I’ve devoted a lot of entries on this blog to the subject of Christian Zionism, highlighting certain questionable activities and inflammatory assertions from particular groups. However, one should also keep an eye on the other side as well; UK “liberal hawk” website Harry’s Place draws attention to the “the Crescent and Cross Solidarity Movement”, based in the US and run by Mark Glenn and Hesham Tillawi. According to its website:
Christianity and Islam are not at war with each other…The present conflict between the two religions is an artificial conflict that has been deliberately constructed by a third party who stands to benefit from the two religions wiping each other out. This third party is the Zionist agenda that is using a ‘divide and conquer’ strategy and done with the interests of seeing that in the end the Jewish supremacist agenda reins over the world and its inhabitants…Islam as an organized ideology is the last barrier that is standing steadfastly in the way of this nightmarish apocalyptic agenda being realized.
The page includes an old (possibly Nazi-era?) cartoon of a dragon sitting atop a globe of the world, with a grotesque Jewish head. The organisation has also taken aim at the Pope:
…We (and in particular those of us who are Catholics) completely reject and condemn the latest statements attributed to the crypto-Rabbi who currently sits in the Vatican and who dares to call himself a follower of Jesus Christ. There are a few of us out here who recognize the fact that the Catholic Church was taken over many years ago by the Jewish agenda, and that the recent statements attributed to this modern day Judas are meant to enflame those in the Muslim world and to further the ‘clash of civilizations.’…
Glenn writes for a far-right populist newspaper called the American Free Press, and apparently he runs a ranch in Idaho. He is also the author of Not My Words but Theirs: A Christian American’s defense of Middle Eastern culture and its people. A blurb for this appears on a defunct website:
Not My Words is a collection of essays written by an American Christian concerning the events surrounding September 11, and is a refutation offered against the lies that have been propagated by the Western media surrounding the Middle Eastern culture and its peoples. …if by some miracle the Arab/Muslim world is victorious…and the secular/atheistic influence of the NWO agenda is reduced, it will be necessary to credit the religion of Islam and the Arab world for not buckling under in the face of attempted extermination. And it will be we, the Christian West and Western Civilization, who will be the beneficiaries of “Islamic Extremism.”…The history of murder and calculated genocide that has been waged against the Semitic peoples of Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt by a Beast that has no more regard for human life than a beast in the wild would have for its victims is impossible to deny or defend.
One of Glenn’s other books is an attack on Israel entitled No Beauty in the Beast. It’s grimly amusing to see the parallels with fundamentalist forms of Christian Zionism: John Hagee, for instance, also rails against a “New World Order” (NWO), and he believes that the enemy benefits from secular trends in the west. Some Christian Zionists have also begun using the term “Beast” to refer to Islam.
Hesham Tillawi, meanwhile, is based in Louisiana, where he heads a cable show called “Current Issues”. Through this medium, Tillawi has promoted Holocaust deniers and right-wing extremists. The ADL reports:
Former Klansman David Duke has appeared on “Current Issues” three times to peddle his brand of Jew-hatred. Duke warned that there is a “worldwide Jewish extremist media and government [effort]” to corrupt children with violence and promote drug use; to “destroy…the home and the family”; to wipe away “individual cultures and freedoms” and institute “a new age of darkness.”Another guest on Tillawi’s show has alleged that Jews are somehow aligned with demonic forces. “Call it anti-Christ, call it Satan, call it whatever,” Russian-born Jewish covert to Christianity Israel Shamir said on “Current Issues.” “This kind of force tries to defeat Christ, and it is heavily armed with tools of Jews.”
(More on Shamir here) Tillawi believes that Zionists control the US media and government, noting various Jews in public positions. Of course, he doesn’t consider the possibility that public perception may be skewed against Palestinians thanks to the antics of the likes of him, rather than because of some conspiracy.
Last October, the Crescent and Cross Solidarity Movement held a conference called “No More Wars for Israel”, in southern California; apparently it included a video message from Mahmoud Ahmadinejhad. And a few days ago Glenn and Tillawi were at a conference organised by Jamaat al-Muslimeen (JAM), which also featured Ramsey Clark. According to a website run by JAM’s organiser, Kaukab Siddique:
Mark Glenn’s topic was “Islamic ‘extremism’ may Save Western Civilization.” Note that the word ‘extremism’ is within quotes. He said that America has abandoned the original teachings of Jesus [pbuh] and has espoused the most shameful sins of paganism. The stern Islamic resistance to the rampant corruption of America is a blessing for true Christians. Mr. Glenn thinks that very little of genuine Christianity has survived in America owing to the steady attack on Christian values by Zionist-Jewish media. Mr. Glenn is the father of many children and notices with horror the daily attack on family values and on the sacred teachings of Jesus.
Other speakers included Holocaust-deniers such as Mark Weber, Director of the Institute of Historical Research; Siddique also has links with David Irving.
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