Apple Blasphemy?

Russia’s Orthodox believers, perhaps goaded by the Pussy Riot scandal into a heightened sensitivity to all things potentially blasphemous, have apparently found a new target in the Apple logo (CNet has the story).  Although supposedly inspired by Isaac Newton’s ‘apple incident‘, some conservative believers apparently ‘see the image of the bitten apple as a symbol of Adam and Eve’s original sin in the Bible. Some have gone so far as to cover up the logo and replace it with an image of a cross.‘  And, apple incident notwithstanding, the law is very much on their side.

Now, new anti-blasphemy laws proposed in Russia’s parliament could conceivably prevent Apple from selling products with its own logo in the country.

Of course, the merging of clerical and government powers is the very phenomenon that Pussy Riot set out to protest with their original Punk Prayer (the lyrics referring to ‘the cross-bearer procession of black limousines‘ is a direct critique of the special privileges awarded to Orthodox priests).