<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="972887" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Ellie-Kemper">Ellie Kemper</keyword> apologized for participating in the <keyword id="11370058" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="veiled-prophet">Veiled Prophet</keyword> Ball when she was a teen on Monday. </li><li>She said the ball has an "unquestionably racist, sexist, and elitist past." </li><li>Tituss Burgess re-shared her apology with the caption: "I love my Ellie." </li></ul><p>Tituss Burgess has entered the media frenzy surrounding his "<keyword id="3213164" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Unbreakable-Kimmy-Schmidt">Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt</keyword>" costar Ellie Kemper.</p><p>On Tuesday, Burgess reshared the apology Kemper posted on her Instagram page after a <a href="https://twitter.com/dianahungerr/status/1399477805088493568?s=20">photo resurfaced online</a> that revealed she had previously taken part in the Veiled Prophet Ball, a debutante ball held in St. Louis, Missouri.</p><p>After Kemper's involvement was revealed, it was reported that the annual ball, which is now called Fair St. Louis, and the organization that runs it has a controversial history that involves <a href="https://www.insider.com/ellie-kemper-veiled-prophet-ball-controversy-explained-2021-6">excluding Black and Jewish Americans</a> from taking part. The organization was also accused of holding ties to the white supremacist terrorist group the Ku Klux Klan, which led some people on social media to name Kemper a "<keyword id="610187" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="kkk">KKK</keyword> princess."</p><p>"I love my Ellie," Burgess posted on Instagram alongside Kemper's apology."Oh, &amp; P.S. Next time, just ask me, I'll tell ya what to do."</p><blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:540; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px); data.width~540;"><div style="padding:8px;"><div style="background:#F8F8F8; line-height:0; margin-top:40px; padding:62.4537037037% 0; text-align:center; width:100%;"><div style="background:url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAACwAAAAsCAMAAAApWqozAAAABGdBTUEAALGPC/xhBQAAAAFzUkdCAK7OHOkAAAAMUExURczMzPf399fX1+bm5mzY9AMAAADiSURBVDjLvZXbEsMgCES5/P8/t9FuRVCRmU73JWlzosgSIIZURCjo/ad+EQJJB4Hv8BFt+IDpQoCx1wjOSBFhh2XssxEIYn3ulI/6MNReE07UIWJEv8UEOWDS88LY97kqyTliJKKtuYBbruAyVh5wOHiXmpi5we58Ek028czwyuQdLKPG1Bkb4NnM+VeAnfHqn1k4+GPT6uGQcvu2h2OVuIf/gWUFyy8OWEpdyZSa3aVCqpVoVvzZZ2VTnn2wU8qzVjDDetO90GSy9mVLqtgYSy231MxrY6I2gGqjrTY0L8fxCxfCBbhWrsYYAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); display:block; height:44px; margin:0 auto -44px; position:relative; top:-22px; width:44px;"></div></div><p style="margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CP15O1dMF0j" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank"></a></p> <p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by Tituss Burgess (@instatituss)<time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime=""></time></p></div></blockquote><p>In turn, Kemper replied in the comments section: "I love you Tituss."</p><p>Kemper, who is best known for starring alongside Burgess in the Netflix comedy "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" as well as NBC's "<keyword id="94523" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="The-Office">The Office</keyword>," took part in the Veiled Prophet Ball in 1999, where she was crowned Queen of Love and Beauty, a ceremonial honor given out each year at the ball. At the time, she was a 19-year-old student at Princeton.</p><p><a href="https://www.insider.com/ellie-kemper-sorry-debutante-ball-racist-past-2021-6">In her apology</a>, Kemper said that the century-old organization that hosted the debutante ball had an "unquestionably racist, sexist, and elitist past."</p><p>"I was not aware of this history at the time, but ignorance is no excuse," the apology read. "I was old enough to have educated myself before getting involved. I unequivocally deplore, denounce, and reject white supremacy. At the same time, I acknowledge that because of my race and my privilege, I am the beneficiary of a system that has dispensed unequal justice and unequal rewards."</p><p>The Veiled Prophet Ball has been hosted in St. Louis for more than a century. The event is organized by The Veiled Prophet, an organization co-founded in the late 1800s by brothers Alonzo and Charles Slayback, who were both former confederate soldiers.</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet blockquote" data-lang="en" data-cards="" data-conversation="none">-Thee Hannah  (@hannastasia) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/1399405550719442953?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 31, 2021</a></blockquote><p>At its inception, the Veiled Prophet barred Black and Jewish Americans from participating. The organization didn't welcome Black members until 1979 after the civil rights group, Action Committee to Improve Opportunities for Negroes (ACTION), held protests at the ball.</p><p>In a statement given to Insider, the Veiled Prophet Organization responded to the controversy surrounding its past.</p><p>"Upon reflection, the Veiled Prophet Organization acknowledges our past and recognizes the criticism levied our way," the statement read. "We sincerely apologize for the actions and images from our history. Additionally, our lack of cultural awareness was and is wrong. We are committed to change, allowing our actions to match the organization we are today."</p><p>"The VP Organization of today categorically rejects <keyword id="44060" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Racism">racism</keyword>, in any form."</p>

Tituss Burgess shares support for Ellie Kemper after she apologized for ties to 'racist' debutante ball

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Old pictures resurfaced that showed <keyword id="972887" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Ellie-Kemper">Ellie Kemper</keyword> at the 1991 <keyword id="11370058" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="veiled-prophet">Veiled Prophet</keyword> Ball. </li><li>The debutante ball in St. Louis Missouri has a history of <keyword id="44060" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Racism">racism</keyword> and elitism. </li><li>Some have now labeled Kemper a "KKK Queen," while others are defending the actress.</li></ul><p>Ellie Kemper, who is best known for roles in Netflix's "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" and "The Office," is at the center of a controversy surrounding her involvement in an annual debutante ball held in St. Louis, Missouri. </p><p>On Monday, a <a href="https://twitter.com/dianahungerr/status/1399477805088493568?s=20">photograph resurfaced online</a> that showed the actress being crowned as the "1999 Veiled Prophet Queen of Love and Beauty" when she was 19.</p><p>Shortly after the photos resurfaced, some locals began to point out that the annual event was once exclusively held for the city's wealthy white elite and excluded Black members for decades.</p><p>Below, Insider breaks down everything you need to know about the Veiled Prophet Ball and Kemper's involvement.</p><h2>The ball was founded by former confederate soldiers in 1878</h2><div type="image" title="The Veiled Prophet Ball at Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis." height="2491" width="3686" msid="83183663" hostid="261"></div><p>The Veiled Prophet Ball has been hosted in St. Louis, Missouri, for more than a century.</p><p>The event is organized by The Veiled Prophet, an organization co-founded in the late 1800s by brothers Alonzo and Charles Slayback, both former confederate soldiers who, according to an article by writer <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/09/fair-st-louis-and-the-veiled-prophet/379460/">Scott Beauchamp in The Atlantic</a>, aimed to create a secret society that blended Mardi Gras with the "symbolism used by the Irish poet Thomas Moore." </p><p>In his 2000 book, "The St. Louis Veiled Prophet Celebration: Power on Parade, 1877-1995," <a href="https://www.amazon.com/St-Louis-Veiled-Prophet-Celebration/dp/0826212670#:~:text=In%20The%20St.,its%20cultural%20meaning%20and%20importance.">historian Thomas Spencer</a> wrote that the ball was originally organized as a response from St. Louis' business elite who were trying to halt growing labor unrest in the city, specifically tied to the 1877 Railroad Strike in which railroad workers across the country protested for better pay and working conditions.</p><p>So the group created the myth of the Veiled Prophet of Khorassan, a fictional traveler who lived in St. Louis. This traveler wore an all-white robe complete with a white veil.</p><p>Every year during a celebration, "a person would be chosen by a secret board of local elites to anonymously play the role of the Veiled Prophet," Beauchamp wrote, with the anonymous person then crowning a Queen of Love and Beauty "from among the elite ball attendees."</p><p>"Each year, approximately sixty to seventy young women are chosen for their outstanding community service efforts and walk down the magnificent 72-foot-long Veiled Prophet runway in fashionable couture gowns," reads a description of the ball on the organization's <a href="https://www.veiledprophet.org/ball" target="_blank" rel="noopener">website.</a></p><h2>Ellie Kemper belongs to a wealthy and influential banking family</h2><div type="image" title="Ellie Kemper" height="3000" width="2020" msid="83183665" hostid="261"></div>Kemper was the event's 105th Queen of Love and Beauty in 1999, according to an archived article from the <a href="https://www.stltoday.com/news/archives/ellie-kemper-from-the-queen-of-love-and-beauty-to-kimmy-schmidt/collection_52b7a18b-d4e4-557d-9c39-70a2d4ed0554.html#4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">St. Louis Post-Dispatch</a> from that year. At the time, she was a 19-year-old student at Princeton. <p>The newspaper also noted that Kemper was born to Dorothy Ann Jannarone and David Woods Kemper, who was the chairman and CEO of Commerce Bancshares, a bank holding company. (David Woods Kemper's son John has now assumed the role,<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-kemper-a21a7531/"> according to his LinkedIn profile</a>.)</p><p>The company was created by Kemper's great-great-grandfather, the banker and railroad magnate William Thornton Kemper Sr., who also founded United Missouri Bank. </p><p>Kemper's grandmother, Mildred Lane Kemper, is also the namesake of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis. <a href="https://www.kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu/about">According to the museum's website</a>, Mildred Lane Kemper "was a lifelong resident of Kansas City, Missouri" and "had an enduring interest in higher education."</p><p>In a 2017 <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-ca-st-conversation-ellie-kemper-20170513-htmlstory.html">interview with the LA Times</a>, Kemper said she had "a very privileged, nice, warm childhood."  </p><h2>Black and Jewish Americans were barred from the Veiled Prophet organization for decades</h2><p>At its inception, the Veiled Prophet barred Black and Jewish Americans from participating.</p><p>In fact, the organization didn't welcome <a href="https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/departments/planning/cultural-resources/preservation-plan/Part-I-African-American-Experience.cfm">Black members until 1979</a> after the civil rights group, Action Committee to Improve Opportunities for Negroes (ACTION), held protests at the ball.</p><p>The organization also filed a lawsuit, which alleged the city of St. Louis was condoning racism by allowing the ball to be held at a venue owned by the city, the <a href="https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/history/oct-3-1969-veiled-prophet-ball-becomes-a-scene-of-racial-protest/article_0d45d7e8-1f78-5f31-9b3f-72eff42a3f3f.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.</a></p><p>Insider reached out to the Veiled Prophet, but didn't immediately hear back.</p><p>Still, the organization <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2021/06/01/ellie-kemper-veiled-prophet-ball-queen-controversy-explained/5288581001/">told USA Today</a>, in response to the recent controversy, that it's "dedicated to civic progress, economic contributions and charitable causes in St. Louis."</p><p>"Our organization believes in and promotes inclusion, diversity and equality for this region," the statement added. "We absolutely reject racism and have never partnered or associated with any organization that harbors these beliefs."</p><h2>The Veiled Prophet is not directly linked to the Klu Klux Klan</h2><div type="image" title="pjimage (7)" height="1200" width="1600" msid="83183668" hostid="261"></div>After Kemper's involvement in the Veiled Prophet Ball resurfaced earlier this week, many people <a href="https://twitter.com/dianahungerr/status/1399477805088493568">tied the organization and the ball</a> to the white supremacist terrorist group, the Klu Klux Klan, on account of the original imagery of the Veiled Prophet, which showed a character brandishing a shotgun and wearing white robes. <p>Devin Thomas O'Shea, a St. Louis journalist who has researched and written extensively on the Veiled Prophet, <a href="https://news.stlpublicradio.org/show/st-louis-on-the-air/2019-07-03/civil-rights-activist-percy-green-and-writer-devin-thomas-oshea-on-all-things-veiled-prophet">told NPR</a> in 2019 that "the first Veiled Prophet is very clearly decipherable as a first-wave Ku Klux Klansman. Especially to Black St. Louisans, the symbology would not have been lost on them."</p><p><a href="https://commonreader.wustl.edu/c/uneasy-past-veiled-prophet-organization/">Although some historians</a> have noted that while illustrations of the original Veiled Prophet now draw comparisons to the garb worn by the KKK, the Klan did not officially adopt the uniform of white robes and hoods until its resurgence in 1915, after the release of D.W. Griffith's film "The Birth of a Nation," decades after the St. Louis event was founded.</p><h2>Some have now labeled Kemper a 'KKK Queen,' while others are defending the actress</h2><p>Kemper has yet to respond to revelations. Insider has reached out to Kemper, but didn't hear back.</p><p>Still, many fans continue to share their reactions to the discovery.</p><p>"So was no one gonna tell me Ellie kemper aka kimmy Schmidt was crowned KKK queen in 1999," one Twitter user wrote. </p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet blockquote" data-lang="en" data-cards="" data-conversation="">-charlie  (@dianahungerr) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/1399477805088493568?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 31, 2021</a></blockquote><p>Another tweeted: "Ellie Kemper being a KKK princess is so random that I'm not even sure where to begin with the questions." </p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet blockquote" data-lang="en" data-cards="" data-conversation="">-Zito  (@_Zeets) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/1399505666889465862?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 31, 2021</a></blockquote><p>The Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro tweeted in defense of Kemper.</p><p>"There is not a single iota of evidence that Ellie Kemper is racist," he wrote. "So naturally, Twitter is trending her and blue checks are calling her a 'KKK princess.' What absolute garbage."</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet blockquote" data-lang="en" data-cards="" data-conversation="">-Ben Shapiro  (@benshapiro) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/1399686893663670273?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 1, 2021</a></blockquote>

Ellie Kemper was once crowned queen of a debutante ball called the Veiled Prophet - here's what to know about its racist past

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Actress <keyword id="972887" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Ellie-Kemper">Ellie Kemper</keyword> broke her silence Monday about criticism over her 1999 win at a debutante ball.</li><li>Kemper acknowledged the ball's "unquestionably racist, sexist, and elitist past" and apologized for participating.</li><li>"I was old enough to have educated myself before getting involved," she said.</li></ul><p>Actress Ellie Kemper on Monday broke her silence and apologized for <a href="https://www.insider.com/ellie-kemper-veiled-prophet-ball-controversy-explained-2021-6">winning a debutante ball</a> in 1999, hosted by an organization with ties to white supremacy.</p><p>"The century-old organization that hosted the debutante ball had an unquestionably racist, sexist, and elitist past. I was not aware of this history at the time, but ignorance is no excuse," Kemper said of the Veiled Prophet Ball in a lengthy post on Instagram.</p><p>"I was old enough to have educated myself before getting involved," she added.</p><blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:540; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px); data.width~540;"><div style="padding:8px;"><div style="background:#F8F8F8; line-height:0; margin-top:40px; padding:62.4537037037% 0; text-align:center; width:100%;"><div style="background:url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAACwAAAAsCAMAAAApWqozAAAABGdBTUEAALGPC/xhBQAAAAFzUkdCAK7OHOkAAAAMUExURczMzPf399fX1+bm5mzY9AMAAADiSURBVDjLvZXbEsMgCES5/P8/t9FuRVCRmU73JWlzosgSIIZURCjo/ad+EQJJB4Hv8BFt+IDpQoCx1wjOSBFhh2XssxEIYn3ulI/6MNReE07UIWJEv8UEOWDS88LY97kqyTliJKKtuYBbruAyVh5wOHiXmpi5we58Ek028czwyuQdLKPG1Bkb4NnM+VeAnfHqn1k4+GPT6uGQcvu2h2OVuIf/gWUFyy8OWEpdyZSa3aVCqpVoVvzZZ2VTnn2wU8qzVjDDetO90GSy9mVLqtgYSy231MxrY6I2gGqjrTY0L8fxCxfCBbhWrsYYAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); display:block; height:44px; margin:0 auto -44px; position:relative; top:-22px; width:44px;"></div></div><p style="margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CP02q0Nt3-8" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank"></a></p> <p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by Ellie Kemper (@elliekemper)<time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime=""></time></p></div></blockquote><p>Kemper, who is best known for roles in Netflix's "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" and "The Office," was crowned the  "Queen of Love and Beauty" at the Veiled Prophet Ball in St. Louis, Missouri. At the time, she was a 19-year-old student at Princeton. </p><p>Social media lit up with criticism last week when a <keyword id="6355005" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="news">news</keyword> article from the time of her win resurfaced, as people called out the <a href="https://www.insider.com/ellie-kemper-veiled-prophet-ball-controversy-explained-2021-6">organization's links to racism.</a></p><p>Kemper said Monday that she "unequivocally" deplored, denounced, and rejected white supremacy, but admitted she had benefited "from a system that has dispensed unequal justice and unequal rewards."</p><h2>The ball was founded by former confederate soldiers in 1878</h2><div type="image" title="pjimage (7)" height="1200" width="1600" msid="83321806" hostid="261"></div>The Veiled Prophet Ball has been hosted in St. Louis for more than a century. The event is organized by The Veiled Prophet, an organization co-founded in the late 1800s by brothers Alonzo and Charles Slayback, who were both former confederate soldiers.<p>In his 2000 book, "The St. Louis Veiled Prophet Celebration: Power on Parade, 1877-1995," historian Thomas Spencer wrote that the ball was originally organized as a response from St. Louis' business elite who were trying to halt growing labor unrest in the city, specifically tied to the 1877 Railroad Strike in which railroad workers across the country protested for better pay and working conditions.</p><p>Kemper, who belongs to one of the wealthiest and influential banking families in the mid-west, was the event's 105th Queen of Love and Beauty, according to an archived article from the <a href="https://www.stltoday.com/news/archives/ellie-kemper-from-the-queen-of-love-and-beauty-to-kimmy-schmidt/collection_52b7a18b-d4e4-557d-9c39-70a2d4ed0554.html#4">St. Louis Post-Dispatch</a> from that year.</p><p>At its inception, the Veiled Prophet barred Black and Jewish Americans from participating. The organization didn't welcome <a href="https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/departments/planning/cultural-resources/preservation-plan/Part-I-African-American-Experience.cfm">Black members until 1979</a> after the civil rights group, Action Committee to Improve Opportunities for Negroes (ACTION), held protests at the ball. </p><h2>The Veiled Prophet is not directly linked to the Klu Klux Klan, however</h2><p>Despite claims made on social media after <a href="https://twitter.com/dianahungerr/status/1399477805088493568?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1399477805088493568%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.insider.com%2Fellie-kemper-veiled-prophet-ball-controversy-explained-2021-621-6">Kemper's involvement was revealed</a>, the organization is not directly linked to the white supremacist terrorist group, the Klu Klux Klan. </p><p>People had linked the original imagery of the Veiled Prophet, which showed a character brandishing a shotgun and wearing white robes, to the Klan. However, some historians have noted that the Klan did not officially adopt the uniform of white robes and hoods until its resurgence in 1915, after the release of D.W. Griffith's film "The Birth of a Nation," decades after the St. Louis event was founded.</p><p>Insider reached out to the Veiled Prophet, but didn't immediately hear back.</p><p>In a statement given to <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2021/06/01/ellie-kemper-veiled-prophet-ball-queen-controversy-explained/5288581001/">USA Today last week</a>, though, the Veiled Prophet organization said that it is "dedicated to civic progress, economic contributions and charitable causes in St. Louis."</p><p>"Our organization believes in and promotes inclusion, diversity, and equality for this region," the statement added. "We absolutely reject racism and have never partnered or associated with any organization that harbors these beliefs," the statement read. </p>

Ellie Kemper apologizes for winning debutante ball with a 'racist, sexist, and elitist' past

<ul class="summary-list"><li>An attacker beheaded a woman on Thursday morning in Nice, France.</li><li>She was one of three people killed at the city's Notre-Dame church, authorities said.</li><li>It followed the beheading on October 16 of Samuel Paty, a teacher in Paris, in apparent retaliation after he showed his students cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.</li><li>A French counterterrorism source told Insider that the attacker shouted about cartoons on Thursday before the killings.</li><li>Scroll down for a timeline of related events in France.</li></ul><p>A knife-wielding attacker beheaded a woman in Nice, France, on Thursday morning — one of three people killed inside a church.</p><p>The attack happened at the Notre-Dame church. Not long after, several apparently related attacks took place.</p><p>A police source speaking with the Reuters news agency said one of the three people killed had been decapitated. <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-54729957">The BBC said</a> that a woman had been "virtually decapitated."</p><p><a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/live/2020/10/29/en-direct-au-moins-deux-morts-et-plusieurs-blesses-dans-une-attaque-au-couteau-a-nice_6057758_3224.html">France's Le Monde newspaper reported</a> that the other two casualties were a man and another woman.</p><p>Christian Estrosi, the city's mayor, said on Twitter that the attacker had been arrested and one of the people killed was a church warden.</p><div type="image" title="nice stabbing" height="1330" width="2000" msid="78932716" hostid="261"></div><p>Estrosi also said the incident appeared to be a terror attack.</p><p>"I confirm that everything suggests a terrorist attack in the Notre-Dame basilica," he tweeted, and linked the attack to what he called "Islamo-fascism."</p><p>A source in French counterterrorism policing — who did not have permission to discuss the case publicly — told Insider the attacker shouted about cartoons before he attacked the victims at about 9 a.m.</p><p>The attack followed the October 16 beheading of a teacher in Paris who had shown his class images depicting the Prophet Muhammad.</p><div type="image" title="Nice mayor" height="1125" width="2000" msid="78932722" hostid="261"></div><p>Estrosi, the mayor, told reporters that the attacker had "repeated endlessly 'Allahu akbar' when he was being treated at the scene," <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-54729957">the BBC reported</a>. ("Allahu akbar" is Arabic for "God is greatest.")</p><p>He said the suspect was shot by police and brought to the hospital alive, an account confirmed by Insider's police source.</p><p>French President Emmanuel Macron visited the scene Thursday.</p><p>"Very clearly, it's France that has been attacked," he said. He described France, and particularly its Catholics, as "under threat."</p><p>Islamist terror and the depiction of the Prophet Muhammad has long been a controversial issue in France, and prompted a terror attack in 2015 on the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which printed cartoons of Muhammad.</p><p>The trial of 14 people suspected of helping with that attack is underway in France.</p><p>The teacher killed in Paris, Samuel Paty, had shown his class Charlie Hebdo images of Muhammad, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/17/teacher-decapitated-in-paris-named-as-samuel-paty-47">according to the Guardian</a>. French prosecutors said that his death was an act of revenge for this.</p><p>Images of Muhammad are considered blasphemous in Islam and have prompted killings previously.</p><p>After the attack on Paty, Macron pledged to take a tough stance against radical Islam.</p><div type="image" title="A girl with a picture of Samuel Paty, the French teacher beheaded Friday, during a tribute in Lille, France, October 18, 2020." height="3207" width="4742" msid="78932726" hostid="261"></div><p>He said Paty "was killed because Islamists want our future" but that France would "not give up our cartoons."</p><p>A series of attacks or attempted attacks took place after the killings in Nice.</p><p>A man was arrested in Sartrouville, France, later on Thursday after he reportedly told his father he wanted to copy the Nice attack, <a href="https://www.leparisien.fr/yvelines-78/un-homme-interpelle-pres-d-une-eglise-a-sartrouville-apres-avoir-voulu-faire-comme-a-nice-29-10-2020-8405566.php">Le Parisien reported</a>.</p><p>A man with a knife was <a href="https://www.europe1.fr/faits-divers/information-europe-1-avignon-un-homme-arme-dun-couteau-tue-par-la-police-4001930">killed by the police in Avignon</a> after reportedly threatening the police and shouting "Allahu akbar."</p><p>In Saudi Arabia, a man was arrested after attacking a security guard at the French Consulate in Jeddah "with a sharp object", <a href="https://twitter.com/SPAregions/status/1321762207470915586?s=20">the Saudi government said</a>.</p><p>Macron mentioned the other attacks in his speech in Nice, but did not say explicitly whether they were connected.</p><p>France raised its attack alert level to "urgent" on Thursday, the country's highest.</p><h2><strong>A timeline<br /></strong></h2><ul><li><strong>October 16:</strong> Samuel Paty, a teacher, was decapitated in Paris after showing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad published by Charlie Hebdo magazine.</li><li><strong>October 21:</strong> President Macron said France would embrace free speech and not "renounce the caricatures."</li><li><strong>October 26:</strong> Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Macron of having an "anti-Islam" agenda and called on people in Turkey to boycott French goods.</li><li><strong>October 27</strong>: Charlie Hebdo published a cartoon depicting Erdogan lifting the dress of a veiled woman.</li><li><strong>October 29:</strong> Three people were killed in a stabbing in Nice; a man who said he wanted to do a similar attack was arrested in Sartrouville; a man with a knife was killed by police in Avignon; and a man tried to attack a security guard in the French Consulate in Saudi Arabia.</li></ul>

Knife attacker in Nice, France, decapitated a woman in a church and killed 2 others in the wake of an earlier beheading in Paris

<ul class="summary-list"><li><strong>Diplomatic tensions between <keyword id="6372909" type="LOCATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="turkey">Turkey</keyword> and <keyword id="6354785" type="LOCATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="france">France</keyword> are rising with the European Commission calling on Turkey to refrain from verbal attacks.</strong></li><li><strong>French officials have stated that religious sites are on "high security" after protests have grown across the Middle East and Muslim world.</strong></li><li><strong><keyword id="821131" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="charlie-hebdo">Charlie Hebdo</keyword> also published a cartoon mocking <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/charlie-hebdo-cartoon-turkey-erdogan-macron-feud-2020-10">Turkish President Erdogan</a>.</strong></li><li><strong>Now under a second COVID-19 lockdown, French Muslims and anti-racism activists worried about a rise in hate crimes as a result of diplomatic tensions and new Charlie Hebdo row.</strong></li></ul><p>After French school teacher Samuel Paty was decapitated by a Chechen Islamic extremist in France days after Paty showed caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad to his pupils, French President <keyword id="6355124" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="emmanuel-macron">Emmanuel Macron</keyword> stated that <keyword id="6361097" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="islam">Islam</keyword> was "in crisis" and that he would fight "Islamist separatism" in France, prompting <keyword id="6356001" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="international">international</keyword> outcry. </p><p>Speaking at the French schoolteacher's wake last week, Macron called Paty a "quiet hero" of the French republic and added that France would continue to produce the cartoons and defend anyone's right to do so. </p><p>In Montpellier and Toulouse, local officials projected the Charlie Hebdo caricatures of Prophet Muhammad onto their town halls as an act of solidarity. </p><p>In response to the defense of the caricatures, numerous heads of states in the Arab and Muslim world have called for the boycott of French goods, and protests have been held globally against what detractors are calling an incitement of Islamophobia by the French president. </p><p>The French Foreign Ministry called for an end to the boycott and "blackmail" on Monday. </p><p>The reaction to Macron's defense of the cartoons is linked to his recent announcement of laws in early October, which would enable local french officials to surveil mosques more tightly, and require Islamic institutions and officials in France to sign "secular charters" in order to prove that they are not influenced by foreign sources.</p><p>After Samuel Paty's gruesome death, the legal package is seen to have gained popularity, and after protests and the call to boycott French goods have grown globally, French officials have tightened security around religious sites, urging French nationals living abroad to refrain from attending anti-Macron protests for their own safety.</p><p>Speaking to French outlet <a href="https://www.liberation.fr/france/2020/10/26/gerald-darmanin-ce-qu-on-cherche-a-combattre-c-est-une-ideologie-pas-une-religion_1803552">Libération</a>, French Interior minister Gérard Darmanin has implicated organizations like the Collective for the Fight Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF), arguing that they should be dissolved because the organization "considers there is a state Islamophobia all the while being subsidized (financially) by the French state." </p><p>In response to Darmanin, CCIF and over 70 European civil liberties organizations signed a <a href="https://www.enar-eu.org/Joint-statement-French-Minister-threatening-to-close-down-anti-racist-civil">letter</a> pushing back.  </p><p>CCIF <a href="https://www.islamophobie.net/en/rapport-2020/">reported</a> that in 2019, there were nearly 800 anti-Muslim acts in France, a figure almost twice as high as their tracking two years prior. The European Network against Racism added that "the focus on a certain form of exclusive 'laicité', or secularism, is leading to the exclusion of many Muslims, and in particular visibly Muslim women." </p><p>Advocates say that Macron's administration has repeatedly spoken out against "radical Islam" without acutely defining it, implicating many moderate Muslims. ENAR added that headscarf and Burkini bans had a similar chilling effect of policing religious freedom in the name of secularism.</p><p>In the week since the murder of Paty, two Hijabi women were stabbed by non-Muslim French women in Angers, France, over their Hijabs and because they were speaking Arabic, <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20201022-two-french-women-charged-over-racist-stabbing-of-veiled-Muslim-women">France 24 reported</a>. </p><p>Protests have been held in countries like Turkey, Bangladesh, and Saudi Arabia, and a full blown diplomatic row has simmered between France and Turkey.</p><p>A spokesman for the European Commission discouraged Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan from advancing the boycott of French goods, stating that it "will take Turkey even further away from the European Union." Erdoğan called for Macron to undergo "mental checks" for sharing and defending the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, an act which is considered blasphemous in Islam.</p><p>Pictures of <a href="https://twitter.com/InfosFrancaises/status/1320035227142705153">supermarkets</a> in Kuwait and Qatar emptying their shelves of French products have spread across social media. The Kuwaiti Union of Consumer Co-operative Societies stated that nearly all of it's 69 stores pulled products made in France.</p><p>France called for Turkey to be censured at the next EU summit, a spat which is increasingly threatening Turkey's hopes of inclusion in the European Union. </p><p>Today, Charlie Hebdo shared its weekly <a href="https://twitter.com/Charlie_Hebdo_/status/1321134572105572352">cover</a>, featuring a buffoonish depiction of <keyword id="377580" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Erdogan">Erdogan</keyword> and a half-naked veiled woman with the caption, "Erdogan, in private he is more fun."</p><p> "I condemn this incorrigible French rag's immoral publication concerning our president," Turkey's Vice President Fuat Oktay responded on Twitter, calling on the international community to speak out against the new cover. </p><p>Turkey and France, both NATO allies supporting opposing sides of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, have continued to escalate their diplomatic row.</p>

Amidst a second COVID-19 lockdown, Macron is facing mounting international backlash and a boycott of French goods over his comments about Islam

<ul class="summary-list"><li>After I wrote a story about my Muslim faith and feminism, extremists reacted online.</li><li><strong>Some trolls on <keyword id="11892744" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="twitter" source="Orion">Twitter</keyword> tried to justify the Taliban's regressive policies towards women.</strong></li><li><strong>Islamic feminism is a growing field that aims to separate cultural patriarchy from religion.</strong></li></ul><p>I've always been more of an Instagrammer than a Twitter user, and after my recent brush with a group of misogynist trolls, you can bet I won't be switching over to the Twitterverse anytime soon. </p><p>I've been a journalist for over a decade, and since my very first cover story for the Ryerson Review of Journalism about <a href="https://rrj.ca/in-memoriam/">honor killings in Canada</a>, I've been vocal about Islam's innate compatibility with gender equality - despite the practices of some Muslims today. But after I recently wrote about <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/taliban-sharia-law-muslim-feminist-women-b1905249.html">alternative interpretations</a> of sharia law, a plethora of patriarchal trolls on Twitter seemed hell-bent on tying misogyny to our faith.</p><p>Some couldn't get past the fact that I'm a woman - and that I don't wear a headscarf. While some Muslims claim the faith commands women to cover their hair, others have varying views about hijab. Some believe veiling may have been meant for women during Prophet Muhammad's time, or only for his wives. My own lack of covering my hair seemed to invalidate any religious opinion I held for my critics, as did my master's degree in Islamic Law from SOAS, University of London, since the trolls didn't deem it to be an authentic "Islamic" institution. Others went deep into my Twitter history and lectured me about my nail polish, claiming it invalidated my prayers. A couple of them labeled me an outright "unbeliever." </p><p>I was dumbfounded. The stories I was writing shouldn't have been controversial. In the aftermath of the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan, I was simply stating that the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/taliban-sharia-law-muslim-feminist-women-b1905249.html">extremist group</a>'s ideology did not reflect that of all Muslims, and that its previous treatment of women (<a href="https://www.insider.com/taliban-orders-women-employees-in-kabul-to-stay-home-official-2021-9">confining them to their homes</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/20/world/asia/afghan-girls-schools-taliban.html">denying them education</a>, and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/taliban-rules-for-women-during-last-afghanistan-takeover-2021-8">enforcing burkas</a>) was <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-need-to-stop-conflating-islam-with-terrorism-114073">not reflective of the Islam most Muslims believe in</a>. According to a <a href="https://www.pewforum.org/2017/07/26/terrorism-and-concerns-about-extremism/">Pew poll</a>, 82% of American Muslims are concerned about extremism in the name of Islam around the world. A <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/islam-and-patterns-terrorism-and-violent-extremism">report</a> on Islam and extremism by the Center for Strategic and <keyword id="6356001" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="international" source="Orion">International</keyword> Studies stated that "the vast majority of Muslims oppose violent extremism," which "does not represent the core values of Islam". </p><p>Many of the trolls openly supported the Taliban in their responses. I had never come face-to-face (in person or virtually) with a pro-Taliban Muslim, and I was stunned how seemingly many of them there were online.</p><p>I was appalled that they firmly believed women to be inferior to men, unnerved and disturbed that they were so comfortable expressing their extremist views publically, and horrified that they were using a warped notion of my religion to mask their misogyny. </p><h2><strong>'Muslim feminist' is a controversial phrase </strong></h2><p>Some online commentators were utterly flummoxed at the usage of "Muslim" and "feminist" in the same sentence. They repeatedly deemed "Muslim feminism" to be a "joke" and "oxymoron," stating that you could be one or the other - <a href="https://twitter.com/antisociyal/status/1428792124686929921">never both</a>. Islam, however, profoundly improved the status and legal rights of women in 7th Century Arabia, and the Prophet Muhammad was Islam's "first feminist" according to Asma Gull Hassan, a lawyer and author of "<a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/American-Muslims-Asma-Gull-Hasan/dp/0826412793/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&amp;keywords=asma+gull+hassan&amp;qid=1634364531&amp;sr=8-11&amp;sr=8-1">American Muslims</a>." Muslim feminists believe that his reforms should have set a precedent for women's rights, however, this spirit of progress was, and continues to be, stifled by cultural attitudes.</p><p><a href="https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/muslim-feminism-womens-rights">"Muslim feminism"</a> is a term that sparks criticism from those who say that the faith doesn't need the influence of a second, supposedly "Western" ideology. But many Muslim feminists argue that women's rights are inherent in Islamic ideals - they don't seek to project "white feminism" (a concept thoroughly explored in Rafia Zakaria's new book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Against-White-Feminism-Notes-Disruption/dp/1324006617">Against White Feminism</a>) onto the faith.</p><p>Discussing Islam on a public platform, I was prepared to face criticism from Islamophobes. I didn't expect it from the Muslim community.</p><p>I wasn't criticizing my religion - just a small group of extremists' interpretations of it. That small group, however, isn't confined to elders in far-flung, war-torn villages in the Middle East. There are evidently tech-savvy extremists in the West, firing off dogmatic and sexist ammunition over Twitter. </p><p>"Patriarchy is the only way Muslim societies will be successful. We don't need Western feminism and their nonsense infesting Muslim societies," stated a Tweet. One user's response to my 1,000-word story was a simple, "Get back in the kitchen."</p><p>Patriarchal ideas like this remain deeply entrenched not only in Eastern societies, but also in the West, and can be quite pervasive among young men. But the view that patriarchy is a prescriptive part of religion (rather than merely the historical, societal context of their revelations) fuels gender-discriminatory customs, and is a real threat to achieving progress in faith-based communities today.</p><h2>In my experience, social media has been a double-edged sword</h2><p>My experience was an eye-opening illustration of the power of social media to propagate these prejudices. </p><p>A <a href="https://icct.nl/app/uploads/2017/02/ICCT-Schmid-Muslim-Opinion-Polls-Jan2017-1.pdf">research paper</a> for the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism found that "there is a sizeable radical milieu in both Muslim-majority countries and in Western Muslim diasporas, held together by the world wide web of the internet." In her new book "<a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Home-Land-Security-Deradicalization-Extremism/dp/0525510575/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&amp;keywords=home%2C+land+security&amp;qid=1634364135&amp;sr=8-15&amp;sr=8-1">Home, Land, Security: Deradicalisation and the journey back from extremism</a><em>," </em>journalist Carla Power found that young Muslims in the West who are drawn to radicalism often get recruited through social media sites like Tumblr. Some even abandoned their lives and jetted off to join ISIS after being brainwashed by propaganda on the web.</p><p>But social media has also reignited my own faith, attracting me to accounts that preach love rather than hate, such as Michigan-based <a href="https://www.instagram.com/shaykhazharnasser/?hl=en">Shaykh Azhar Nasser</a>. One of his recent <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CUWWdM8j6EF/">quotes</a> reads, "Before you harass people on social media, ask yourself: 'Should I see a therapist instead?'"</p><p>I've come to realize that Muslims follow all sorts of different shaykhs, sects, and cultural practices. We all believe in our own versions of Islam and perhaps it might be reductive to portray us as a unified front. It took a flurry of misogynistic tweets to teach me that Muslims are <em>not </em>one ummah (community). </p><p>I thought long and hard before writing this. Airing our "dirty laundry" is something that Muslims frown upon, and as it is, Islam's reputation has been tarnished enough by terrorists who endorse violence in the name of the faith. Since 9/11, Muslims in the West have faced increased scrutiny, from government surveillance to programs like Prevent in the UK. Might I perpetuate Islamophobic sentiments, and "out" my brothers in Islam? I look back at some of the Tweets. "You are deficient in mind plus deficient in religion, pipe down with all your feminist crap," stated <a href="https://twitter.com/so_idk_/status/1428939643718864904">one</a>. Not very brotherly, if you ask me. </p><p>I know better than to take any of this backlash personally, and while the whole ordeal was disheartening, it has motivated me to continue using journalism to help rectify the glaring gaps between the ideals Islam champions  (peace, compassion, justice, humility, and humanitarianism) and how the faith is sometimes weaponized by a handful of extremists. </p><p>Bullying tactics such as <keyword id="12318134" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="trolling" source="Orion">trolling</keyword> are used to reinforce power dynamics and keep females quiet and complacent with timeworn traditions. And while I could spend hours typing up elaborate responses to each Tweet, I have only two words for men who try to use my religion to justify misogyny: "mute" and "block." </p>

I was trolled by pro-Taliban extremists after writing about Muslim feminism

<p><div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"><img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/517554f76bb3f7b11e000002-641-480/boston-35.jpg?maxX=400" border="0" alt="boston" width="400" /></div><p class="source">AP</p></div>Boston Marathon <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tamerlan-tsarnaev-boston-marathon-suspect-2013-4">bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev</a>, who was killed during a manhunt last week, became increasingly confrontational about his <span>Islamic beliefs in the past couple of years, </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">according to reports by <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324235304578437131250259170.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories">The Wall Street Journal</a> and <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/nation/2013/04/21/bombing-suspect-tamerlan-tsarnaev-had-broken-angrily-with-muslim-speakers-mosque/XCBPdDswOKxaa4AJ0mkuVL/story.html">The Boston Globe</a>.</span></p>
<p>In early 2011 Russia <a href="http://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/2011-request-for-information-on-tamerlan-tsarnaev-from-foreign-government">warned</a> the FBI that Tamerlan was a<span> "<span>follower of radical Islam and a strong believer."</span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span>Patimat Suleimanova, Tsarnaev's aunt, told </span><a href="http://rt.com/news/tamerlan-tsarnaev-relative-boston-160/" data-xslt="_http">RT</a> that he <span>“i<span>nquisitive and interested in religion, </span>but he was never a fanatic.”</span></span></span></p>
<p>Authorities <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-04-21/authorities-believe-boston-bombing-suspects-acted-alone/4641484">have not found any connection</a> between Tsarnaev, 26, and his younger brother <span>Dzhokhar, 19, </span>and outside Islamic terrorist groups. N<span>o motive has emerged for their alleged actions.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">WSJ, drawing on interviews with family members and acquaintances, provides a <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324235304578437131250259170.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories">detailed account</a> of how <span>Tsarnaev became a devout Muslim in the past few years at the urging of his mother<span>.</span></span></span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span><span><span><span>"I told Tamerlan that we are Muslim, and we are not practicing our religion, and how can we call ourselves Muslims?" </span></span></span></span></span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">his mother, <span>Zubeidat Tsarnaeva,</span> said in an interview with WSJ. </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"And that's how Tamerlan started reading about Islam, and he started praying, and he got more and more and more into his religion." </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"></span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The transformation involved quitting drinking, smoking, throwing parties, and a promising <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/19/tamerlan-tsarnaev-boxing-photos_n_3118629.html">boxing</a> career because he felt they were in opposition to his religion. </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>"<strong>I'm telling you, something turned</strong>," Luis Vasquez, a high school classmate of <span>Tsarnaev, told WSJ</span>. "<strong>And it was dramatic</strong>."</span></span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">He persuaded his mother — who<span> "used to wear high heels and a low dress," according to her sister-in-law — to<span> dress conservatively and cover her face with a veil. </span></span></span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span><span></span></span></span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">And as the mother and son studied more together, </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Zubeidat Tsarnaeva </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">quit her job at a spa and started doing facials in her home because she didn't want to work on men.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span><span>Tamerlan's father said </span>tensions over the newfound adherence to strict doctrine, along with his own health problems, made him "very depressed" before he moved back to <span>Dagestan, </span>Russia.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>Officials and worshippers at local mosques told both WSJ and The Boston Globe of public confrontations initiated by Tamerlan in recent months</span></span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Tamerlan </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">angrily disrupted a January talk at the <span>Islamic Society of Boston mosque in Cambridge, Mass.</span> when a speaker compared the Prophet Mohammed and the peace activist Martin Luther King Jr.,</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> a<span> spokesman for the </span><a href="http://www.boston.com/news/nation/2013/04/21/bombing-suspect-tamerlan-tsarnaev-had-broken-angrily-with-muslim-speakers-mosque/XCBPdDswOKxaa4AJ0mkuVL/story.html">told The Globe</a>.</span></p>
<div class="articlePluckHidden">
<p>Tsarnaev said the speaker was contaminating people’s minds and accused him of hypocrisy, according to the spokesman, before the congregation<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> “shouted him out of the mosque.”</span></p>
</div>
<p>In November <span>Tsarnaev interrupted a talk when a speaker said it was fine for people to celebrate holidays such as Thanksgiving and July 4, in the same way you celebrate <span>Mohammed's</span> birthday.</span></p>
<p><span><span>The spokesman told WSJ that Tamerlan "took offense to celebrating anything," whether it was the Prophet's birthday (which not all Muslims celebrate) or American holidays.</span></span></p>
<p><span>The New York Times <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/22/world/europe/pilgrim-in-violent-land-suspect-found-comfort-in-dagestan.html">notes</a> that Tamerlan appeared to have already changed his religious stance by the time he <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tamerlan-tsarnaevs-trip-to-dagestan-2013-4">spent six months in Dagestan</a> in the first half of 2012.</span></p>
<p><span>NBC <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10008638/Boston-bomber-FBI-dropped-the-ball-over-Tamerlan-Tsarnaev.html">reported</a> that <keyword id="1644402" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Tamerlan-Tsarnaev">Tamerlan Tsarnaev</keyword> had been seen making six visits to a known Islamic militant in a mosque in Dagestan.</span></p>
<p><span><span>On Sunday the most feared terrorist group in their native Caucasus </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/22/world/europe/pilgrim-in-violent-land-suspect-found-comfort-in-dagestan.html">released a statement</a><span> to </span><span>dismiss speculation that Tsarnaev had joined them or that they were in any way behind the attacks.</span></span></p>

Friends And Family Describe Tamerlan Tsarnaev's Sudden Embrace Of Strict Islam

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55ffe0d7dd0895fd548b45e0-1332-999/rtx1rhfv.jpg" alt="David Cameron" data-mce-source="Reuters" data-mce-caption="British Prime Minister, David Cameron leaves 10 Downing Street in London, Britain, September 7, 2015."><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">British Prime Minister, David Cameron.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div>All anyone can talk about today is<a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/david-cameron-lord-ashcroft-private-parts-pig-mouth-2015-9"> an outrageous allegation in a forthcoming (unauthorised) biography of David Cameron</a>, republished by the Daily Mail.<p>The author, Conservative peer Lord Ashcroft, makes the claim that at an initiation ceremony for a society while at university, the British prime minister inserted his genitals into the head of a dead pig.</p><p>The Mail's article on the book, the first in a series, also claims that Cameron used drugs recreationally and allowed cocaine use in his London house. But really, everyone is just talking about the pig.</p><p><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>the Emmys didn't stand a chance <a href="http://t.co/hLjVokTUCC">pic.twitter.com/hLjVokTUCC</a></p>- Ibrahim Salha  (@ibzo) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/645863109748461568">September 21, 2015</a></blockquote><script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div></p><p>Many people have taken to Twitter to note the uncanny similarity between the allegations and a 2011 episode of the darkly satirical British TV show, "Black Mirror." Episodes of "Black Mirror" were often set in the near future with the basic premise to offer veiled social commentary on contemporary trends. The show ended after two series.&#xa0;</p><p class="embed-spacer">The episode "The National Anthem," first aired in December 2011, culminates with (spoiler alert!) the British prime minister engaging in a sex act with a pig (albeit a live one.)</p><p class="embed-spacer">10 Downing Street is&#xa0;<a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/number-10-no-comment-piggate-david-cameron-pig-2015-9">refusing to comment on the allegations</a>.</p><p class="embed-spacer"><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Hang on. This is a bit black mirror isn't it ? <a href="http://t.co/dyPnAhneZ0">pic.twitter.com/dyPnAhneZ0</a></p>- lily  (@lilyallen) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/645746939041042432">September 20, 2015</a></blockquote><script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div></p><p class="embed-spacer"><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Of all the TV shows we really don't want to be prophetic Black Mirror has to be near the top.</p>- Quinn Norton  (@quinnnorton) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/645757166083702784">September 21, 2015</a></blockquote><script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div></p><p class="embed-spacer"><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>The best thing is people will have mentioned that Black Mirror episode to him and he'll have laughed, quietly cringing and dying inside.</p>- Mike Bird  (@Birdyword) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/645727102008983552">September 20, 2015</a></blockquote><script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div></p><p>In the show, a British princess is kidnapped. The kidnapper issues a bizarre request - that Prime Minister Michael Callow appear on television and have sex with a pig. After attempts to locate the princess fail and the story makes it into the press and onto social media, Callow ultimately follows through with the demands.</p><p><span>The entire "Black Mirror" episode is available to </span><a href="http://www.channel4.com/programmes/black-mirror/on-demand/49114-001">watch here, on Channel 4's video-on-demand service</a><span>.</span></p><p>Charlie Brooker, the British comic behind "Black Mirror," denied last night on Twitter that he had any prior knowledge of the allegation, of which there is reportedly a photograph (that the Daily Mail and Lord Ashcroft have not seen).</p><p>"Just to clear it up," Brooker wrote, "I'd never heard anything about Cameron and a pig when coming up with that story. SO this weirds me out."</p><p class="embed-spacer">But Brooker did delight in the similarities nonetheless:</p><p class="embed-spacer"><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Shit. Turns out Black Mirror is a documentary series.</p>- Charlie Brooker  (@charltonbrooker) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/645720372109799424">September 20, 2015</a></blockquote><script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div></p><p class="embed-spacer"><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Bet this means he really is a lizard too.</p>- Charlie Brooker  (@charltonbrooker) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/645722158258388992">September 20, 2015</a></blockquote><script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div></p><p class="embed-spacer"><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Just been nosing through old Black Mirror files now, of course. <a href="http://t.co/6Xhuhby0Gj">pic.twitter.com/6Xhuhby0Gj</a></p>- Charlie Brooker  (@charltonbrooker) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/645735713112223744">September 20, 2015</a></blockquote><script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div></p><p class="embed-spacer"><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Perhaps the least prescient line from the script. <a href="http://t.co/xrXZ3tsaW3">pic.twitter.com/xrXZ3tsaW3</a></p>- Charlie Brooker  (@charltonbrooker) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/645743964377776128">September 20, 2015</a></blockquote><script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div></p><p class="embed-spacer">Really, though, the "Black Mirror" episode isn't about a politician having sex with a pig - at least, not entirely. It's commentary on the unstoppable power of social media and the modern internet, and the mob it can create. The show at times focuses on the reaction of Twitter, and how it mocks Callow over the demands.</p><p class="embed-spacer"></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55ffe0d7dd0895fd548b45e1-1200-643/blackmirrortweetsfiction560.jpg" alt="black mirror tweets pig callow" data-mce-source="Channel 4"><p class="source"><span>Channel 4</span></p></img></div><p></p></div></div><p>The allegations facing Cameron - regardless of their veracity - have elicited a similar reaction.</p><p><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Woken up to the news that the Prime Minister has been playing 'hide the sausage' with a pig.</p>- Joseph Barton  (@Joey7Barton) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/645853868543340544">September 21, 2015</a></blockquote><script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div></p><p class="embed-spacer"><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>I am finding that most crisis management firms are reluctant to tell me what advice they would give to a client accused of shagging a pig.</p>- Jamie Ross  (@JamieRoss7) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/645896301532553216">September 21, 2015</a></blockquote><script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div></p><p class="embed-spacer">Brooker, then, has been prescient in more ways than one. Not only did he predict what may be the strangest political story of the year - he also nailed the subsequent reaction.</p><p class="embed-spacer">You can watch a trailer for "Black Mirror" below:</p><p class="embed-spacer"><div><iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/midBr3d3MUg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cecil-lion-brutally-murdered-zimbabwe-2015-7">Beautiful footage of Cecil before he was killed and why he was so important to Zimbabwe</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="QwMG1rdjrXuCZitowj7DV2KEZh0NcBWV" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'QwMG1rdjrXuCZitowj7DV2KEZh0NcBWV',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

The allegation about David Cameron's obscene act with a dead pig is eerily similar to a TV show from 2011

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54ad7b79ecad040c7f2702d9-1119-840/woman-clothes-shopping.jpg" alt="Woman Clothes Shopping" data-mce-source="Getty Images / Don Arnold" data-link="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/david-jones-ambassador-jesinta-campbell-shops-for-dresses-news-photo/460831284"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/david-jones-ambassador-jesinta-campbell-shops-for-dresses-news-photo/460831284">Getty Images / Don Arnold</a></span></p></img></div><p></p></div></div>Consumers just don't want to pay full price for anything anymore.&#xa0;<p>Fast fashion retailers like <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/zaras-retail-strategy-is-winning-2015-6" target="_blank">Zara</a> - which have&#xa0;conditioned consumers to know that they can get runway-like looks for less - should already have <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/zaras-genius-business-model-and-retail-2013-11" target="_blank">traditional retailers shaking </a>in their full-price boots.</p><p>But now there's a new trend that should scare full-priced retailers even more: cost transparency, which sheds light on how many retailers are flat-out ripping&#xa0;off shoppers.</p><p>Look at <a href="https://www.everlane.com/" target="_blank">Everlane</a>. The e-commerce retailer boasts the mentality, "<span>Know your factories. Know your costs. Always ask why," on its&#xa0;</span><a href="https://www.everlane.com/about" target="_blank">"about" page.</a></p><p><span>The e-commerce startup&#xa0;breaks down </span><a href="https://www.everlane.com/collections/dresses/products/womens-silk-short-sleeve-dress-black?utm_source=pepperjam&amp;utm_medium=2-112673&amp;utm_campaign=21181&amp;clickId=1397443748" target="_blank">production&#xa0;costs</a><span>, including&#xa0;</span><span>labor, materials, transporting the apparel, and duties.</span></p><p>Raising social awareness about production can intrigue socially-minded shoppers, but while doing so, the brand reveals the disparity between themselves and other retailers.</p><p><span>For example, one dress is $98 at Everlane, and Everlane claims traditional retailers would sell a comparable dress for $190.</span></p><p><span>Everlane knows this strategy is appealing to consumers - especially those who balk at paying a lot of money for clothing.<br /></span></p><p><span><span>"We thought, 'What would it mean to build a Ralph Lauren from scratch on the web and go straight to the consumer?" Everlane's CEO Michael Preysman said to </span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/everlane-2012-3" target="_blank">Business Insider</a><span> in 2012. "We're not going to be the cheapest price, but we won't be the most expensive either.&#xa0; The clothing will be Barney's quality at one-third the price." &#xa0;</span></span></p><p><div><iframe src="//instagram.com/p/8WmzhgGsLz/embed/" width="658" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowtransparency="true"></iframe></div></p><p class="embed-spacer">Up-and-coming apparel retailer <a href="http://www.olivercabell.com/" target="_blank">Oliver Cabell</a> is doing the same thing by showing consumers why its prices are what they are. The brand showcases a graphic on its website to demonstrate the disparity between the prices of one of its handbags and the prices of a traditional <keyword id="6354851" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Retail">retail</keyword>er's handbag. An "honest retail" price for a handbag, according to the company's website, is $200, whereas the "actual retail price" for a comparable bag is cited to be $970.</p><p><span>"We're actually flipping that inside out and saying, 'Hey, we're going to show you all these things," Oliver Cabell's CEO, Scott Gabrielson, said to </span><a href="http://www.inforum.com/business/3832661-fargo-south-grad-poised-launch-online-fashion-company" target="_blank">In Forum</a><span>.</span></p><p><span><span><span>Online bulk retailer&#xa0;<span class="skimlinks-unlinked">Jet.com</span> - another company known for its abnormal level of&#xa0;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jets-business-model-and-transparency-2015-7" target="_blank">transparency</a> - is able to sell products for</span></span><span><span>&#xa0;<span>10-to-15% lower than its competitors do by&#xa0;opting not to profit off of its sales. The company only profits&#xa0;from shoppers' $50 annual membership fees.</span></span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span><span><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Whoomp, there it is! <a href="http://t.co/YZVaJn4dOv">pic.twitter.com/YZVaJn4dOv</a></p>- Jet  (@Jet) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/654033873559515136">October 13, 2015</a></blockquote><script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div></span></span></span></span></p><p class="embed-spacer"><span><span><span><span>But it's not just these "radically" transparent companies that are adding force to this trend. D</span></span></span></span><span><span><span><span><span>iscount retailers like TJ Maxx prove that if you wait long enough, you can procure&#xa0;a chic, designer item off-the-rack.&#xa0;</span></span></span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span><span><span>Macy's is even opening and off-price version of its namesake store. Nordstrom has its off-price Rack and Saks Fifth Avenue has Off Saks Fifth Avenue. Even upscale Barney's has Barney's Warehouse.</span></span></span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span><span><span>And now that many traditional retailers are failing, they are turning to promotions. Consumers know that a J. Crew skirt will eventually end up on the sale rack, so why pay full price for it now?&#xa0;</span></span></span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Elizabeth Holmes of </span><a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/dear-j-crew-what-happened-to-us-we-used-to-be-so-close-1432661954" target="_blank">The Wall Street Journal</a>&#xa0;<span>noted that "</span><span>A steady drumbeat of sales [at J. Crew], with discounts of as much as 40%, has trained some shoppers to balk at paying full price."</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span><span><span><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55ba8cdb2acae76e098ba56c-3012-1506/img_1600%20copy.jpg" alt="J Crew" data-mce-source="Hollis Johnson/Business Insider"><p class="source"><span>Hollis Johnson/Business Insider</span></p><p class="caption">Sales at J. Crew.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p>The more promotional activity that goes on, the more traditional retailers' profit margins show the pain.</p><p>And as traditional retailers get trapped in the promotional and outlet cycle, the brands risk sabotaging their reputation and&#xa0;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/j-crew-mercantile-could-fail-2015-7" target="_blank">devaluing themselves.</a></p><p>"One only has to look as far as brands like Coach or Michael Kors to see the dangerous opiate that off-price distribution can become," Doug Stephens, founder of the website <a href="http://www.retailprophet.com/" target="_blank">Retail Prophet</a>, told Business Insider. "The volume outlet malls promise is compelling but the collateral damage to the brand - particularly among loyal full-price customers - is often next to irreparable."</p><p>Cheapening high-quality brands makes luxury brands become the opposite of luxury.</p><p>"Coach - a once exclusive brand - became ubiquitous, common, and tarnished, resulting in plummeting sales at both outlet and full-line stores," Stephens explained.</p><p>Throwing brands like Everlane into the retail mix could further perpetuate this cycle, and could hurt traditional retailers even more.</p><p>These transparent&#xa0;brands with veils of social conscientiousness are even&#xa0;more threatening, as they appeal to millennials.</p><p><span>"64%&#xa0;</span><span>percent of millennials would rather wear a socially-conscious brand than a luxury brand," Rachel <span>Krautkremer, an editorial director for the creative agency Deep Focus, told <a href="http://www.racked.com/2015/10/8/9442455/everlane-expansion" target="_blank">Racked</a>. "<span>It's a shift in how this generation views their clothing. They want to know where their product is coming from."</span></span></span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/zara-dominating-beating-competition-fashion-industry-2015-7">The one reason Zara is dominating the fashion industry right now</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="RtMWI0djra013JV4Ff9AoHoTLKMzvgNg" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'RtMWI0djra013JV4Ff9AoHoTLKMzvgNg',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

No one pays full-price anymore - and it's terrifying companies

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/598df9dfd9a6a0a8268b49b6-848/screen%20shot%202017-08-11%20at%2023746%20pm.png" alt="Pussy Riot" data-mce-source="YouTube screenshot/wearepussyriot" data-mce-caption="Pussy Riot's &amp;quotMake America Great Again.&quot;" data-link="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQYcCfKYfYMcuCsem8z5CyQ"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQYcCfKYfYMcuCsem8z5CyQ">YouTube screenshot/wearepussyriot</a></span></p><p class="caption">Pussy Riot's "Make America Great Again."</p></img></div><p></p></div></div><ul><li><strong>Pussy Riot's Nadezhda (Nadya)&#xa0;<span>Tolokonnikova</span>&#xa0;hasn't stopped fighting Putin's autocratic rule, using art as activism</strong></li><li><strong><span>Tolokonnikova spent 22 months in a Siberian prison camp for a 2012 performance</span></strong></li><li><strong><span>She talks&#xa0;democracy, political engagement, and the US-Russia&#xa0;connection</span></strong></li></ul><p>Nadezhda (Nadya) Tolokonnikova is one brave soul.</p><p>Much of the world cowers at the mention of Vladimir Putin these days, especially after <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/us-intelligence-russian-hacking-report-putin-trump-2017-1">Russia's brazen interference in the 2016 US presidential election</a>. Tolokonnikova, a prominent face of the art collective Pussy Riot, actively resists Putin's oppressive dictatorship with bold acts of expression as political activism that often threaten her personal safety - and even her freedom.</p><p>Now that American <keyword id="6358883" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="politics">politics</keyword> has become increasingly Putinized, the Russian activist has a simple message for Americans: Don't take your liberties for granted because they can be stripped away in an instant. </p><p>"Starting the 1990s, people started to believe that, oh, we can just spend time with our own issues, our own private stuff and not pay attention to what's going on in politics because it's not really relevant," Tolokonnikova told Business Insider from Moscow in a wide-ranging telephone. "We have enough freedoms and we don't need to fight for them anymore. Activism was no longer cool."</p><p>Now that Trump is in power, she says, "I think that what's going on right now is a backlash." She continued, "It's a reminder to all of today's young kids that it's important to fight for your rights because they can easily be taken away."</p><p>Rather prophetically, Pussy Riot released a video called "Make America Great Again" on YouTube on October 27, 2016, just a week before the fateful presidential election. In the video, Tolokonnikova appears as a news anchor for "Trump TV" <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-launches-real-trump-tv-news-with-kayleigh-mcenany/">(which now actually exists)</a>,&#xa0;announcing that "everyone's favorite, the great Donald Trump, has won the presidential election."</p><p>The clip then takes a dark turn as the song&#xa0;takes thinly-veiled swipes at Trump's proposed policies. The refrain is a call to action that flips Trump's own messaging on its head: "Let all the people in. Listen to your women. Stop killing black children. Make America great again."</p><p>"I totally understand Putin and Trump and their people can have something in common -<span>&#xa0; </span>their background is similar," Tolokonnikova said.</p><p>She's currently <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1313520543/inside-pussy-riot">rushing to raise funds on Kickstarter for an immersive theater project</a> that would take the audience through a deeply experiential tour of the Russian prison system, from its kangaroo courts to its lawless, fetid jails.</p><p>Tolokonnikova's own reminders of the need for political involvement were never too far away, - and neither were extreme conditions. She was born just before the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, in the glacially-northern Russian town of Norilsk, where the average temperature during the year is -10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Farenheit). A Soviet mining town built from scratch in 1935, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/sep/15/norilsk-red-river-russias-most-polluted-city-clean">Norilsk has a population of around 180,000 and is one of the most polluted places on the planet.</a></p><p>"There was not a lot of culture there, so it was very lucky that a couple of amazing artists came to my town," <span>Tolokonnikova said.</span>&#xa0;"I remember I looked at them and I thinking they were truly alive because they way they navigated our cultural heritage was so free, it was the opposite of what I saw in my school.</p><p>"So I moved to Moscow when I was 16, because it was literally impossible to be a free-spirited, open-minded in a really small town, you will just not survive."</p><p>Effectively, Tolokonnikova grew up in a fledgling post-Soviet democratic experiment that never quite took hold and fairly quickly morphed into a brutal dictatorship led by a former KGB agent. That inspired her to become politically and artistically engaged at the early age of 14.</p><p>"I decided to become an artist and a philosopher because for me it was the same," she said.</p><p>After high school, Tolokonnikova enrolled in a philosophy program at Moscow State University and met up with other artists around the city who had similarly subversive inclinations to form the beginnings of what would become Pussy Riot.</p><h2>'<strong>Virgin Mary, Mother of God, we pray thee, banish him!'</strong></h2><p>Pussy Riot rose to notoriety in 2012 after they performed a feminist punk-rock protest song in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the Russian Orthodox religion's most prominent symbol, which was increasingly in bed with an oppressive Kremlin regime that was jailing political prisoners and violently stifling dissent. It's not difficult to see why the song was slightly offensive to the church patriarchy - or the proud autocrat.<span>&#xa0;</span></p><p><span><a href="https://genius.com/Pussy-riot-punk-prayer-english-translation-lyrics">"Virgin Mary, Mother of God, banish Putin,"</a>&#xa0;the song begins. "</span><span>Virgin Mary, Mother of God, become a feminist, we pray thee, become a feminist, we pray thee."</span></p><p><span>"Patriarch Gundyaev believes in Putin," it continues. "Better believe in God, you vermin! Fight for rights, forget the rite - join our protest, Holy Virgin."</span></p><p>What most people don't realize is that Tolokonnikova and fellow activists Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich<span>&#xa0;</span>were not arrested on the spot. They got kicked out of the church well before their song was finished, as the video shows. It was when the clip&#xa0;started to air on social media and came to the attention of the authorities that they became wanted by Putin's security forces.</p><p>Tolokonnikova says she spent a week on the lam, literally running away from Putin's cops by changing locations at different times, restricting communication, and hiding in secret spots. At one point she tried to sneak out to buy her daughter, who was about to turn four, a birthday present. She was detained by what she describes as a group of thuggish, plain-clothes characters whom the cops at the local precinct first thought to be criminals themselves.</p><p>Then came a prolonged period of psychological pressure and uncertainty that came with her&#xa0;sentencing, which was completely random in nature since technically no actual crime had been committed other than perhaps trespassing. Can one even trespass a church? No matter: Putin's regime figured out a crime with which to charge them - "hooliganism."</p><p>"You could be stuck in prison for the next seven years," guards would warn her. She recalls being taunted in the most grotesque ways, saying the high-profile nature of her case forced the police to refrain from physical abuse that might leave visible scars, resorting instead to psychological terror.</p><p>"You're a beautiful young woman, but when you get out you'll be old, 29, nobody will want to f--- you," Tolokonnikova recalls being taunted by male officers.</p><p>Her ultimate sentence ended up being 22 months in a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/23/pussy-riot-russia-harshest-prisons">cruel and desolate penal colony in<span>&#xa0;</span>Mordovia</a>, a judgment <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/apr/05/amnesty-vladimir-putin-pussy-riot">Amnesty International called unjustifiable and actively fought.</a></p><p><span>While in prison, Tolokonnikova started to protest the dire living and working conditions, which included 16-hour days of torturous and painstaking sowing and other manual labor with unreachable quotas that forced women to toil breathlessly until they fell ill. Punishments for even the tiniest of infractions, often concocted&#xa0;ones, included being left outside in the sub-freezing Siberian&#xa0;cold for prolonged periods. Tolokonnikova eventually went on a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/sep/23/pussy-riot-hunger-strike-nadezhda-tolokonnikova">hunger strike</a>.</span></p><p><span>Her bandmate, Alyokhina, reportedly described her time in prison as a series of "endless humiliations," <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/23/freed-pussy-riot-amnesty-prison-putin-humiliation">including forced gynecological exams almost every day for three weeks.</a></span></p><h2>'<strong>We think we are civilized'</strong></h2><p>Following their release, the pair immediately vowed to continue their fight against Putin's autocratic regime by launching both <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2014/09/two-pussy-riot-members-start-a-news-service">an independent news&#xa0;outlet</a>&#xa0;aimed at countering Russia's propaganda machine and a prison advocacy group <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/23/freed-pussy-riot-amnesty-prison-putin-humiliation">working to bring awareness of the plight of other inmates.</a></p><p>They traveled the world to discuss their own experience and advocate for prison reform. But instead of leaving Russia, where they could undertake artistic projects more freely and safely, the pair were resolute about returning to Moscow.</p><p>During the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, Pussy Riot members were brutally beaten for another attempted performance protest.</p><p>To <span>Tolokonnikova, who visited Rikers Island and other US jails, one</span> of the most striking parallels between the United States and Russia are the two country's giant, cruel and costly prison systems.</p><p>"It's really striking to me, a lot of people really believe that we're living in a civilized world, it's 2017 and are civilized human beings," she said. "Um, not really. We have an army of slaves and America is the biggest one and second is China. Russia is third so it's not great company."</p><p>Tolokonnikova urges everyone, especially young people, to be politically active and informed not as a matter of curiosity but, rather painfully in her case, out of urgent duty. "We can't really wait for somebody else to come fix this problem for us," she said. "They will not."</p><div><iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/s-bKFo30o2o" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div><div><iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/grEBLskpDWQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div><div><iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ivT-I-yxtdY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-bottom-line-stock-market-records-apple-tesla-tech-earnings-jim-glassman-economy-2017-8">THE BOTTOM LINE: New record highs for stocks and a deep dive into Apple's iPhone</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/4Rs0mxkk-xjRU7l6Z.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

Pussy Riot has a wake up call for America's youth in the Trump era

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/47552852.cms" />I am sure <keyword id="510747" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Seth-Rogen">Seth Rogen</keyword> would be forgiving toward my borrowing of this piece from his movie 'Pineapple Express', “If <keyword id="40905" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Marijuana">marijuana</keyword> is not made legal within the next five years I have no faith in humanity, period. Everyone likes smoking weed. They have, for thousands of years. They're not going to stop anytime soon. It makes everything better. Makes food taste better. Makes music better. It makes sex feel better, for God's sakes. It makes shitty movies better, you know?”<br />
 <br />
While Mr Rogen might have said that in 2008, man's lineage to marijuana is over 5000 years old.<br />
 <br />
The earth became proud parents when the dear 20<sup>th</sup> century was born. Racism fell from the high horses of grace. Sexism made an unsexy exit. Science and Technology became captains of the ship called 'future'. Bombs danced on the laps of political agendas, as the weaker nations were dressed to be depressed under the address of the sanction that geographical borderline disorders were indeed good for them.<br />
 <br />
While Yellow Journalism, in the first half of the century, took the cake for manipulating people with its white lies about the concepts of drugs, people, and war, which eventually turned out to be black, was orchestrated mainly to contain the Hispanic migration crisis, chasten the quality of equality in the profound segments of race and gender, and increase the wealth and jurisdiction of the law-making and imposing establishments - it was indeed, a man called Harry J. Anslinger, the first and foremost commissioner to the newly constituted Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN) in 1930, who was responsible for the criminalisation and the fate that marijuana is to made to live with, today.<br />
 <br />
Backed by the Roosevelt administration, Mr Anslinger, the prophet who officially put marijuana behind the veil, joined hands with William Randolph Hearst, founder and owner of America's largest newspaper chain and an icon to American journalism, and went on a serial detonation spree of 'marihuana' (the aboriginal Mexican-Spanish attestation) like an atomic bomb in the vast networks of Hearst's newspapers proclaiming the “evils” of the “herbal demon” without a rhyme or a reason essentially linking its fame and notoriety to scapegoat the racial, ethnic, and social minorities.<br />
 <br />
“Marihuana influenced negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white men’s shadows, and look at a white woman twice.” - A Hearst Newspaper in 1935.<br />
 <br />
“Makes darkies think they’re as good as white men.” - Harry J Anslinger.<br />
 <br />
“Negro entertainers with their jazz and swing music are declared an outgrowth of marihuana use which possesses white women to tap their feet.” - Harry J Anslinger<br />
 <br /> In March 1961, under the administration of John F. Kennedy, <keyword id="2885066" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Harry-J-Asnlinger">Harry J. Asnlinger</keyword> led the successful formation of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, an international treaty that codifies all existing treaties on drug control, including the cultivation of plants that were grown or caused to be part of raw material that came under the umbrella of narcotic drugs. Once signed, this convention also limits the manufacture, production, possession, use, trade, distribution, import and export of narcotic drugs, save for medical and scientific pursuits.<br />
 <br /> <keyword id="3658" type="COUNTRY" weightage="80" keywordseo="India">India</keyword>, under the tenure of Jawaharlal Nehru, the nation's first prime minister, to honour its obligations with the Convention on Psychotropic Substances and the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, signed the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on 30 March, 1961. And on 13 December, 1964 the treaty was ratified. However, international treaties or conventions were not going to clip the wings of India's holistic connection with marijuana. Just not yet.<br />
 <br /> When <keyword id="191987" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Ronald-Reagan">Ronald Reagan</keyword> became the 40<sup>th</sup> US president, his administration began twisting the arm of <keyword id="12596" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Rajiv-Gandhi">Rajiv Gandhi</keyword> to make marijuana illegal in India. Consequentially, in 1985, India established the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS). Before this act, India could and was able to practically dance in the open about its consumption or sale of marijuana.<br />
 <br /> 54 years before we had successfully negotiated with and had finally managed to ask the British to leave us their alphabet and take their letters and go back to where they came from, they were pretty impressed with our deep-rooted weed economics. So in 1893, the British appointed a joint study called '<keyword id="2885065" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Indian-Hemp-Drugs-Commission">Indian Hemp Drugs Commission</keyword>' concerning the growth, manufacture, consumption, and social-cultural impacts from the intake of marijuana in any form.<br />
 <br />
One year later, the conclusion set on top of a 3,281 page report, along with the testimony from almost 1,200 people belonging to diverse cultures, ethnicities, professions, builds, and mindset was - “moderate use of hemp drugs was practically attended by no evil results at all. The intake produces no injuries on the mind and there is no moral injury whatsoever.”<br />
 <br />
Now, this is how it works. Weed is not our family member. It is an outside guest. Let's call this guest Mary Jane for now. This guest can make or break our mood. Depending on how beautiful and powerful this guest is and how organised we are.<br />
 <br />
The power or the camaraderie of the guest is determined by the active agent called THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol) that is present in the DNA of any self-respecting weed. The percentage of THC present in weed will ascertain the potency of the weed. The THC content in the weed available in India  is between 3% and 35%, depending on the atmospheric conditions and locale of its genesis and growth. Synthetic or hybrid ones are set to contain up to 50% - 80% THC.<br />
 <br />
Mary Jane can make us feel different emotions based on where she touches us in the brain.<br />
 <br />
Our brains have neurotransmitters and receptors. The former sends messages. The latter receives them. Accordingly delegations are made to execute the desired movement or action. Now, if Mary Jane strikes us in the Amygdala, the receptor that regulates fear and anxiety, we are going to be scared or paranoid for something. If Mary Jane flirts with our Hypothalamus, receptors that regulate sexual behaviour and appetite, we will experience an increase in the appetite and feel aroused beyond our regular frame. And when Mary Jane caresses our spinal cord that is responsible for the transmission of information between body and brain, we will experience our pain sensitivities being altered –  one of the reasons why marijuana is used as a pain suppressant or stress reliever.<br />
 <br />
We primarily have nine distinguished cannabinoid receptors in the brain. Very rarely weed strikes more than three receptors at the same time.<br />
 <br />
<em>The 10<sup>th</sup> Receptor</em><br /> Strikes the masses. Rocks the social network. Critiques the critics. Impresses his suits with his own branding – <keyword id="6354477" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Narendra-Modi">Narendra Modi</keyword>, a powerful friend to the microphones and warden of cutting-edge speeches about hope and development. On June 1, 2015, when speaking to the United News of India, Mr Modi remarked that our religious freedom is a constitutional right and is “non-negotiable”. He further vouches, “We stand for every one of the 1.25 billion Indians regardless of caste or creed and we will work for the progress of every one of them.” <br />
 <br />
Speaking of constitutional rights, Mr Modi, would it be possible to scooch in a <em>ganja</em> right? The right to smoke weed without inhibitions? Peter Tosh will be happy to be reincarnated just to come down and sing to you:<br />
<em>Legalize it</em><br />
<em>Don't criticize it</em><br />
<em>Legalize it, yeah, yeah,</em><br />
<em>And I will advertise it. </em><br />
 <br />
<em>P.S. Even <keyword id="35763" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Bob-Marley">Bob Marley</keyword> wouldn't mind giving you his rendition. All you have to do is just say the words Mr Modi.</em><br />
 <br />
Marijuana is an adorable little teddy bear. It stands to make you sit with warmth and fuzz. It is not a bat out of hell cheetah like cocaine. Nor is it ugly and smutty like meth or heroin.<br />
 <br />
Being from a right wing party, we are sure an empathy can be made about the tradition, association and fact that we as a nation is attached to weed like a a mother is to her child, through the umbilical cord. The cord may be cut. But the bond will remain. It's a sacred bond. Do you think you could help us secure that bond, Mr Modi?<br />
 <br />
Expectations kill. So does smoking marijuana, right? That's what men with guns and tear gas make us believe every time we step forward with a petition on our tongue. So anyway, I think we will just pray for now that you help us secure the treaty to our freedom to bask in the glory of cloud nine. <br />
<br />
<br />
(Image courtesy: <br />


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