Yiannis Baboulias tells us more about Greece and Golden Dawn.
On Thursday night the Athens premiere of Terrence McNally’s play, Corpus Christi, was cancelled following protests by members of the far-right party Golden Dawn (including some MPs) and religious groups.
The protest had a clearly homophobic agenda. Manolis V, a journalist, was attacked by protesters while the police apparently did nothing: “The police is next to us. I shout ‘They’re beating me, aren’t you going to do something?’,” he wrote on Twitter. “I move away so I can look on from distance. A well-known Golden Dawn MP follows me. He punches me twice in the face and knocks me to the ground. While on the ground, I lose my glasses. The Golden Dawn MP kicks me. The police are just two steps away but turn their back.”
The spectacle of fascists physically attacking people whose moral agenda they disapprove of has become routine in today’s Greece. What should come as more of a shock is the tacit approval of the police.
Another place on the list of places we have to be grateful not to live in. I hate that list, because so many people do have to live in the places on it, and are subject to the violence and intimidation that make the list what it is.
Not only have the Golden Dawn refused to apologise for their actions outside Corpus Christi, but the Golden Dawn MP Ilias Kasidiaris – famous for physically assaulting a leftwing politician on live TV – didn’t miss the chance to hand out warnings: “In any case where the religious sentiment of Greeks is insulted, the Golden Dawn will react dynamically,” he said. “If someone tries to stage a play making fun of Muhammad in a Muslim country, he will lose his head. They won’t react peacefully as Greeks do.”
Judging by Sunday’s protest, which Kasidiaris did not attend, “peace” equals abuse, censorship, violence and a complete disregard for the laws Golden Dawn supposedly venerate. Apparently we should just be thankful for not having our heads chopped off.
Melian dialogue anyone?
Gokden Dawn began as enthusiasts for a revival of paganism, which was accompanied by homosexuality, so they don’t even have the ‘justification’ of believing what they say.
“If someone tries to stage a play making fun of Muhammad in a Muslim country, he will lose his head. They won’t react peacefully as Greeks do.”
Be grateful, BITCHES!
Sounds like a scene from Germany in the early ’30s.
I know, I know, “OMG! Godwin! You lose LOLZ.”
But seriously, what else would you compare that image with?
It doesn’t invoke ‘Godwin’ when the comment is relevant to the discussion, and as history tells us, the police – whether German or Italian – were prepared to look the other way as long as the victims were ‘undesirable’ elements back in the ’30s, just as the Italian police are doing now.
One would think that His Holiness, given his own military past, might want to ask the Golden Dawn chaps to quieten things down a little before too many people connect the triangle.