Bartholomew's Notes

A right-wing website promises us a radio treat:

Our guest will be blogger and activist, Lionheart who is a British Citizen and who has been arrested for inciting hate on his blog!…Our second guest is Glen Jenvey who began studying radical Islamic groups when he was in college. He was a spy, and over the years, Jenvey has worked for the intelligence services of several other countries,  and  eventually began using the internet to infiltrate terrorist organizations.

This American show is called No Compromise, and the hosts are a certain “Tracy” and “Jefferson Paine”. The show’s associated blog carries typical fare: ramblings about “Barak Hussein Obama” as “usurper-elect”; the secret pro-Muslim symbolism of the Flight 93 Memorial; and evidence about how an imminent ice age disproves global warming (that last revelation is derived from Pravda via WorldNetDaily – Conwebwatch has more about that here).

However, Jenvey is no longer on the schedule, it seems. Here’s a before-and-after notice on Lionheart’s blog:

Lionheart, it may be recalled, is the sanguinary blogger who was arrested for inciting hatred last year, and as a result he briefly became a “free speech martyr” among conservatives – until someone bothered to look at some of his blog postings expressing the view that “God is on the side of the BNP”, at which point some scepticism crept in. Phyllis Chesler quickly dropped him, and a repudiation from Little Green Footballs led to Lionheart describing the site as a “Second World War Nazi collaborator who would have been shot because of his treason” (more recently he’s said that “I am not BNP although I agree with many of their policies”).

On 9 January, Lionheart reported that:

I received a phone call late last night (7th) from my good friend Glen Jenvey who has been forced into a secret location for his safety because he and several reporters had run a story about credible threats aimed at high profile British Jews. An indirect threat of beheading, or encouragement to behead was posted by a Moslem aimed at them after the intelligence was gathered from one of the largest Moslem forums and then the story taken to print which made the front page of the Sun. Moslems on the forum were blatantly drawing up a list of high profile Jews living in Britain for attack over Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.

It seems Sir Alan Sugar tops the list.

That Sun article has now been removed from the internet, as has a similar piece in the Daily Mail. The Muslim forum posting that listed Alan Sugar had been written by someone called “abuislam”, and the story was pulled after Tim Ireland presented evidence suggestive that this person was none other than…Glen Jenvey.

Why is Jenvey now passing up the chance to address the controversy on radio?

UPDATE: According to “Tracy”, Jenvey couldn’t come on because he is “in hiding” due to the Islamist threat – presumably at a location without a telephone or internet link.

Lionheart, meanwhile, claims that he is still under investigation by the police, and he rails against “Paki Muslims”, insisting that “Paki” is a term similar to the Australian term “Pommy” for “British”. Of course, it’s not – everyone in the UK knows that “Paki” is a racially abusive term that has belonged exclusively to the vocabulary of racists and the far-right for decades. He also complains that the BNP has had a “bad press”, when in fact it is one of the few  groups “doing something” about Muslims taking over the country.

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Blog posts on Glen Jenvey and “VIGIL” by myself and by Tim Ireland at Bloggerheads have elicited a series of weird comments several persons claiming to belong to a group called “the Cheerleaders”, or “Hur Al-Ayn”. The first came on Christmas Day from a certain “Lil’Goat“:

Richard- maybe you’d like an update from someone who works with them? (i.e. me) drop us a line at the email I sent you and I’ll fill you in on the latest.

This was followed by a message from “Yarah H” on 13 January, and promised information on “Glen Jenvey, Dominic Whiteman, VIGIL, V7 Europe, and everything else”.

Meanwhile, Tim has received several missives from “Fayruz”:

…Email me at fayruzsabillah@yahoo.co.uk if you want to know anything, we’re the girls that get the info for VIGIL, V7 Europe, and Jenvey…Glen Jenvey’s not talking to our outfit at the moment cos he thinks we stitched him up. But if you want his mobile or home phone number I can give it to you.

W’slmz
Fayruz
Cheerleader

The purpose of the group, they explain to Tim, is to

track and disrupt violent extremists, mostly Islamic extremists, based in the UK…We mess up extremists, hack their phones, PCs, bluetooth, scare them out of their houses…We hate Jihadi fascist scum. And Panorama, the Daily Telegraph, Angus Walker and CFSC bloomin’ love us!

Further information appears in messages published in November on a blog called the Infidel Blogger’s Alliance (sic for apostrophe position). Here a writer named “Charlie” claims responsibility for the demise of a Jihadi website called IslamBase. Charlie also tells us:

In real life, we’re me, some ex-army intel people, some hackers, and a bunch of girls with funny-colored hair!

The group also uses the name “Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group”, or “P2OG”, which is taken from a proposed new intelligence agency in the USA that was suggested in 2002.

A comment on Harry’s Place made on 28 December in the name of “Al-Hur Al-Ayn” has a bit of fun with Anjem Choudary, a high-profile and particularly unpleasant British Jihadist:

we’re onto Anjem Choudary and he’s cacking it, as of today :) We messed up their meeting in Slough and now they’re all a bit twitchy. Funnily enough when we texted him today he said he was going to call the police because we were harrassing him. Strange- we thought he only believed in divine law! XXX Al-Hur Al-Ayn

The comment leads to this non-existent website.

A comment at Soccer Dad on the same day also takes credit for sending a letter to MPACUK spokesman Asghar Bukhari which apparently spooked him out. However, this time the link is to the website of an Essex-based music group called “The Fighting Cocks”. The group’s site carries a “P2OG” logo, and a couple of paragraphs expressing the belief that the West’s “cultural weapons of mass destruction” and “earthly delights” will prove more attractive to the world than radical Islam: “Our guitars kill Al Qaeda”. A profile here describes them as an

Anti fascist bhangra / jungle / dub / gypsy / punk cheerleaders who look like they’ve just stepped out of a Manga comic. Charlie Cock and his seemingly endless collection of female companions have fused together hundreds of complex samples from musical history and will present them to you with a smattering of punk guitar, female vocals and pom poms.

“Charlie Cock” is apparently also known as “”Ludas Matyi”, which is a name taken from a Hungarian epic poem.

[UPDATE: “Ludas Matyi” is also part of the email address belonging to “Lil’ Goat” – I don’t usually mention details like that which are sent to me privately, but comments on Tim’s blog have now crossed the line, with “Fayruz” offering up a veiled “I know where you live” message. The email address also appears on other sites concerning the “Fighting Cocks”].

A link to their “MySpace” site adds:

They are on a never ending quest to destroy Islamic terrorism and they aim to achieve this by sampling the most obscure sounds, jumbling them up with jungle/techno beats and then adding some punk guitar and girly vocals over the top of it.

But how does sending out weird and ambiguous blog comments about Glen Jenvey fit into such a “quest”?

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(Revised)

US Christian Right website OneNewsNow strikes an apocalyptic nerve for its readers with the following headline:

U.S. pledges $700K to rebuild Babylon

A short report attributed to the AP follows.

As is widely known, the Bible presents “Babylon” as kind of anti-type to all that is true and decent, and the word is used in the Book of Revelation to represent pagan Rome. With sledgehammer biblical literalism, Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins’ Left Behind novels has the anti-Christ move the UN from New York to Babylon, and needless to say the headline is now popping up on discussion boards and blogs as evidence of the Last Days.

Strangely, the headline appears only on OneNewsNow, and the story does not appear on the AP website. Further, although there are few details about the “U.S. pledge” the author does find space to tell us that:

In the Bible, Isaiah prophesies that Babylon “will never be inhabited, nor will it be settled from generation to generation.”

Therefore what? This is a story about archaeology, not Biblical prophecy. Would the AP end a story on evolutionary biology or cosmology with the note that “In Genesis, God creates the world in six days?”

In fact, of course, no-one is planning to “rebuild” Babylon – it would be pointless to do so and it would destroy the integrity of the archaeological site. The headline shows a profound ignorance about what archaeological research and conservation involves. As reports elsewhere explain, what is actually planned is a restoration of the site following damage from looters and soldiers and from Saddam Hussein’s botched “re-building” of the 1980s (a development which at the time led US “prophecy experts” to rush out paperbacks on the apocalyptic significance of Saddam). The site is of priceless archaeological significance and must be protected, and it is hoped that the restoration will help to revive Iraq’s tourist industry.

And if you’re going to mention Isaiah 13 you need to give the proper context – that this chapter is a poem written at the end of the Exilic period concerning the Persian invasion of Babylon. In fact, however, despite the Biblical author’s glee at the total destruction of the city the prophecy did not come true: the Persians instead took over the city and although it lost much of its significance after Alexander the Great it remained inhabited for more than a thousand years after the claim it “will never be inhabited”. Rather than being dramatically struck down by God, Babylon slowly declined and disappeared for economic reasons.

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From the Pink News:

Gay rights advocates in Greece have appealed for help in fighting a lawsuit against activist Leo Kalovyrnas and non-governmental organisation Synthesis HIV/AIDS Awareness.

The Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of Piraeus, Seraphim, is bringing the suit.

He made a series of homophobic statements in a newspaper article, claiming gay people are “morally corrupt, obsessed with satisfying their psychopathological deviation and who have made a life value out of the faeces elimination tract.”

Kalovyrnas described the Metropolitan’s words as “hate speech” which should be banned, and Seraphim (or Serafim) has responded by suing for defamation.

Orthodox clerics rarely feel the need to be civil when engaging in controversy; instead, opponents are heaped with the most rancourous abuse that can be mustered. Here’s Seraphim again, this time complaining about Greek Catholic (“Uniate”) churches in a letter to the Pope published in the Orthodox Press (Orthodoxos Typos) newspaper:

Your Beatitude,

Following the recent election of the new Bishop of the Uniates of Greece upon the decision of the Pope of Rome Mr. Benedict the 16th, it is now verified beyond any naïve doubt that the heretic papist parasynagogue (conventicle) –as our memorable, late spiritual father the Archbishop Seraphim used to call it- has not in the least altered its atrocious stance against the Undivided Orthodox Catholic Church – from which it severed itself, only to be thereafter led to thousands of other downfalls – distorting purposely and methodically both the dogma and the polity and the ethos of the undivided Church.

 The enthronement within Athens itself on the 24th of the preceding month of May this year of Mr. Demetrios Salahas as Bishop of the nonexistent “Uniates of Greece” has totally disposed of the mask of supposed “amiable relations” and the theory of “sister Churches”, to reveal the true, unsightly face of Papism, which has opportunely struck a blow to the truth of the Faith by persevering satanically in its intolerable malice…

With brotherly love and due honor,

The least in Christ brother

+Seraphim of Piraeus

(Alternative translation here) Seraphim can also never bring himself to write of the World Council of Churches without calling the body “The World Council of so-called ‘Churches'”. We are also told that

Seraphim of Piraeus has defended the Orthodox Faith; he declared that the Church is One: that of the Orthodox Faith; he stressed that the Papist Bishop is in a fallacy; he underlined the fact that Papism is a heresy; he reminded him of the Papists’ crimes against 800.000 Orthodox in Croatia; he posed various questions to the Papist Bishop and with his stance, he defended the newspaper “Orthodox Press” for opposing Christian heresies.

An admiring profile of Seraphim written by a certain Protopresbyter Theodoros Zisis adds further details:

For decades now the pan-heresy of Ecumenism infects the Orthodox faith and life…The powerful weakened but it was preordained by God that a loud Orthodox voice of an even young bishop be heard. The metropolitan of Piraeus, most reverend Seraphim, amazed us and pleased us all with everything he wrote and reported to archimandrite Marko Manoli, to the unshakeable as well fighter of Orthodoxy, a spiritual and elder of the “Panhellenic Orthodox Union” who is also the spiritual overseer of the “Orthodox Press”. Whatever he writes and declares is the Faith, the voice, the teaching of the Holy Fathers and the self-consciousness of the Church.

According to the Orthowiki, Seraphim’s family name is Mentzelopoulos, and he was previously a bishop in Australia. Here he got on the wrong side of his boss, Archbishop Stylianos, who writes:

We shall, therefore, deal with certain extraordinary and rather mischievous ‘ploys’ of Athens in which they have ‘implicated’ us – taking advantage of our altogether caring disposition and philanthropic leniency towards those younger than ourselves. We refer to certain ‘sharpsighted’ and ‘office-seeking’ Clerics who, while presenting themselves as persons of ‘overflowing piety’ and ‘missionary zeal’, dared to profanely ‘snatch’ the highest and most sacred office and ministry of the Church – that of Bishop – so that they might then debase it and turn out to be, as sometimes occurs, our ‘abusers’ and ‘slanderers’.

We refer here to the altogether unexpected and inexplicable ascent to the position of Chief Secretary of the Archdiocese of Athens, Bishop Seraphim Mentzelopoulos of Christianoupolis, and to the former Metropolitan of New Zealand Joseph Harkiolakis, ‘protected’ and ‘promoted’ adroitly by the former.

As both of these hypocritical, desperate and, at the same time, mellifluous flatterers are seeking appointment to prime Metropolitanates in Greece, fishing undisturbed in ‘murky waters’, since this suits the unrepentant establishment of ‘Chrysopigi’, we are today obliged to make public our Pastoral Report (see pages 4,5) to the Ecumenical Pa-triarchate with regard to Metzelopoulos, forwarded more than three years ago in Greek, since we have already written about and made public matters pertaining to Harkiolakis.

The 2003 “Pastoral report and denouncement by Archbishop Stylianos to the Sacred Centre of the Ecumenical Patriarchate” can be seen here. The document is rambling and as hyperbolically abusive as anything produced by Seraphim himself; various clerics are denounced as “accursed”, “from a young age diabolical in dexterity and wickedness”, or “demonstrating a Luciferous arrogance”. However, the details of the actual dispute remain obscure; or, as we might say, “Byzantine”…

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As conflict continues in Gaza, OneNewsNow inevitably turns to Walid Shoebat for commentary. And Shoebat, inevitably, says something stupid:

“The core issue is not an issue of land whatsoever. It’s an issue of wiping the state of Israel out. If you look at even suicide bombing — historically, if you look from 1980 until 2003, let’s say — 224 suicide bombings out of 300 existed in Islamic countries with no occupation whatsoever,” he notes. “So it’s not simply the desire to create a Palestinian state. It is the desire to destroy the Jewish state, and that’s what we see.”

The statistics are OK, but the rest of this verges on incoherence – how exactly do suicide bombings “in Islamic countries with no occupation whatsoever” help us to understand suicide bombings arranged by Hamas? And what does “no occupation whatsoever” mean? Jihadists usually regard the rulers of the various Islamic countries as corrupt and illegitimate – that amounts to a kind of “occupation”, from their perspective.

The point is not to dispute that Hamas is sanguinary and disastrous for the Palestinians – but we can work that out without Shoebat’s ramblings, which offer no illumination whatsoever. Once again, this man, who has no special insight and is of dubious credibility, is held up as some kind of expert despite having nothing sensible to contribute.

Any serious discussion of suicide bombing has to begin with Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism, by Robert Anthony Pape. But then, Pape is just a scholar, while Shoebat dines out on the conspiratorial notion that as an ex-Muslim he knows stuff which the Muslim world (not just Palestine, but everywhere) otherwise hides from outsiders. OneNewsNow relies heavily on this kind of pseudo-authority.

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From the Daily Mirror, a couple of days ago:

Reverend Ewen Souter has decided the crucifix on his church is “a horrifying depiction of pain and suffering” which scares children and “puts people off”.

The 10ft sculpture has now been unceremoniously yanked from the side of St John’s and in its place, to the anger and bewilderment of some in his congregation, is an ultra-modern stainless steel cross.

One long-standing member of the church in Horsham, West Sussex, who asked not to be named, said: “The crucifix is the oldest and most famous symbol Christianity…”

That’s a bit of a simplification. Robin Margaret Jensen’s Understanding Early Christian Art (2000) notes that depictions of the Crucifixion were rare before the sixth century; a footnote explains the scholarly debate as to why this is the case (p. 204 ,emphasis added):

E. Syndicus, Early Christian Art, 103-4: “Fear of profanation of the holiest many have contributed to this result…the sublime idea of redemption could not be made into the act of execution with which fourth-century Christians were still familiar from their own experience.”… E. van der Meer, Early Christian Art (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967), 102-2 suggests that the image was either too horrible, repulsive, or undignified to depict before the late sixth century…

The Littlehampton Gazette now notes:

A DECISION to take down the sculpture of the crucifixion from a Broadbridge Heath church has sparked interest and comment worldwide.

The story, which wscountytimes.co.uk revealed on January 2, has now been featured on numerous blogs and national news sites, although many refer to it being at Horsham rather than Broadbridge Heath.

Souter’s parish church has meanwhile issued a statement:

Press reports have been very misleading, suggesting that we are somehow dumbing down the message of the cross and undermining the symbol of the cross in an age of political correctness. The reality is, in fact, the complete opposite. It is precisely because we believe passionately in the significance of the crucifixion of Christ that we felt led to have this particular version of the crucifix removed. What will not be clear to readers or radio listeners who have not seen the crucifix in person is the fact that the artist chose to portray Christ’s facial expression as one which indicates despair and hopelessness. While this makes it an interesting piece of art, it also means that this artistic choice made by the sculptor makes this particular crucifix a misleading version of the symbol of the cross, failing to communicate the significance of the crucifixion of Christ as an event which brings eternal and undying hope to this world. Christ did not approach the crucifixion with any sense of despair or hopelessness; he did not suffer on the cross in an attitude of hopelessness; and he did not die in an attitude of hopelessness. Quite the contrary: Christ approached the cross with steadfast courage and determination; he suffered in an attitude of knowing what he was achieving through his death; and he finally faced death with certainty about the significance of his death – the steadfast hope of bringing about the redemption of humankind from the power of sin; the hope of demonstrating the full extent of God’s gracious love and forgiveness; and hope that looked forward to the promise of the Resurrection on Easter morning, when the power of death, sin and evil would be broken.

Theologians and historical Jesus scholars could doubtless argue over some of these confident and rather broad assertions (most obviously, the Gospel of Mark’s “My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?” suggests human despair); one critique on a Christian blog can be see here.

In 2003 an evangelical African-American pastor, John Kingara of Massachusetts, made a show of removing a plain cross from his church and placing in a dumpster, having been inspired by none other than Rev. Sun Myung Moon.

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(Title corrected)

Various Christian Zionist websites are publicising a Christian “Israel-Palestinian Peace Rally” to be held outside the London Israeli Embassy next week. The organiser is an obscure group called the Good Shepherd Movement, and it is promoting the slogan “Try Peace”. The “Try Peace Campaign” website explains:

We the coalition of people who want to speak out for Peace as a Voice of Reason, wish to call on all honest people and those who love peace to stand up and condemn Hamas and its allies for resuming rocket attacks after a period of agreed ceasefire with the State of Israel. Nobody wishes to see the Palestinian population subjected to the same blockade to which the Nigerian Government and its Allies subjected Biafra to between 1967-1970. We all know what happened to the lives of millions of the Biafran people. We feel that continued broadcasting of pro-Hamas protests by the media is irrational, biased against Israel, dangerous to the welfare of ordinary Palestinian people whom Hamas is hiding behind to carry out a proxy war for the enemies of Israel…

However, unlike many Christian Zionist organisations, the Campaign also believes that “Palestine has a right of a viable state”.

As indicated in the above quote, the Good Shepherd Movement has a particular interest in Biafra; the GSM leader, Enyinna Amadikwa, has a rather unusual perspective:

In 1990 in Macclesfield, in the North of England, I was opportuned to purchase an antique map of Africa which indicated in reality, that Biafra existed before Nigeria by  hundreds of years, if not thousands, therefore making it an ancient landmark. This realisation instantly made me to recall my visions and my role in the restoration of what is Biblically an ancient landmark…It might appear that we have pro-Israeli posture because it has been passed down to us that the Biafran people (Igbos) have a historical heritage with the Hebrews of Israel.

A report in IBO Media notes Amadikwa’s participation at a London Iri ji (Igbo celebration of the New Yam) festival:

Amadikwa stressed that Biafrans were offspring of Ishmael [UPDATE: sic – see comment below about this misquote – RB], who migrated to Ethiopia before dispersing further to the dream country…Asked later if GSM was an offshoot of the embattled Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) Amadikwa said no, he said that GSM believes that the ills plaguing Igbo Land like lack of respect for elders, corruption and others would not be tolerated in the new Biafra.

The idea that Biafrans – and specifically the Igbo – are related to the Jews was popularized by Olaudah Equiano, who cited Dr. John Gill’s opinion that Africans are “descendents of Abraham by Keturah his wife and concubine “. Equiano added:

We practised circumcision like the Jews, and made offerings and feasts on that occasion in the same manner as they did. Like them also, our children were named from some event, some circumstance, or fancied foreboding at the time of their birth.

Some Igbo groups today go further, suggesting that Abraham adopted these customs after visiting the Igbo, although there is no suggestion that Amadikwa takes such a view. Also, Amadikwa’s vision for Biafra is explicitly non-tribal.

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Excellent work from Tim Ireland at Bloggerheads about self-promoting “terror expert” Glen Jenvey, who has featured on this site previously. A few days ago Jenvey appeared in a UK Sun article in which he warned:

…online forum Ummah is being used to prepare a deadly backlash against UK Jews. His warning came as Europe was hit by anti-Semitic attacks over Israel’s push into the Gaza Strip…Mr Jenvey, 43, said: “The Ummah website has been used by extremists. “Those listed should treat it very seriously. Expect a hate campaign and intimidation by 20 or 30 thugs.”

Several high-profile British Jews were named as possible targets.

Septicisle noted the backstory on this by visiting the Ummah website, where a poster (a certain “Saladin1970”) had suggested that

The names and addresses of Wealthy Zionist Jews can be found in the lists of sponsors and contributors of Zionist Charities…It would be beneficial to start compiling a list so that we can write polite letters reminding them of the injustices of israel and to stop supporting israel.

Make of that what you will; certainly it is not unreasonable to read “intimidation” into “polite letters” from strangers wanting to have a political argument, particularly if you have been targeted due to your ethnicity [UPDATE: More on “Saladin1970” here].

The thread did not gather much steam; there are only six contributors spread over two pages, and a couple of posters suggest that such a campaign would be a waste of time and that corrupt rulers in the Islamic world were the real problem.  However, one  poster, a new member named “abuislam”, upped the ante by naming three famous British Jews and calling for doorstep protests. An Ummah site manager then tells us:

This is the Thread which triggered the Headline in The Sun News Paper Today

I can confirm that the User “AbuIslam” who is posing as a Muslim on this forum is infact a freelance Journalist by the name of “Richard Tims” who registered on this forum to twist what the original Intent of this thread was for and to make Muslims look bad.

Abuislam Deliberated added comments on this thread which made is as if this thread was intended to cause harm to names that were mentioned

This has been confirmed from his IP address and Email addresses has he used on this forum and previous usernames

“Richard Tims'” contribution was this piece of spam:

Islamic stories wanted by the media world wide why not sell your story for cash.

http://www.sellyourstory.org

The same advert appears on the UK blog of Paul Ray (“Lionheart”); Ray claims to have links with Jenvey.

Tim Ireland now brings to attention the following entry on 1DirBiz:

 Title: Sell Your Story – http://www.sellyourstory.org
…Category: Business & Economy: News and Media
Link Owner: glen jenvey
Date Added: July 28, 2008 01:35:11 AM

As Tim notes, this is highly suggestive

…that Glen Jenvey and ‘abislam’ are one and the same person.

In other words, he has created the very ‘militant’ content that the Sun has based their story on.

Further, in his quote he warns those listed to take the threat very seriously and to “expect a hate campaign and intimidation by 20 or 30 thugs”… when he was the one who listed them, and was the only person talking about doing anything other than writing letters!

Of course, there may be some other explanation, but it is worth noting that Jenvey did in the past run a Jihadist website as an “undercover” activity, which he then replaced with a message mocking Islamic extremism and offering his views on Israel (“There is no such thing as a ‘Palestinian'”) and Kashmir (“belongs to the Indians”).

Incidentally, it appears I wrote a premature obituary of the “VIGIL Nework”, with which Jenvey is also connected.

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From Leadership Nigeria:

Residents of Masaka in Nasarawa State heaved a sigh of relief recently as they were delivered from the activities of demon-possessed children by pastor Bawa J Madaki of Eternity Church Masaka.

In recent times, Masaka and Nyanya-Gwandara both in Karu local government area of Nasarawa State, have allegedly been invaded by demon-possessed children who are said to have been tormenting the residents…

One man told the paper that after his daughter’s deliverance she confessed to having caused him to lose his job and to having “tied” her mother’s pregnancy. Also:

Margaret was said to have confessed that she was a great person in the spirit realm. Her name was “Queen Shiayet” given to her by the master of the cult. She said she had killed so many people by causing accidents on the road.

Meanwhile, a boy confessed to killing his mother “by sucking her blood”.

Pastor Bawa Madaki has no other internet presence, and the Eternity Independent Baptist Church is similarly obscure. Nasarawa State is in central Nigeria, some distance from the southern coastal state of Akwa Ibom where the neo-Pentecostal child-witchfinders exposed by Channel 4 late last year are based. One wonders if Madaki has seen Helen Ukpabio‘s horror film End of the Wicked.

This account also has resonances with other stories I have written about: almost a year ago I blogged on a certain Rev Massok, who makes young women confess to all kinds of demonic and other-worldly exploits in Cameroon; and the idea that witches are the cause of road accidents is central to the teachings of the Ugandan Pastor Thomas Muthee, who gained global prominence a few months ago due to his links with Sarah Palin and her church in Wasilla.

It seems that many people are fearful of criticising “men of God” such as Madaki due to possible divine retribution. A commentator to one of my blog entries on Helen Ukpabio warns that:

You all should know that curses are obedient and just servants and that they are faithfull in discharging their duties accordingly.

Those of you raining curses on an innocent woman of God based on false allegations posit on her should know that for sure, when those curses go and finds out that she is innocent, those curses must definately go back to the sender to accomplish its mission (BACK TO SENDER)

An easy way to know if Evangelist Mrs. Helen Ukpabio is innocent from all these element of allegation is to search and assess your life in absolute totality. Evaluate yourself if all is still going on well with you right from the time you decided to comment on what you do not understand neither the motive behind all the intentions.

HAS YOUR LIFE IMPROVED OR DEPRECIATED?

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Man who runs home for “witch” children accused of being “a wizard”

Lawyers writing to documentary-makers and to Guardian

Claims mob “almost killed” her in London

Helen Ukpabio, the Nigerian neo-Pentecostal witchfinder who has been on the receiving end of considerable opprobrium following a Channel 4 documentary, has given a defiant interview to Modern Ghana. She accuses Sam Itauma, who runs a hostel for children who have been rejected by their families after being accused of witchcraft, of being a wizard who is “trying to preserve the posterity of witches”, and she also claims he is trying to “tap into” British charitable funds for accused child witches in Congo:

He has now turned those children to become witches for the sake of money. Let it be so for him and whoever is supporting him.

She also once again asserts that some children have a supernatural power to cause harm, as she discusses her horror movie End of the Wicked:

The film simply says if a child is greedy – the type that says give me this, give me that, give me puff-puff, akara or sweet in school, he or she could be easily contaminated with witchcraft. So, saying that the film branded children witches, I didn’t see the people that the film branded witches. Rather, we saw children who were greedy and were contaminated by other children who were witches in the school…

I must say I can’t quite grasp the distinction she’s getting at here.

Ukpbabio also warns:

 I have asked my lawyers to write to the BBC and The Guardian of London.

She means “Channel 4” rather than the BBC, but I’m sure the letter will get there eventually.

Ukpabio also complains about how she was recently received in the UK:

They almost mobbed me in London when I arrived on November 13, after the people watched the mischievous documentary…I arrived Heathrow Airport on 13 and as I walked pass to pick a taxi, somebody stopped and said, “You are Helen, right?” when I said “yes”, she went on, “You are very wicked. You kill children in Nigeria. Oh my God. You are the real devil. They were showing you on TV yesterday.” As she was talking, a crowd gathered and all the people were very angry. They almost killed me in London…When I got to the hotel, I decided to find a shop and buy recharge card for my phone. Again, another girl, this time a Nigerian screamed, “Oh you, you parade yourself as an evangelist but you kill children. God will punish you.” She now called her friend and before we knew it, people gathered. I left them…I left just after three days and left for Los Angeles. There the same scenario repeated itself.

Gosh, being on the receiving end of public hostility after being accused of something isn’t very nice, is it?

Ukpabio believes these children are lying, and that the man is a wizard

(Hat tip: Bulldada Newsblog)

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