, its capital. And, more serendipitously, an article from Radio Free Europe reported she said that “the Russian republic of Tatarstan could serve as a model for tolerance and coexistence between Muslims and Christians.”

Our current show, “Curiosity over Assumptions,” highlights the work of two women who are leading a Muslim-Jewish interfaith group in Los Angeles, and might serve as a new model for this type of dialogue within local communities. As we look domestically for people coming together with their religious identities intact, it’s helpful to be reminded that other countries in unimaginable areas have wrestled for centuries with these issues and have much to teach if we are only aware — and do a Google search.

(photo: U.S Secretary of State Clinton visited the Kol Sharif mosque and later the Annunciation Cathedral in Kazan on October 14, 2009.)