In Moscow, eight members of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster were detained for holding an illegal rally. While the world the internet is familiar with the Pastafarian movement as a parody religion against the literal interpretation of scripture — magical Jesus, Flying Spaghetti Monster, etc. — in Russia, shit gets realer.
The Church of FSP is a registered religion since July 2013 in Russia, however, when 40-50 Pastafarians aged 20-30 in sieve-“hats,” pirate outfits, dry pasta necklaces and some, Anonymous masks, proceeded on their planned rally, they were attacked by Orthodox Christian “activists,” specifically this guy, Dmitri Enteo and his God’s Will crew who have previously protested Pussy Riot, everything gay/not anti-gay ever and Evolution. This time, God’s Will was to spray ketchup all over the Pastafarians.
Then, the police started rounding up the Pastafarian procession for “attempting to hold an unsanctioned rally.”
The video above is from the Kremlin-controlled Russia Today “news” propaganda portal, from a new division billed as a resource for “online broadcasters” (blogging). The RT title of the heavily-edited video is “Flying Spaghetti Monster Church followers scuffle with Orthodox vigilantes.” Hardly a vigilante, Enteo’s a bit more of a state-coddled media-whore, lest we forget “Orthodox Inquisition” protest at the Darwin Museum of Revolution — a deliberate, reverse Pussy Riot action, repeated and documented on several occasions and never punished by the law. For a different, more realistic edit of the events, watch the video below, as Pastafarians march peacefully about until Enteo pops up and things get chaotic as police begin to manhandling, chase and throw around the Pastafarians.
Since before the country-wide crackdown outlawing any LGBT Rights protests of any kind, the Russian government made illegal any “unsanctioned” rallies/gatherings without prior permission all together. At one point, there were rallies against the rally ban, often ending in violence. The last time non-LGBT-or-spaghetti-related arrests made the news was when Moscovites gathered on the street to wish political prisoner/ex-oil tycoon Khodorkovsky a happy 50th birthday.
