Zostrianos
25th May 2012, 05:30
Here's a dangerous group to keep an eye on: the Orthodox Gonfalon (Banner) bearers, an extreme right wing fundamentalist group who are essentially the radical wing of the Russian Orthodox Church:
The Union of Orthodox Banner-Bearers…was co-founded in 1993 by Leonid Simonovich…The contemporary Union of Banner-Bearers follows the Black Hundreds precedent of denying membership even to converted Jews…For Simonovich and the members of his Union, we are living in the Last Days, and politics is an irrelevance…America is castigated as a secular Satan, whose crime in bombing the Serbs is not her interference in the affairs of another state, but her decision to take up arms against an Orthodox country…Simonovich resurrected a more important fundamental – the Patristic declaration that a synagogue is a refuge of demons. Simonovich’s organisation also seeks to resurrect the medieval myth of Jewish ritual murder as evidence of the Jewish threat, publicly calling for the canonisation of Andriushy Iushchinsky, whom Jews were accused of murdering in 1911, and declaring that the murder of Tsar Paul I bore the hallmarks of a ‘Masonic’ ritual killing…Further threats to the integrity of Russian Orthodoxy are offered by Roman Catholics, NATO and the West…
http://barthsnotes.com/2011/06/01/russian-orthodox-spokesman-claims-he-had-never-heard-of-orthodox-brotherhood/
They often resort to violence against gays, regularly disrupt gay parades, and also target non Christians - they vandalized a Neopagan temple in Ukraine last year. They also rally against anything cultural they see as immoral (e.g. pop stars, the theory of evolution, etc.) - they regularly burn books in protest. A few years ago they burned Harry Potter books:
Moscow, October 10, Interfax - A group of activists representing the Union of Orthodox Gonfalon-Bearers burned a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by Joanne Rowling at Beresnevskay Naberezhnaya St. shortly before the book is awaited at Moscow sales.
'We oppose propaganda of occult or magical ideas under the disguise of children-books. We never allow our children to be involved into Satanism or witchcraft,' said the Union's head Leonid Simonovich-Nikshich, Kommersant daily reports on Wednesday.
A group of the Union members proceeded to the Patriarshiy Br. chanting a prayer, and after that they tore the book to pieces and burned it.
'It burns well,' Simonovich-Nikshich said and promised to go on his struggle against what he believed to be 'heretical literature.'
'We are a holy inquisition. We have always struggled against heresy, and will never stop!' he said.
Last year, the Union members protested against Madonna's concert in Moscow. During their meeting at Novopushkinskiy Sq. they burned a poster with her image. During their another meeting, the Gonfalon-Bearers pierced Madonna's image with a stake.
The final, seventh, book about Harry Potter will arrive in Russia's shops on Saturday .
Here's a ceremony they performed where they symbolically kill gays:
http://englishrussia.com/2011/05/31/banner-bearers-against-gays/
The Union of Orthodox Banner-Bearers…was co-founded in 1993 by Leonid Simonovich…The contemporary Union of Banner-Bearers follows the Black Hundreds precedent of denying membership even to converted Jews…For Simonovich and the members of his Union, we are living in the Last Days, and politics is an irrelevance…America is castigated as a secular Satan, whose crime in bombing the Serbs is not her interference in the affairs of another state, but her decision to take up arms against an Orthodox country…Simonovich resurrected a more important fundamental – the Patristic declaration that a synagogue is a refuge of demons. Simonovich’s organisation also seeks to resurrect the medieval myth of Jewish ritual murder as evidence of the Jewish threat, publicly calling for the canonisation of Andriushy Iushchinsky, whom Jews were accused of murdering in 1911, and declaring that the murder of Tsar Paul I bore the hallmarks of a ‘Masonic’ ritual killing…Further threats to the integrity of Russian Orthodoxy are offered by Roman Catholics, NATO and the West…
http://barthsnotes.com/2011/06/01/russian-orthodox-spokesman-claims-he-had-never-heard-of-orthodox-brotherhood/
They often resort to violence against gays, regularly disrupt gay parades, and also target non Christians - they vandalized a Neopagan temple in Ukraine last year. They also rally against anything cultural they see as immoral (e.g. pop stars, the theory of evolution, etc.) - they regularly burn books in protest. A few years ago they burned Harry Potter books:
Moscow, October 10, Interfax - A group of activists representing the Union of Orthodox Gonfalon-Bearers burned a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by Joanne Rowling at Beresnevskay Naberezhnaya St. shortly before the book is awaited at Moscow sales.
'We oppose propaganda of occult or magical ideas under the disguise of children-books. We never allow our children to be involved into Satanism or witchcraft,' said the Union's head Leonid Simonovich-Nikshich, Kommersant daily reports on Wednesday.
A group of the Union members proceeded to the Patriarshiy Br. chanting a prayer, and after that they tore the book to pieces and burned it.
'It burns well,' Simonovich-Nikshich said and promised to go on his struggle against what he believed to be 'heretical literature.'
'We are a holy inquisition. We have always struggled against heresy, and will never stop!' he said.
Last year, the Union members protested against Madonna's concert in Moscow. During their meeting at Novopushkinskiy Sq. they burned a poster with her image. During their another meeting, the Gonfalon-Bearers pierced Madonna's image with a stake.
The final, seventh, book about Harry Potter will arrive in Russia's shops on Saturday .
Here's a ceremony they performed where they symbolically kill gays:
http://englishrussia.com/2011/05/31/banner-bearers-against-gays/