Bartholomew's Notes

A new book promotion from WorldNetDaily:

Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, aka “Joe the Plumber,” is back making public appearances, speaking to tea party rallies and making his voice heard through a new book, “Joe the Plumber: Fighting for the American Dream.” …Now the full story of his experience can be told for the first time – including his run-ins with Sarah Palin and John McCain on the campaign trail.

The book is co-written with a certain Thomas N. Tabback, who is also Wurzelbacher’s publicist, and is published by PearlGate; this publisher has only one other title on its website, a novel by Tabback entitled Things Forgotten. However, the Plumber book is not actually that “new” – WND itself gives the publication date as February. The book was announced back in November; Wurzelbacher explained why he chose to collaborate with Tabback back then:

“Everyone came at me to write a book. They had dollar signs in their eyes. ‘101 Things Joe the Plumber Knows’ or some stupid s— like that. Excuse me, I am sorry,” he said. “You know I will get behind something solid, but I won’t get behind fluff. I won’t cash in, and when people do read the book they will figure out that I didn’t cash in. At least I hope they figure that out.”

The book is to be published by a group called PearlGate Publishing and other small publishing houses.

“I am not going to a conglomerate that way we actually can get the economy jump started. Like there is five publishing companies in Michigan. There’s a couple down in Texas. They are small ones that can handle like 10 or 15,000 copies. I can go to a big one that could handle a million or two. But they don’t need the help. They are already rich. So that’s spreading the wealth to me,” he said.

Thomas Tabback is profiled on the PearlGate website:

After carving out a successful 11-year career in the pharmacy healthcare industry, Tabback walked away from corporate life to realize his life-long dream. With his debut novel, Things Forgotten, Tabback ambitiously tells a story centered over 3200 years ago, the period of the Israelite Conquest of Canaan. It is a tale of the timeless struggle between good and evil, and the parallels between the lives of ancient peoples and those of us today. Together with his passion for ancient and biblical history, these are the themes which have shaped Tabback as a writer over the last two decades. His writing style is steeped in rich history and the essence of the human spirit, qualities that will surely linger with his readers.

The novel is apparently about a modern police officer who, while in hospital, finds himself experiencing events from the ancient past through the eyes of “Nahar”, a descendant of Esau. Apparently we have to read the book to find out how Nahar and the policeman are connected; presumably it is not through reincarnation, which would be unlikely to impress Christian readers.

We’re also told that

Tabback tours the country giving speeches to crowds both large and small about the dangers of the new government monarchy in America, what we can learn from biblical history and what WE THE PEOPLE must do to preserve the American Dream.

A profile attached to the “Cincinnati 9/12 Project” (which was inpsired by Glenn Beck’s rhetoric) has more:

He is an inspirational speaker and is currently traveling the country shouting “Give Me No King!” in relation to the movement towards Socialism in the United States and the need for WE THE PEOPLE to resist it! Tabback recently gave a speech at the Tax Day Lansing, MI Tea Party and roused the crowd to a chant of “No King, No King…” Tabback will also be a featured speaker at the Midwest FairTax Rally in Columbia, MO June 13th. If you have had it with government waste, punitive taxation and abuse of power, then you won’t want to miss Tabback’s speech, because WE THE PEOPLE aren’t gonna take it anymore!

The moment from Lansing is captured in this video:

Most recently, Tabback addressed a “Tea Party” in Quincy, Illinois; the Qunicy Herald-Whig reports:

Thomas Tabback, an author and inspirational speaker, told the audience to remember what the nation’s independence is all about.

“This is one of the most important Independence Days in a long time. There’s a huge power grab going on and still, many average Americans out there don’t realize how many of our freedoms are at stake,” Tabback said.

Tabback urged his listeners not to fall for the feel of “a new revolution” in America. His battle cry: Give me no king.

Give Me No King is also the title of Tabback’s blog, which so far consists of three short essays. He explains:

The lessons of history are truly wasted on our politicians holding office today, whether Democrat or Republican. Truly, I can’t tell the difference between them anymore, as I’m sure neither can you. Fact is, this country was founded on the principle that with liberty, WE THE PEOPLE can and will prosper, that without the shadow of a king, WE THE PEOPLE will forge a better life for our children. So what happened? Perhaps the progressive exclusion of God from our public square today has diluted the lessons of biblical history. After all, doesn’t anyone remember the history of ancient Israel? What happened to those people once they cried out for and were given a king? The ancient Israelites were invaded, divided and eventually carried off lock, stock and barrel as slaves to foreign nations, just as Moses had prophesied. Today, the Golden Age of Solomon is all but lost amongst the vast archives of history. Were it not for the Bible, people wouldn’t even know it had existed. Is that what awaits America?

You have heard it said that America today is like the Roman Empire of old, and that if we are not careful, we will go the way of the Roman Empire. I say that is a false comparison. We are not the Rome of yesterday, but we are the New Israel. We are the Israel that followed the glory days of David and Solomon. We are losing our faith, we are losing our culture and we are losing our precious treasures to our enemies whose corrupt and evil ways we are adopting as our own.

Tabback also supports modern Israel, although he doesn’t appear to identify with the visions of apocalpytic Christian Zionism:

Despite the rhetoric spouted by extremist groups on either side, citing religious differences and blood feuds, the primary reason for the conflict between Israelis and Arabs boils-down to property and political power…What about the future of Palestinians and Arabs if Israel defeats Hamas? In Israel, the future is now. Today, an Arab Israeli has equal rights, may vote in elections and may hold public office, which many do. If Israel is allowed to defeat the terrorists within its borders, a young Palestinian today might grow to become Prime Minister of Israel. After all, a black man is about to take the oath of office to become President of the United States.

As well as his novel and speeches, Tabback is also a poet. One of his poetical works appears on Townhall:

Then came to me the words of the Man from Galilee:

Take up thy mustard seed O brothers and sisters of Liberty!
Let blaze thy Faith! And watch this great mountain before you move from off its seat.

In 2008, Tabback was named as a defendant in a lawsuit brought by Medimpact Healthcare Systems, Inc; details here.

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In 2005 I wrote the first of several postings about a group in Israel calling itself the “Sanhedrin”. It claimed to be the reinstitution of the ancient Jewish body, and it began by announcing a theocratic agenda for Israel: absurdly, one early priority was a call for monarchy, with Rabbi Yosef Dayan – known for having performed a “death curse” against Ariel Sharon – as lead candidate for the job. Also on board was Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, who was sympathetic to an extremist attempt to blow up the Dome of the Rock in the 1980s and who wants Christians and Muslims expelled as “idolators”, and the pseudo-archaeologist Vendyl Jones, who, although non-Jewish, is an ex-Christian who holds “Noachide” views. In the USA, apocalyptic Christian Zionists such as Hal Lindsey overlooked these  details to declare that the Sanhedrin was “extremely relevant to students of Bible prophecy”. Since its creation, I’ve noted that the Sanhedrin has declared that police who provide security for gay rights marches in Israel are criminals, and that Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh – who signed adminstrative orders hindering right-wing extremists in the West Bank – is a traitor. It has also denounced the Israeli Supreme Court as “anti-Jewish”, demanding “an alternative legal system based on Jewish sources”.

Recently, the Sanhedrin has been forging links with Adnan Oktar, a Turkish Muslim who has churned out hundreds of books on Islam and other subjects. Joel Richardson recently met him, and told us that:

Surprising to me was the fact that Adnan has developed a very friendly relationship with the Israel Sanhedrin Rabbis who also are surprisingly very much in favor of this Turkish led Islamic Union. Most notable is Mr. Oktar’s friendship with Rabbi Menachem Fromen. Also of interest is Mr. Oktar’s call to rebuild the Jewish Temple.

Oktar’s website has further details of their interview:

JOEL RICHARDSON: Final question: I was also fascinated to learn that you have been in dialogue with the Sanhedrin Rabbis of Jerusalem, of Israel. That you have been in contact with Rabbi Menachem Froman. And that you have a very warm relationship with these Rabbis and that they seem to be endorsing and comm[e]nding your call for a Turkish led Islamic union. Could you tell us a little bit about that? I was also interested to learn just before I came that this very influential Rabbi Menachem Froman had spoken with George Mitchel the Middle East envoy from the Obama administration and that he had personally appealed to Mr. Mitchel to utilize you as a significant peace negotiator for the Middle East. Would you be willing to share a few of those things?

ADNAN OKTAR: …Of course the Rabbis love me, that is the truth. They do love me a lot. They regard me as a good Muslim, as a good Muslim leader. But I do not regard myself as a future leader of the region in that sense, not as a Muslim leader with such a mission….In other words, I will never accept any political role, but if spiritual support or service is needed I will happily provide it. That is the purpose of my life, and I will do it even if they do not want me. However they love me and I love them back, to say the truth I have a profound affection for them. We have also Christian brothers here and I love them, too. There are Orthodox and Catholics and Evangelicals, and we sometimes dine together, and I love them very deeply. They are entrusted to us by Allah, so there is no reason for us not to love them. Of course we will love them.

(Richardson later clarified that Fromen himself is not part of the Sanhedrin)

Meanwhile, the Sanhedrin website announced that:

From June 30 – July 3, 2009, representatives of the Jerusalem Court for Bnei Noah met with Mr. Adnan Oktar, also known as Harun Yahya. Two statements were prepared, one from the Jerusalem Court, one from Mr. Oktar.

The Sanhedrin statement included the following:

Our struggle should be against denial of Truth, especially against atheism, not against other believers. And even that struggle should be one emphasizing kindness and compassion knowing that most people today have lost their way.

Despite the urgent need for cooperation, certain circles are inciting conflict. The success of this incitement needs to be understood, not only in terms of materialism but also in terms of human emotions and sociological interactions, because without understanding at a very basic level it is hardly likely that a successful strategy be developed to counteract the incitement – or to address the factors which are perceived as excuses for the incitement. Without understanding the factors exacerbating conflict, it will hardly be possible to strengthen the dialogue and cooperation between civilizations. Today, many ideological struggles continue to divide the world. However, the major ideological conflict is not between religions, but between people who believe in Truth, in G-d’s existence and in the need for cooperation, on the one hand, and on the other hand people who deny Truth, who deny Holiness: – the unbelievers. There is only one way to defeat the alliance of the various groups of unbelievers on an ideological level: to discover all the economic, psychological and sociological forces which power this behavior, and to find a combination of economic, psychological and sociological forces to counteract and eradicate the negative and destructive influences of anti-religious materialism and further the cause of a society dominated by morality, happiness, tranquility, security, and prosperity. This will be done by forming an alliance of all conscientious people, namely, the righteous among Christians and Muslims, along with devout Jews, who will come together and unite in this common cause.

Thus the first project which must be undertaken is investigation and teaching, a new center of learning and law: the founding a new university. The purpose of this university is to investigate the mistaken ideologies which are the source of denial of God and Truth, and to develop ways to overcome them.

Oktar concurred, with a typical attack on science:

The whole world is literally under the control of a Darwinist, materialist dictatorship. Teachers at universities are unable to see that evolution is a lie and students cannot say a word of criticism of evolution in their exams, while conferences about Darwinism are even held in the Vatican. This is a clear sign of how grim the state of affairs is. Devout Jews, Muslims and Christians are oppressed everywhere in the world and unable to live according to their faiths, and in many places they are forbidden to remember Allah at all. And materialists and atheists are doing this together, they are in a total alliance against believers. Under these conditions, the alliance of true believers must also be a very powerful one. If we collaborate closely together then, insha’Allah, all of Asia, all the Middle East and the whole world will enter a perfect age of peace and ease. But of course Muslims and Jews, and also Christians, must ally themselves together. In fact, if the will exists the world can be made a perfect place in a week, a month, or at most a year. En excellent situation can be formed very quickly. But the whole problem lies in putting it into practice, practicalities, a climate of security, a climate of sincerity and fervent love. Let us tell young Israelis at universities of the existence and oneness of Allah. Let us describe the invalidity of Darwinism. Let us describe the invalidity of materialism. Let us tell young people in Palestine of the danger of atheism. Let us describe how Darwinism has collapsed and the true moral values of the Qur’an…Insha’Allah, atheism can have no effect once we have a generation that is well-informed against Darwinism, highly cultured, very devout, that fears Allah and has a strong love for Him and whose members love and respect one another.

This is as expected – Otkar has produced several Creationist tomes, including an Atlas of Creation for schools which declares that “Darwinism and materialism”, rather than extremist religion, is responsible for contemporary terrorism. The Atlas was published in English and mailed out to scientists around the world; Richard Dawkins gives his assessment here.

However, there’s now been a curious development. The Sanhedrin website has removed these statements, and instead there is a weird message:

Dear Friends,

Until the meeting of the Sanhedrin confirms publication, please remove information of the meeting from the sites.

Beezrat Hashem the meeting will take place 21 July.

Thank you,
Rabbi Yeshayahu Hollander

Richardson has also agreed to remove a posting he made on the subject, while a video on Otkar’s website is not working. A couple of photos remain on Otkar’s site, so the meeting certainly has already occured. Presumably something has been lost in translation, and the “21 July” date refers to some kind of new statement.

Perhaps a problem has emerged given Otkar’s somewhat schizophrenic views on Jews. In his meeting with the Rabbis, he denounced anti-Semitism:

The People of the Book are entrusted to us by Allah, and the Jews’ devotion to the Prophet Musa and the Prophet Sulayman and their respect for the Prophet Davud are all factors that increase our love and compassion for them many times over. It is most important for believers in the one Allah to love one another at a time when atheism and irreligion are so widespread and when Darwinism and materialism are propagandized so blatantly. We therefore need to create opportunities to become better acquainted with one another. Let our Jewish brothers come and be our guests, and let our Muslim brothers be their guests in Israel.

But this is also a man who has been linked with Holocaust denial and anti-Jewish conspiracy theories. Radio Islam carries a list of titles, including The New Masonic Order,

…clearly demonstrating that the Secular World Order was established by ‘certain people’ and is still administered by them…The real origins of Freemasonry: Knights of the Temple of Jerusalem, Rosicrucians and Cabalists…The story of the influence of Israel over the USA and the Jewish lobby in Washington…

Judaism and Freemasonry, meanwhile,

…discloses the real identity of the Freemasonry organization using the sources of Masonry itself. Many people in Turkey’s first knowledge of this organization was acquired as a result of this book.

Worse than these, though, is another book – not on the Radio Islam list – entitled Holocaust Deception.

[UPDATE: Otkar claims that the Holocaust Deception was written by someone else – see my posting here.]

Michael Hopkins noted the existence of this book in an article for Talk Origins, but he received a curious rebuttal:

I am writing to you from Istanbul, Turkey on behalf of Harun Yahya. I am a regular visitor of TalkOrigins.org and I saw your web page recently. I want to draw your attention to a mistake about Harun Yahya in your review of the SRF in Istanbul. Harun Yahya does not deny the reality of the Holocaust but denounces it. He has a very well known website visited and appreciated by many Jews and people of other faiths called islamdenouncesantisemitism.com. The real version of his book titled The Violence of the Holocaust is enclosed for your reference (Unfortunately it is in Turkish and has not been prepared in English yet). The book posted at http://www.noontidepress.com/catalog/0247.html has not been published and will not be published. I will be very pleased if you correct this information on your website and let us know.

Holocaust Violence can be seen here; in it, Otkar blames Darwin for the Holocaust, and tells us that “social Darwinism” begat a “corrupted” form of “radical Zionism”:

This book does not criticize patriotic Jews’ justified behavior and demands, but rather the mindset and practices of certain radical and racist Zionists…History shows that so long as radical Zionist ideology is not renounced, the Jews—and therefore their neighbors and the entire region—can never enjoy peace. To avoid any repetition of painful experiences from the past; to attain a lasting peace in the Middle East; and for Jews and Arabs to live in peace and security in their own lands will be possible only if both sides abandon all forms of radical tendencies and turn towards true religious moral values. Our hope is that the facts set out in this book will encourage a major step in that direction.

However, as Hopkins notes, the rebuttal does not claim that Holocaust Deception does not exist, only that it “has not been published and will not be published”. The fact Otkar has also written Holocaust Violence, which contradicts it, proves only that he is inconstant. And in fact the book was published: the cover and text can be accessed here, and a 1997 review from the Holocaust-denying Institute of Historical Review (1) specfically praises it as an “attractively laid out volume, with numerous photographs, nine pages of source reference notes, an eight-page bibliography, and a good index.” Further:

…The book’s first section explores in detail the little-known story of collaboration between Zionists and Third Reich Germany, relying in part on an article on this subject in the June-August 1993 issue of this Journal.

Holocaust deception and fraud is the focus of the book’s second section, which relies to a considerable extent on books and other material put out by the Institute for Historical Review, including the IHR Journal. This section traces the development and impact of Holocaust revisionism, showing how revisionist scholars have succeeded in debunking numerous Holocaust claims. Accompanying this detailed survey of revisionist scholarship are photographs of such key personalities as Henri Roques, Fred Leuchter, Germar Rudolf, Arthur Butz, David Irving and Robert Faurisson.

Yahya’s anti-Jewish writings have been logged by the Stephen Roth Institute; however, in 2004 it noted that:

Numerous books by the Turkish Islamist Adnan Oktar, aka Adnan Hodja, are on display in almost every bookstore, under the pseudonym Harun Yahya. His revisionist writings focusing on Jews and Israel are rife with false accusations and caricatures. It should be noted, however, that Adnan Oktar has undergone a change and become more tolerant toward Jews and others; he now works toward promoting inter-religious dialogue.

That may be so, but clearly Otkar is a propaganist who writes whatever is expedient in a given situation. Without an explicit repudiation for past anti-Semitism, a meeting with the Sanhedrin looks opportunistic for all concerned.

(1) ihr.org/jhr/v16/v16n4p35_Weber.html

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A bit more on Jeff Marsh (“Seasider Marshy”), Paul Ray’s collaborator in the “Casuals United” (see my previous post) – Amazon has an author profile:

Jeff Marsh was a well known figure in the Soul Crew and was involved in hundreds of battles and streetfights and was jailed 3 times for violence, including a two year sentence for stabbing two Man Utd fans.

Marsh’s memoir Soul Crew Seasiders is available to browse on Google Books, and it contains many nostalgic reminiscences. Typically:

…As we came out of the club it immediately went off with a load of drunken Geordies. As they were so drunk we slaughtered them in seconds…Stanleys were glinting in the moonlight. (67)

Etc, etc. But it’s not all violence; one memory is particularly Proustian:

The “shit pancake” boys were at work on these trips too. Basically, one or two of our boys…had a habit of crapping on the toilet seat, picking it up with toilet paper then writing “CCFC” all over the walls in shite. This was a lovely reminder to pub landlords that we’d been there, and was carried out all over the UK…They just had to hold their nose, try not to puke and clean it up. Nice!(67)

Marsh also claims he is not racist:

As long as you’re all Cardiff who cares what colour you are? (90)

However, as a skinhead there were sometimes unfortunate misunderstandings with persons of colour:

An occupational hazard of being a skinhead was the hassle you got from blacks…They couldn’t tell which Skins were racist or not, you would get attacked by them all the time. We went to see the band Bad Manners in Cardiff and ended up being chased through the streets of Grangetown by a mob of Rastas with knives…One day some of the younger Skins came running up to us saying they’d been started on by some Asians in the fairground…We all ran up through the fair and found them…One came over to me and I smashed his nose…(18)

But on the other hand, after being refused entry to a club in Plymounth, his friend

…starts shouting “ain’t no black in the Union Jack” and the black bouncers went mad. (115)

It seems this this kind of thing was supposedly just banter; recalling work colleagues in London:

I got on well with all of them, they called me “Taff” and used to write “Sheep-shagger” on my hardhat but I never went grizzling to the Race Relations Board asking for compo. (114)

He also describes creating a false rumour of  the “racist BNP” organising a meeting because “it was hilarious to watch everyone running around like headless chickens” and to see “Anti Racists” getting into battles with the police and local dockers.

Here’s another of his videos:

And here’s the latest warning to Islamic militants:

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UPDATE: More today.

Paul Ray (yes, yet again) carries a warning from “Seasider Marshy” of the “Welsh Defence League”:

The most organised and the most ruthless street army in the country is arising and uniting in solidarity in the face of the threat that is now posed to the future of our Nation and people by the militant wing of the Islamic religion that is now living in our midst.

Did people think that the ‘Casuals’ would stay silent whilst their familes, friends and their neighbours lives were endangered by this invading religious military political force that has set out on its path of conquest against us?

…What has started cannot be stopped now.

This coming football season will see the ‘truce’ work itself out, and the brothers and comrades throughout the land unite in their common cause, against their common enemies, foreign and domestic.

What hope is there for our Nation if the home guard cannot put aside their petty differences and rivalries over such a serious threat to the life of our Nation.

May Almighty God bless each of those who arise and answer the call.

It has begun.

A group called “Casuals United” is now taking credit for the recent “anti-extremist” protests in Luton, London, and Birmingham; according to a Facebook site it incorporates the “English, Welsh, Scottish and Northern Ireland Defence Leagues”. Further:

NO BNP, NF OR NAZIS as this is NOT a racist group, we are uniting Britain against this threat and are already being attacked as “racists” (predictably)

While our troops are fighting the holy war abroad, we at home are here to stand up against those who would insult them while they plan their campaign of murder against our people.

So far there are nearly 500 members. The site carries an email address that also appears on this site promoting a book about Cardiff City football club. The local hooligan “firm” is known as the Soul Crew, and book on the subject entitled Soul Crew Seasiders by a certain Jeff Marsh can be seen here.

Ray also links to two videos about “Casuals United”, which appear on the Youtube channel of a certain “taffytrouble”. These again assure us that the new group is not racist (even using the slogan “black and white unite”), but before the very end of the first video we find this:

Kevin Alfred Strom is an American racialist who was formerly associated with William Pierce, of Turner Diaries fame. He rails against “Jewish supremicism”, and the above quote expresses his belief in Jewish domination of society. Perhaps “taffytrouble” was unaware of this context – just as the “NO BNP” warning fails to account for Ray’s qualified pro-BNP views – but it shows how easily this group could be prey to manipulation by the far right.

Here are the two videos:

What could go wrong?

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Various sites have noted that the “English Defence League” – which I have blogged on a couple of times lately – has as its web designer a certain Chris Renton, who has been listed as a BNP member. According to the Stirrer:

In an interview with Stirrer editor Adrian Goldberg on Talksport last night, spokesman Paul Ray also admitted their links with the BNP…When EDL spokesman Ray was quizzed about this, he acknowledged Renton’s involvement, but insisted, “people’s political views are their own affair.”

This has been reposted on Ray’s Lionheart blog, and he does not dispute the quote. A screenshot of the BNP website also appeared in a video montage Ray created as an advert for last Saturday’s protest in Birmingham (see here at 2:45).

Ray has expressed qualified enthusiasm for the BNP a number of times on his blog, and this was the main reason why American conservatives ditched him last year after initially offering support over his arrest for incitement. Ray takes the view  that, under guidance from God, the party will move beyond its racism:

I did see Nick Griffins Easter message and thought it was very very good and inspirational.

It seems that they are the only ones willing to defend and uphold Christianity in this country, as for me i will trust in God to bring about the changes within them to make them the people He wants them to be. As you know there is nothing impossible with Him, and you should not judge these people who God is doing a work with and through.

Perhaps he actually believes this – he wouldn’t be the first person to think that the BNP can be redirected to some other purpose, and various right-libertarians have attempted the same thing over the years (alas, UK libel law prevents free discussion on this point). However, Ray also rails against “Paki Muslims” on American radio, which is not an adjective he chooses to uses on his blog. And BNP Christianity – as represented by the Rev Robert West – specifically teaches that the “mixing of races” is sinful because God has ordained different “physical, intellectual and character” traits to various groups.

Meanwhile, a group such as EDL certainly fits with the BNP’s long-term strategy – in 2000 Nick Griffin was invited by KKK leader David Duke to speak to some American racists, and he advised that

…Perhaps one day, once by being rather more subtle we’ve got ourselves in a position where we control the British broadcasting media, then perhaps one day the British people might change their mind and say, “Yes, every last one must go.” Perhaps they will one day, but if you offer that as your sole aim to start with, you’re gonna get absolutely nowhere. So, instead of talking about racial purity, we talk about identity.

Griffin has also explained his move away from anti-Jewish conspiracy-mongering to attacking Muslims as being because:

The proper enemy to any political movement isn’t necessarily the most evil and the worst. The proper enemy is the one we can most easily defeat.

(Hat tip to a reader)

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Religious Intelligence reports on a statement from Rev Julian Dobbs:

Delegates to the 2009 ACNA convocation in Bedford, Texas, last week were warned not to be lulled into complacency by the siren song dialogue with “moderate Islam.”

…The American variety of “moderate Islam” was “no more moderate than the militant Islam of Saudi Arabia or Indonesia,” Canon Dobbs said. Quoting the founder of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), he explained that “Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant.”

“Don’t be misled or misguided, the peace Islam offers is not the peace of sitting around the camp fire singing [songs]. Islam’s peace is the implementation of Sharia Law and the global submission to Islamic ideology,” he argued.

Canon Dobbs stated that in the West, a “resurgent Islam” sought to “infiltrate the Church and win the loyalty and trust of large numbers of churchgoers.” Some had responded by conversion, he said, “attracted by the apparent order and simplicity of the Islamic faith.”

Claiming the full backing of Archbishop Duncan of the ACNA, Canon Dobbs urged the delegates not to let “polite multi-faith conversations” become a substitute for the “proclamation of the historic Christian message.”

The full text of Dobbs’ ruminations can be seen here.

This is an unexpectedly crude outburst from Dobbs. In the past he has spoken of the dangers of “extremist” Islam, suggesting he knows there is more than one kind – yet he now appears to declare that every American Muslim is a either a Wahabi or a member of Jemaah Islamiya. And while there are certainly problems in Indonesia (Dobbs has seen the persecution of Christians in Aceh), it is hardly a tropical Saudi Arabia, and the fact that we can identify Islamic militants in the country shows that there are contrasting non-militants.

There’s also an unhappy whiff of conspiracy theorising here. One can certainly be sceptical about aspects of CAIR, but the 1998 quote he wheels out has been milked beyond reason – of course a Muslim activist would want everyone to believe in Islam, just as Dobbs surely wants a world in which “at the name of Jesus every knee will bow…and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord”. And while interfaith discussion might be used as PR by various Islamic regimes, talk of “infiltration” is unnecessarily paranoid.

Dobbs is an Anglican clergyman from New Zealand, and he was the New Zealand director of the Barnabas Fund. This organisation has done a good deal to publicise the plight of persecuted Christians, but its director, Patrick Sookhdeo, lacks good judgement: as I’ve blogged previously, Sookhdeo seriously misrepesented the content of a book of essays by Muslim writers in order to whip up fear about Muslims in the UK, and his hysterical response to a bad book review – he claimed it had somehow put his life at risk – was unworthy of someone who wishes to be taken seriously.

Sookhdeo and Dobbs are both allies of Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola; in May Sookhdeo was appointed Dean Theologian of the Diocese of Abuja, Nigeria, while Dobbs is apparently a low-key advisor who was unofficially present at the recent Primates’ Meeting in Alexandria. ACNA as a whole of course is closely aligned with conservative African clerics. In March, Sookhdeo complained that there was some kind of plot by Muslim-friendly evangelicals to discredit him; although he soon after backed away from this claim, it provided fodder for a screed from Melanie Phillips.

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The latest news from Alan Harvey’s Springbok Club:

In June 2009 the Kent Branch of the Springbok Club held a trip to mid-Kent in order to visit a number of the ancient stone megaliths…Pictured… [is] Dr. John Pope-de Locksley performing a re-enactment of what he believed ceremonies were have been like at the White Horse Stone.

From the photograph, it seems the ceremony involved reading something from a bit of paper while wearing a funny hat.

John Pope-de Locksley last spoke to the club in December 2007, as I blogged here. He describes himself as “a master of the black arts, a third degree witch and Odinist…a natural shaman and master of Yoga and other preternatural mysteries and systems”; he is also an associate of David Farrant, an occultist who has been providing first-rate tabloid fodder for decades.

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Last year I wrote a couple of blog entries refuting Walid Shoebat’s claim that the word “666” in the Book of Revelation was actually a misreading of the Arabic phrase “in the name of Allah”, supernaturally revealed to the author who copied the Arabic script as he saw it. Shoebat’s claim was laughable: the word is introduced as a number in the Biblical text; it can be numerologically linked to Nero, which fits the historical context; and the earliest discussion of the text, from Irenaeus in the Second Century, discusses the word as being a number. There is no tradition which sees the word as either Arabic or as some mysterious unknown marking.

Shoebat based his claim on having seen the Codex Vaticanus and the Codex Sinaiticus, and in a presentation to a group of Christian fundamentalists he told them he had seen this:

I discovered that this was apparently meant to represent this rendering:

This has been floating around on the internet for a while, and I was not able to discover where exactly it had come from (one site said “Very Old Text…in glass display at Bob Jones University Library – Greenville, S.C.”, which was less than encouraging). Recently, however, someone sent me a jpeg which confirms that it is from the supplement added to the Codex Vaticanus  in sixteenth-century Italy; the Book of Revelation is absent from the surviving ancient codex, so when it reached Italy somebody decided to fill in the missing end. The style of Greek script used would have been unknown to original scribe, and it is completely different from the main body of the codex, which uses “uncial” lettering. A facsimile of the codex printed in 1868 substitutes this section with a typeset version, which at the time was the only one I could see online:

So, does the  Codex Sinaiticus offer any better evidence to favour Shoebat’s claim? The digitised text has just been made available on-line, and the answer is, as expected, “no”. The Codex Sinaiticus actually spells the number out as “six hundred and sixty six”:

In other words, Shoebat’s claim is an epic fail at all levels, and as regards the Codex Sinaiticus he either lied about seeing it or lied about what he saw.

Some other early manuscripts give “666” as a number rather than as spelt out; the earliest fragment we have, from Oxyrhynchus, uses the “616” variant of the number:

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Chants included “Muslims out”

Paul Ray’s Lionheart blog carries footage of another self-described “anti-Islamic extremist” demo, this time in Birmingham city centre. As with the previous outings of this sort (most recently blogged by me here), the protestors mainly sang football chants and patriotic songs; their presence appears to have attracted quite a crowd.

The footage was posted to Youtube by a cetain “railwayendblue”; while he is supportive of the protest and complains bitterly about “Marxists”, he also adds that:

Some of the chanting was bad. And i can’t defend them.. Plus there were many Blacks that i saw that were singing “Muslims Out” as well. Probably 2nd-3rd Generation.

The chant “Muslims out” appears for a moment in this piece of footage (at  9:10), but it does not appear to have been a major theme.  He also tells us that:

 EDL and WDL are not parties, just organisations with supporters on all sides.. Blacks, whites, Hindus all joined in with the sing songs.

This is the “English Defence League” and the “Welsh Defence League”, who accompanied Ray on his trip into “occupied” (his term) east London; “March for England”, which I blogged here and which held a protest in Luton in May, seems to have disappeared off the radar [UPDATE: Actually, a comment below from MfE’s Dave Smeeton explains that they were involved in another event in London, with the United British Alliance).

The protest doubtless capitalised on the recent visit of Anjem Choudary’s “Islamic Road Show” to the city; Choudary is one of the UK’s most notorious Islamist fanatics, and as was widely reported, he managed to get a bewildered-looking 11-year old white boy to recite a conversion to Islam (railwayendblue mentions this incident). Meanwhile, the chairman of Birmingham City Mosque, Mohammed Naseem, refuses to believe that the 7/7 bombers were Muslim extremists – as was noted in a BBC documentary a few days ago; he is now facing calls for his resignation.

Further protests made up from football supporters’ “firms” are planned; a message on the EDL Facebook page from Wayne King tells us that:

…we are hearing another march for brum is being planned for 8th august. we will defo be there and bring all our placards and banners. we will push the march against sharia law as a focus. we have already got a 25 seater coming from luton and many other london firms are on it, qpr and arsenal for defo. so everyone who turned ouy yesterday make the effort again for 8th august, details will follow, if we make enough noise as we have in luton the authorities will be worried about backlashes from our communties when making local decisions,god bless

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As other blogs have noted, conservative British religious blog Cranmer has decided to publicise the latest conspiracy theory from barrister Michael Shrimpton:

Once again the media have missed the point. Swine Flu, like Avian Flu a variant of Spanish Flu, is artificially-developed, ie a bio-weapon. To the author’s knowledge the British and American governments are aware of this, further to tests at Porton Down and CDC in Atlanta, Georgia…

Germany is an intelligence state, not unlike the USSR, whose intelligence services she set up and controlled for most of the Soviet period (Beria, eg reported to Admiral Canaris). The official organs of the German State, including the BND and BfV intelligence agencies, are essentially a front, real control being exerted from Dachau by the Deutcshe Verteidigungs Dienst, by assassination if necessary (they made effective use of Bader-Meinhof and have always loved using Marxists and other assorted nutters). The DVD exerts significant influence in other countries, usually through fronts like the Trilateral Commission, the Bilderberg Group and the Skull and Bones society at Yale (they also recruit at Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge)…

This is vintage Shrimpton; elsewhere, he boasts of how he “expose[d] propaganda operations such as the faked ‘hood’ Abu Ghraib photo”, which was supposedly created by the Syrian secret service, and he claims that French intelligence killed David Kelly. There is also a “Shrimpton Report”, attributed to him but neither confirmed nor denied, which alleges that Madelaine McCann, the British child who went missing in Portugal, was the victim of an international conspiracy. It’s helpfully (and appropriately) reposted on this David Icke forum. His conspiracies also stretch back into the past:

Marx was an agent of the Prussian Secret Service, and Marxism was simply a fake political strategy designed to disrupt British industry, which was successfully adapted as part of Germany’s covert strategy to undermine the Russian Empire, which also involved assassinating Tsar Alexadner, and getting a female German asset to marry Nicholas.

Shrimpton has featured on this blog in the past; in 2008 I noted that he had been a guest speaker at a joint “London Swinton Circle” and “Springbok Club” event. Alan Harvey wrote that:

In his most revealing and powerful address Mr. Shrimpton told something about the international forces which lay behind the abandonment of the British Empire post-World War II, which culminated in the betrayal of Rhodesia, and also gave an in-depth account of some of the little-reported facts about those involved in the recent US Presidential Election.

Harvey’s enemies on the right noticed this event, as I blogged here (scroll down to “Part Four”).

(Hat tip: Harry’s Place)

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