Bartholomew's Notes

Sadly No! draws attention to an interview with Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs:

Johnson worries, in conversation and on his blog, that his old allies have been duped by far-right European political parties and have bought into wild attacks on the president that discredit their own causes.

“I don’t think there is an anti-jihadist movement anymore,” Johnson said. “It’s all a bunch of kooks. I’ve watch some people who I thought were reputable, and who I trusted, hook up with racists and Nazis. I see a lot of them promoting stories and causes that I think are completely nuts.”

Sadly No! adds:

Noooooooooooooooooooo! What tipped it off? Was it Iron Fist’s fantasies of nuclear genocide? Was it your readers’ iron-clad belief that a crescent-shaped memorial to Flight 93 was really a secret plot to pay tribute to radical Islam? I don’t see how any of these not-at-all-crazy ideas could possibly change your opinion about anything.

Jeff Sharlet plumbed the unpleasantness of LGF and its commentators back in 2004.

One “anti-Jihadist” whom Johnson has fallen out with is Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs, and on Monday he took aim at her for supporting a protest in Luton, UK:

Shrieking bigoted lunatic Pamela Geller has now graduated to promoting the skinheads of the neo-Nazi British National Party: Atlas Shrugs: PUSHBACK AGAINST MUSLIM EXTREMISTS IN THE UK.

One of the demonstrations she’s pimping was organized by pro-BNP blogger Paul Ray, aka “Lionheart.”

As I’ve blogged, last year Ray was investigated by the British police for incitement to racial hatred; for a while, he was lauded by US conservatives as a free-speech martyr, but when pro-BNP comments came to light he was quickly dropped – Johnson was among his critics, and Ray responded by calling him “the equivalent of a Second World War Nazi collaborator who would have been shot because of his treason”. The investigation seems to have been a formality – when a complaint is made to the police there have to be some enquiries, such as when blogger Neil Clark tried to set the police on Oliver Kamm. However, Ray has milked the incident ever since, as if he were under continuing police investigation/persecution – although in an argument with a commentator at his blog he recently finally revealed that he is no longer of interest to the police, and any suggestion otherwise was “unfounded and baseless, and could also be libelous”.

Johnson then refers his readers to (ahem) me:

Richard Bartholomew has more information on the skinheads behind this demonstration: Protest in Luton over St. George’s Day Event Decision

Geller responds:

I ran a video of folks supporting the troops in the UK. That’s it. Here’s the post. Nowhere is the BNP mentioned and never have I ever expressed any support for that group. I had no idea it’s BNP. Nothing at youtube says BNP. The name of the video is “People of Luton Protest against Muslim Extremists” – user name “lutonprotest”. Nutty as a fruitcake, I tell ya.

In fact, I was careful to point out in my posting that this was not a BNP event, that at least one protestor was black, and that there had been a banner attacking the far-right National Front. However, I also noted that a BNP activist had been drumming up discrete support for the event among the party, and that Ray continues to make pro-BNP comments, most recently that “you should not judge these people who God is doing a work with and through”. He also insists that the word “Paki” is not offensive, and he makes no distinction between Muslims and Islamic extremists.

Here’s the video, which is the only substantial footage of the event to appear online. It appears to have been an ugly and aggressive affair, with placards thrown at police to a chorus of the word “scum” at one point. As a defence of “English culture” it does not encourage, unless we include the kind of abuse and posturing that used to be seen around certain football matches.

Incidentally, there does not appear to have been any follow-up to the claim reported in the Daily Star that a black protestor had two teeth knocked out by the police. UPDATE: Paul Ray has posted a photo of a damaged mouth; there is no reason to doubt belongs on the protestor.

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