Bartholomew's Notes

From the self-described Astute Bloggers:

A blow against democracy?

Inevitably, the bogus “scandal” is all over the internet; Firedoglake  has a nice overview of the hysteria, including this piece on Commentary:

…Among Muslim democrats and human rights advocates, utter dejection that the “leader of the Free World” has offered himself as a “subject” of the Saudi monarch; among Islamists, bliss over America’s seeming prostration before Salafist Islam; among international bad actors, assurance that America poses no threat; and among our allies, depression about the new systemic instability of the most dependable superpower in history.

Needless to say, this is all pure humbug; as Firedoglake notes, Bush was famously photographed holding hands with the same Saudi monarch (although that lip-to-lip kiss is photoshopped), and Dick Cheney bowed before Abdullah in order to receive a medal from him.

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From Sunny Hundal:

A couple of years ago, I republished a 20-year-old Guardian article that shed some light on activities that blogger Paul Staines, aka Guido Fawkes, was involved in at the time. Within minutes of publishing it I was served with a legal notice claiming I was trying to defame him, and eventually I had to take it down after some wrangling. I didn’t have the legal backing to test his challenge in court.

I mention this incident in light of attempts by English PEN and Index on Censorship to examine the impact of libel, as Jo Glanville explained last week, because libel law has had a huge impact on the internet…Whether it be science reporting, digging into false stories or simply highlighting an individual’s past, bloggers are constantly being harassed by libel law.

I can sympathize with Sunny still being annoyed with Staines two years on: as well as being a blatant attempt to discourage legitimate investigation into someone’s past public and political activities, it was a double dose of hypocrisy: not only as regards the the common interest of all bloggers, but because Staines is a long-standing member of the “libertarian right”. Here he is on the Libertarian Alliance website, included on a list headed “They also serve”; he also wrote some pamphlets for the organisation. The need for UK libel reform is urgent; yet some of those (Staines is not the only one) who call themselves “libertarian” are on the other side…

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“Liberal hawk” website Harry’s Place attacks the managers of Friends House, the Quakers’ apostrophe-less London HQ in Euston Road, for allowing it to be used as the venue for a public meeting with Hussein el-Hajj Hassan, a Lebanese MP who is also a member of Hezbollah. Quakers, of course, are radical pacifists, and the Meeting House in central London is a popular venue for anti-war groups and meetings. However, Hezbollah is hardly “anti-war”, and HP called his presence a “betrayal of George Fox”. It’s not the first time pacificism has been dissed there; in 2006 the Hamas-linked Azzam Tamimi was cheered at the same venue as he ranted rapturously about how about how Hamas and Hizbollah would “deal with” the “Zionist entity” during the Lebanon war.

The venue has also been booked by extremists without any kind of “anti-war” veneer; in 2002 it was reported that

Abu Qatada, the missing hardline Islamic cleric suspected by intelligence officials of being a key al-Qaeda operative in the UK, has broken his silence to call on British Muslims to martyr themselves in a holy war against oppression…Qatada’s message was read out by Omar Mohammed Bakri Fostok, the leader of the al-Muhajiroun group which organised the meeting. The group has been implicated in sending volunteers to fight with the Taliban and other hardline forces. Fostok has said that he wanted Britain to become an Islamic state and has endorsed the use of violence.

…Most of the listeners were young men, though around 50 women, sitting in a segregated section, were also present. Around the hall – the Quaker’s Friends Meeting House in Euston – banners condemning the oppression of Muslims in Kashmir and the Israeli-occupied West Bank had been hung.

The Quakers apaprently claimed they had been misled, although just a few days ago al-Muhajiroun’s latest incarnation, Islam4UK, held a conference there after the Hilton turned them down. The (ahem) Daily Express picked up on the incongruity:

…In a matter of minutes this Christian enclave was sporting a banner proclaiming: “There is None Worthy of Worship Except Allah and Mohammed is the Final Messenger.”

In the foyer they were even ­giving away car stickers with the claim: Jesus was a Muslim. No one was in the mood for a cool and calm-headed religious discussion. The appetite was for fiery speakers extolling the true word of Islam.

Also at this event was film-maker Dave Bones:

The Quakers are quite well known for letting anyone hire a room. I was once told by a Quaker part of what sounded like a huge untold story about the importance of their meeting house in Belfast during “The Troubles”

…I try and film what is. They certainly preach controversial things, yet they also preach clearly against terrorism, usually toward the end every time I have been to these meetings. Islam is coming. It is going to dominate whether we like it or not. Maybe it will come through violence. We don’t know but the flag of Islam will fly over Downing street. This is a sort of Islamic revival meeting.

Preaching against terrorism seems to me likely to be no more than a “legal disclaimer”; Choudary and al-Muhajiroun are notorious for their praise of the “Magnificent 19” 9/11 hijackers.

Nick Cohen gave a characteristally sour assessment of the place back in 2001:

 It’s a charmless, echoing building overlooking the perpetually jammed Euston Road. Its style can best be described as municipal-pharaonic. The thousands of protests that have been made within its walls – a few of which succeeded, most of which failed – give it an atmosphere of resigned duty. You walk through its doors because you know you must, but expect defeat.

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UK anti-Muslim blogger Paul Ray (“Lionheart”) has made another appearance on American radio – this time on Southwest Radio Ministries, which offers a dose of good old-fashioned Southern fundamentalism. SWRM, which is based in Oklahoma, has been going since 1933, and is currently run by Noah Hutchings, author of apocalyptic tomes such as Y2K=666? (1998 – “We are living in the most perilous times since the flood in Noah’s Day…”), and The Persian Gulf Crisis and the Final Fall of Babylon (1990). Hutchings is assisted by Larry Spargimino, who co-penned The Chronicles of Narnia: Wholesome Entertainment or Gateway to Paganism? (guess which…).

Ray didn’t have a great deal to say – there was some confusion over the phone number, so his session was cut short. The last occasion he appeared on American radio, as I noted at the time, he explained how there was a Muslim plot to make people think the word “Paki” was offensive; nothing so inflammatory this time, just a whinge about how the Luton protest march had been cancelled because the organiser feared (as I blogged here) that he and his friends (whom I blogged here) were right wing extremists.

The subject of his arrest last year on suspicion of stirring up racial hatred was also touched on; in January 2008 Ray had been briefly held up by the American right as a “free speech martyr”, although he was quickly dropped when statements in support of the BNP came to light (“the Living God is on the side of the BNP”) – leading to a bitter dispute with Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs, who took the view that “Lionheart” was “off his rocker”. Ray had claimed that he was being targetted for speaking out against Islamic extremism; Sadly No! drew attention to some sanguinary quotes which suggested it was a bit more complicated than that. The issue has apparently still not yet been resolved. The radio show made only passing mention of the controversy, but there was a bit of extra information; last year Bedfordshire on Sunday reported that

Paul Ray, who ‘blogs’ as ‘Lionheart’, left Britain for an undisclosed location in the Middle East two years ago…Bedfordshire on Sunday understands that Mr Ray has been intending to return to Britain for over a year, in order to make preparations to emigrate officially and permanently.

According to the presenters, discussing Ray after his interview, he’s actually in Cyprus. I wonder which side of the border?

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The BNP’s new election poster has provoked both revulsion and mockery, with its suggestion that those who wish to emulate Jesus should vote for the party. Ekklesia reports:

Three British Churches have reminded people of the ‘true Christian message of love’ for all people following the inclusion of Jesus in a BNP election campaign.

Their statement comes after the Church of England declined to comment on the posters which feature a bible verse quoting Jesus’ words about persecution, in the run up to the European Elections in June.

The Anglican silence is odd, considering that it was recently decided that its clergy cannot be members of the party, and that the BNP’s Robert West has just denounced the Bishop of Manchester:

Manchester’s Bishop “Haw Haw” McCullough [sic – spelling is wrong] is a Traitor to His Country and People, Says BNP Church Spokesman

The Bishop of Manchester, Nigel McCulloch, is a traitor to his country and his people, and should be more concerned with why his churches are empty and being converted into mosques rather than attacking the British National Party, said that party’s official spokesman on church matters, the Reverend Robert West (picture).

“The gospels record that Judas betrayed his master with a kiss, a great but false profession of love,” said Reverend West…

West, who rails against the “mixing of races”, was was responding to McCulloch’s attack on the BNP.

Meanwhile, another Christian group that has nothing to say about the BNP is the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches, which is partnered with a group of churches called Affinity. A couple of Sundays ago West was invited into the pulpit of an FIEC-affiliated chapel; this was a Baptist chapel of which BNP Councillor Ian Derek Meller is a member – I blogged this here. Meller shares the same surname as the chapel wardens.

I blogged on BNP Christianity more generally here.

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Ted Baehr casts an inevitably prudish eye over the history of American cinema, in a interview at WorldNetDaily:

Baehr said American movies were morally bankrupt prior to 1933, and the Protestant Film Commission, along with the Roman Catholic Legion of Decency, cleaned up the industry. However, the Protestant Film Commission shut down in 1966.

“The Baptists pulled their funding, and within three years, we went from ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told’ to the first sex and Satanism film and from ‘The Sound of Music’ to the first ‘X’-rated movie,” he said.

Baehr also provides a bit of interesting background: apparently, his “Christian Film & Television Commission” holds all the files of the old Protestant Film Office, donated by George Heimrich, and he received funding from none other than Sir John Templeton.

And as it’s Baehr, it’s not long before a massive humbug is unwrapped:

“In the old days, they would say that you could have violence, but you couldn’t have it in such a way that a susceptible youth would want to copy the violence,” he said. “The question is, how do you do it? Today we seem to be so simplistic that we can’t figure that out. The violence in ‘The Passion of the Christ’ is such that nobody will be attracted to being a Roman centurion whipping Christ.”

On the other hand, violence in movies such as Warner Brothers’ “Watchmen” is meant to be exciting and entertaining.

Unlike, of course, the films of Chuck Norris, whom Baehr continually commends and to whom he has given an award:

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