Bartholomew's Notes

From the Manchester Guardian (1947):

The anti-Jewish demonstrations which have marred the week-end in Manchester, Liverpool, and other towns are clearly the work of the most irresponsible and hooligan elements in our population. But that does not make these outbreaks less menacing or less disgraceful…

The man who condemns the Zionists in Palestine on account of the crimes of the Irgun gangsters is only a degree better the youth who expresses his hatred by mobbing the innocent men and women of Cheetham Hill or Wavertree. There is no political fault so common or so dangerous as this primitive confusion between many and few. The murder of the British sergeants in Palestine was a brutal crime, the act of crazed fanatics. But…to answer terrorism in Palestine with terrorism in England is sheer Hitlerism. We must be desperately careful to see that we do not let ourselves be infected with the poison of the disease we had thought to eradicate.

According to a thesis posted at this site:

For over five days [Liverpool] bore witness to such extreme violence and looting that the Lord Mayor was compelled to issue an appeal to the city ‘to assist the police in the prevention of attacks on property and shops supposedly owned by Jews’.317 In total over 300 Jewish properties were affected by the rioting in Liverpool, and the police made 88 arrests.

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From the European Times:

ON Sunday, the 16th June, Mr. W. Murphy, a lecturer against Romanism, commenced a series of lectures ia a wooden building erected for the purpose in the centre of the town of Birmingham; a large mob collected outside, and stones were thrown at the building, and three of the ticket takers were seriously wounded. There were only three or four policemen at hand at the time, but a large force was afterwards brought to the spot, and armed with cutlasses…It appears from the Birmingham papers that the disturbances were of a very serious character. Twenty-six persons, men and women, were to be brought before the magistrates.

…Mr. Murphy’s addresses, as reported, are of an extremely fanatical charactor. Before he had finished his lecture, he said he would prove to the people of Birmingham that every Popish priest was a murderer, a cannibal, a liar, and a pickpocket…and if ever there was a rag and bone gatherer in the universe it was the Pope himself.

…A continual shower of stones, brick-ends, tiles, and other such missiles was kept up, so that it was dangerous to the life of any person to enter the street ; and when the rioters were at a loss for a causus belli, they would get up a row amongst themselves, attacking each other indiscriminately.

According to further details on this site:

Murphy only acted more defiantly and provocatively by saying that he was willing to risk his life for the cause of truth and liberty and that “Popish stones would let him see what Popery was”… The Catholic district of Birmingham was invaded by his supporters who, to the tune of “Glory, Glory, Hallelujah” and “John Brown’s Body,” attacked a Catholic chapel and looted houses.

…He [stressed] that Catholicism appealed mostly to young women, while his lectures on the confessional served to increase the sales of a sensational and pornographic pamphlet, The Confessional Unmasked.

..Matthew Arnold…took the right of Murphy to speak as a clear example of “a very strong belief [in England] in freedom, and a very weak belief in right reason”.

Supporters of Murphy – who had been born a Catholic but whose father converted to Protestantism – complained about the government and the police pandering to a minority:

 Englishmen are being deprived by a Military Despotism at the dictation of ROMISH PRIESTS. Such is the tyranny and cruelty to which Loyal Protestants are exposed under the il-Liberal Government of our Popish Premier.

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun – Ecclesiastes 1:9

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The website of “Casuals United” has removed a statement attacking immigrants and Muslims. It’s not in any internet caches either, although a trace can be seen on the UK Yahoo search page:

The original statement, which asked supporters to write letters of complaint to the government, was:

the traitor Alan Johnson wants to keep letting immigrants, most of them terrorists or sympathisers into this country…British people must make a stand and the scum that have allowed our country to get in this state need to be told.

We have no chance of removing islam with rodents like this in power. This man is in charge of immigration control and openly states that he doesnt care how many people come here. No, well he wont be on the train when the next bomb goes off, so why should he care?

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Following the unrest in Birmingham on Saturday, Paul Ray has published a second diatribe (see here for the first) against Chris Renton, the BNP-linked activist who set up the English Defence League website. However, Ray complains not that Renton’s BNP connection makes the EDL look bad; rather, that Renton makes the BNP look bad:

Do high level BNP politicians, such as the two who are now in Europe, want their credibility damaged in the eyes of the electorate by links to football hooligans and riots on the streets of Britain because of the likes of Chris Renton?

It is people like Chris Renton who damage not only the street movement that aims to be a neutral voice for the silent majority within Britain, but also the BNP that is becoming a modern, respectable alternative to the Establishment in Westminster.

Is he an agent of the Left trying to blacken the BNP name?

Ray takes the view that Nick Griffin has perhaps, like Saint Paul, turned to Christ, based on his “stance on Christianity, and his seasoned re-evaluated view on Israel and the Jews”, but that Renton is an “imposter” who has “hijacked” the English Defence League name:

Him, standing in front of a placard saying we are not BNP is laughable. The Luton EDL division who created the placards are not BNP, because they have people of all colours and races amongst their ranks. They have been forced into defending this position out in the open when they should be attacking the Islamic militants because of Chris Renton but none of them decided to take the action necessary.

Ray also shares some screenshots of email correspondence with Renton. In these emails, Renton mocks Ray’s complaint about the use of the Templar cross design for EDL placards. According to Ray,

It is a Templar Cross, and Templars are Christians, who live and die for their faith, nothing else. It isnt something that just anybody can wear.

I hope that in time the leaders who are rising will embrace the cross.

For now i think the design has to be just the St Georges cross, and not the Templar cross.

Renton’s response:

like everyone keeps saying, one man band, people dont wanna hear this religious shite from a keyboard warrior they want action, protests, thats what we ae doing, you can write as much bnp bullshit as u want but its all lies and you will be found out! you fucked off [Chris] goodge the first minute you spoke to him, you ruined your relationship with [Jeff Marsh], you ruined your relationship with me and my bro, you destroyed your relationship with luton now as well, oh but no hang on its us not you LOL yeah right

Plus:

…i reckon you ought to see a soctor mate your obviously nuts…

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The campaign in Nigeria against the stigmatisation of children as witches by certain evangelists is facing some resistance; a few days ago the British Humanist Association reported that Nigerian sceptic Leo Igwe (who wrote a guest post for me in December) had been assaulted at a conference highlighting the problem:

As the anti-witchcraft conference began at around 10.30am…religious protestors dressed in orange raided the venue and began protesting loudly. The exremists were carrying a number of banners with slogans such as, “This protest is organised by The Akwa Ibim Government”, “We give freedom to the witches” and “Stepping Stone is not a registered organisation”.

Leo blames followers of the evangelist Helen Ukpabio for what happened.

Meanwhile, a hostel for children who have been abused and abandoned after being labeled as witches has been raided; the UK Daily Mirror reports:

The headquarters of Child Rights and Rehabilitation Network (CRARN), which works with the British fund Stepping Stones Nigeria, was raided by a group of men claiming to be police officers earlier this month.

CRARN president Sam Itauma, a winner at the recent Amnesty Awards in London, had to escape through the ceiling of his own home adjoining the care centre.

…It has since become apparent that the police were accompanied by a lawyer from Lagos, Gary [Foxcroft, founder of Stepping Stones Nigeria] says.

This is the same lawyer who has been representing Evangelist Helen Ukpabio in the law suits that she has filed against CRARN, Stepping Stones Nigeria and Channel Four since the broadcast of the internationally acclaimed documentary film – Saving Africa’s Witch Children.

Itauma’s wife was arrested, computer equipment was seized, and it is alleged that children were beaten by police when they objected. Ukpabio has stated that Itauma is a wizard, and that Stepping Stones exists simply to gain NGO money. The raid has apparently caused some embarrassment, and state governor Godswill Akpabio has now visited the hostel and announced a substantial donation.

Ukpabio’s followers aren’t too keen on my blog posts on the subject either (in particular here, here, and here), and some wonderfully florid insults have been received (“You are wicked, crooked, crafty, poisonous, and dangerous to women in general”, etc.).

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Various reports and bits of YouTube footage are now available showing yesterday’s protests in Birmingham, which pitted the English Defence League against Unite Against Fascism. The English Defence League had branded banners declaring their opposition to racism and rejection of the BNP (the name “Casuals United” was nowhere to be seen, and I see its website has now been renamed the “British Defence Leagues”); a BBC report shows the crowd singing the national anthem (as ever, first verse only), and chanting “Muslim bombers off our street”. Other footage shows some more aggressive behaviour, in particular the “who are you?” football chant; however, there is nothing (so far at least) apparently comparable to the May protest in Luton, where Asian-owned shops were attacked and some protestors wore balaclavas, or the 4 July protest in Birmingham, which included the chant “Muslims out”. Photos from the protest (the Daily Mail has some from Reuters) show some apparent EDL protestors being attacked by what appear to be local Asians.

A commentator at Harry’s Place complains:

The majority of the people who were attacked were random passers by. The [EDL] had long gone by then. If you were a White male passing by the crowd you were going to get a kicking. There was even a foreign White guy who made the mistake of taking pictures of what was going on and he was attacked in front of his young baby who was left unprotected in its pram. Granted the majority of the attacks were not as brutal as the pictures on the Daily Mail Website but i still don’t think it should have happened. Ironically the UAF scarpered when they saw what was beginning to happen with the ethnic minority youths attacking innocent White passers by (not saying that a few of the people who were set upon weren’t inciting the minorities because they were, but the vast majority just made the mistake of being in the wrong place at the wrong time) so it seems that the UAF only protest against racism when it is White racism directed towards ethnic minorities, not when it is the other way around.

There is some interesting amateur footage on this YouTube channel. The poster has some background to the man in green who is shown being attacked in the Reuters pictures:

as far as i’m aware the story behind this guy is that two people said to each other “lets rob him” and because they started hitting him the rest of the crowd, already wound up from the drunk guy gobbing off from earlier all pounced on him with at least 10 or 15 people kicking this guy on the ground. don’t think he was EDL but can’t confirm. However 20 yards behind this incident was a line of riot police guarding one street who not only failed to react to the violence but who stood idle and bloody useless as people were shouting for their help.

Another post on this channel has the commentary:

Protesting crowd [i.e. UAF counter-protestors] is incited by one skin head egging them on and rush police line, missiles start being thrown and people in the street have to scarper into shops and allyways.

The poster also alleges some police mishandling of the situation.

Sunday Mercury and BBC footage show the EDL banners. The red cross on a white shield logo has been taken from Paul Ray, who likes to use this symbol at the end of his anti-Muslim YouTube videos. However, Ray has fallen out with his comrades and he complains that the EDL name has been “hijacked” by a certain Chris Renton. Ray has posted a short video entitled “Pirate”, showing a man whom he strongly implies is Renton (it was embedded on his blog here, then removed; see also here); this same man appears in the screenshot below from yesterday. Renton is, or was, a BNP member.

This a story I have been following for a while; background can be found here and here.

UPDATE: A student publication from the University of Birmingham entitled The Radish has an account of the UAF counter-protest:

By half-past, the crowd was angry and ready for confrontation. People from the TUC moving to join the protests were mistaken for the EDL and pelted with sticks…Rather than the well-directed rage of Cable Street, confused anger seemed to be the order of the day. The UAF had no idea what to do with all the people they’d assembled, the crowd seemed to know little about how or where to confront the EDL, the EDL members who managed to reach the bullring must have been feeling almost suicidal, and even the police only seemed to have a vague idea of what to do. Whether you consider this a peaceful protest that got out of hand, or militant anti-fascism that was disorganised and misdirected, it appears that the only beneficiaries were the EDL themselves scoring a potential propaganda victory.

UPDATE 2: There is a rumour of a YouTube video showing EDL protestors chanting “We Want Muslims Dead”; I haven’t been able to find this, and the only person who says they that saw it links to some footage of the earlier 4 July protest (and the chant is not there either – instead it’s “We Want Muslims Out”, at 6.50). So far as I can see, the claim does not appear in any media or eyewitness report.

UPDATE 3: Paul Ray claims a strong Luton presence, in a message to Muslims:

The EDL Luton division was the only division out of all of the divisions that was allowed into Birmingham on the day, thats why you outnumbered those present and started attacking old men, beating them, stealing their Union Jack flag and then burning it.

Look at the Templar blood red, Cross of Christ that the Luton division carried fearlessly, into your domain.

The police even brought in army barriers to protect you from them, and that is only one EDL division.

Ray revels in this kind of religio-military language, and tends to fetishize medieval suits of armour and such. He also has a habit of calling critics “traitors” and recalling how in wartime traitors would be shot. Speaking on “Talksport” a few weeks ago, he claimed that he was against all “devout” Muslims, and that even peaceful attempts to gain converts should not be allowed as they go against the British “way of life”. He also complains that his local council has been “taken over” by Muslims. The psychology, and the political traditions it has engendered in the past, are of course familar.

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One reason for scepticism about the “English Defence League”  has been the involvement of Chris Renton, who set up its website. Renton is a BNP activist, but EDL “spokesperson” Paul Ray shrugged this off as being his own business; Ray himself believes that God is working to turn the BNP into a non-racist nationalist group. Now, however, on the day of an “anti-Islamic extremist” protest in Birmingham, Ray announces he has fallen out with Renton:

The English Defence League that was originally built over many months and eventually set up by myself and others, was hijacked over the last couple of weeks leading up to tomorrow by a bunch of ‘Pirates’ led by Chris Renton, his brother and supported by their ‘Casual’ friends who all gathered around each other and stabbed me in the back.

I have spent the last few weeks trying to save the ‘English Defence League’ name from these people but to no avail, which amongst other things, is the reason why I will not be attending the protest tomorrow and do not want any link made with myself nor the EDL name in Birmingham on 8/8. Any ‘English Defence League’ banners that are visible on the day have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with me, and are the sole responsibility of Chris Renton & Co.

…The Renton brothers caused the initial division and eventual split with myself and ‘Casuals United’ after releasing a statement to a Birmingham newspaper stating the 8/8 protest was a ‘Casuals United’ event and not EDL & [Welsh Defence League] even though its was myself who put it in place. I then removed myself from the equation because I no longer believed in the new leadership or direction the protest was moving in. The Renton brothers (Pirates) subsequently hijacked the EDL name and have been pushing forward and promoting the protest for the past few weeks, using both of the names.

Ray also complains about the “significance of the date” for the protest; he does not elaborate, but Searchlight notes that some (not Renton) are interpreting “8/8” as “HH” – “Heil Hitler”. On the other hand, though, we’re told that

the ‘Casuals United’ movement has now been taken over by [United People of Luton’s] ‘Tommy Robinson’, who will be in charge on the ground in Birmingham tomorrow. He and those under his leadership, know about the threat of the far-right neo-Nazi movement trying to gatecrash the event and have had banners and placards made to counteract this and state ‘Casuals United’s’ position within modern British society.

“Tommy Robinson” is probably Wayne King; Jeff Marsh of the Welsh Defence League had been an organiser of today’s protest but he recently announced that he was handing over to King following police harrassment (Marsh was arrested a few days ago following a “scuffle” in a bar which he tells us was “was nothing to do with me”).

Ray adds that he will have nothing to do with neo-Nazis (although he does not accuse Renton of being one) because “I have Jewish friends, and friends with a different skin colour to my own.” The link to his “Jewish friends” takes us to an audio interview he had in 2007 with none other than Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs; Geller has continued to support Ray while other American conservatives (such as Phyllis Chesler) have repudicated him. Geller’s enthusiasm for one of Ray’s protests recently led to a spat with Charles Johnson.

As I blogged just yesterday, Ray has a habit of falling out with people.

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A new comment arrives from Dave Smeeton of March for England:

As stated in earlier posts neither [Glen] Jenvey or [Paul] Ray where friends of mine, They where contacts on facebook. My friends i trust ,these two i would trust a rattle snake more. Have never trusted either of these two that is why neither have any personal details of myself,

The latest email i have from Ray proves despite what he said to the Daily Mail he was not a friend of mine and never will be.

I have never grassed anyone can the other two say that?

To make it clear March for England had nothing to do with Ray although he did try and drag us into a few things. Despite his latest sniveling email we do not want him in our ranks we dont hold with his views or his betrayal of people.

http://www.marchforengland.co.uk

This is his second message on the subject; previously, he wrote that:

while every person is entitled to worship what ever religion the choose.

Jumping into bed with Hamza Choudry and Co is somewhat beyond belief. If this is true it shows that Jenvey and his friend can not be trusted.

Both these people where om my facebook friends list only reason being there is not a contacts list ob facebook.

The other fella used March for England to keep him self in the spotlight. This was bought to an end by myself and other commitee members. We did not hold with his attacks on a religion as a whole or of some of the people in his videos.

I blogged on March for England back in March. The group is nationalistic, but it rejects association with the far-right. It also supports the cause of the Gurkhas, and it has protested against Islamic extremism alongside the Iranian dissident Potkin Azarmehr. There is also a strong link with football supporters; Smeeton has a past in a supporters’ “firm”, but he assures us that that was a very long time ago and that he is now an “old man”. MFE protests have generally been peaceful; a recent report in Searchlight explains that:

…encounters were overwhelmingly non-violent, except when the National Front (NF) turned up and were driven away by the [United British Alliance] and MFE.

The UBA and MFE appeared to draw large numbers of young men including some black people and even a couple of Jewish football supporters from Surrey. Many were former soldiers and former football hooligans. They were frighteningly disciplined.

MFE was involved in an early protest in Luton following the Islamist provocation there in March, working with Paul Ray. However, it seems that the relationship with Ray quickly soured, and Ray sought alliances with other groups. A later protest in Luton, which MFE did not organise, was marked by some violence. That brought the attention of the Daily Mail, which ran a piece (since pulled) on MFE and Ray and which noted the Facebook link from both Smeeton and Ray to Glen Jenvey; Jenvey was described as “accused by several newspapers of fabricating stories about Islamic extremism”. Jenvey did not respond well to this, and he has now converted to Islam and allied himself with an extremist group. Jenvey also stated that the Mail  did not know that he had been “under cover collecting information for a British MP and Newspaper for them to pass on to the police”.

Ray went on to associate himself with “Casuals United” – this group was behind the protest in Birmingham last month and is preparing for a replay tomorrow. However, on his blog he recently announced that:

I have decided that the way the protests are being led is not in line with how I personally, feel they should be, Because of this, I will not be supporting any upcoming ‘Casuals United’ protests, which includes the Birmingham one on 8th August.

I am no longer involved in any way, with ‘Casuals United’ and their activities, but stand shoulder to shoulder with, and back the aims and intentions of each division and branch that is involved with the group.

Ray possibly annoyed some of his “casuals” associates over a protest in east London; the protestors met up in central London but many of them drifted away when the organiser – a shadowy “Dave Shaw” – failed to materialise and there were fears of a police sting operation. Ray was scathing about those who headed for a pint in Covent Garden rather than a protest at the East London Mosque, comparing them to First World War deserters who would have been shot.

Instead, Ray now describes himself as spokesperson for the “English and Welsh Defence League” – although it should be noted that the leader of the Welsh Defence League, Jeff Marsh, is also involved with Casuals United; Marsh has been organising the Birmingham protest planned for tomorrow, although he recently handed over the reins to someone else, complaining of police harassment. Various “Casuals United” groups on Facebook have his “bouncingbomb” email address as the point of contact. I blogged on Marsh and his charming memoir here – he left a comment thanking me for extra sales which he says have resulted.

Searchlight tells us that

the MFE and UBA are the English and Welsh Defence League (EWDL)…all used to work together until recently when Ray turned against Dave Smeeton.

This pattern makes Smeeton sceptical:

Do you not find it strange he tries to use MfE then gets droped moves to the Casual lads then draws peoples names out to be published on line then he drops that group??? Is he an informer for press or other agencies??

Meanwhile, Ray boasts that the EDL has been meeting with an “influential group of people”, to create “a professional, credible and organised ‘street movement’ for our country”.

UPDATE: As an aside, West Midlands Police has issued a video statement about policing the protests tomorrow.

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Fifty per cent of the time I log on to WordPress I’m obliged to see this face:

It’s there because of some kind of ranking for most popular WordPress post at any particular moment. I’ve always generally ignored it, but since reading this post at Pharyngula I’ve found this person’s visage – apparently it belongs to a certain Anthony Watts – increasingly unwelcome.

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Tim Marshall reports at Sky about the reaction to a recent piece he wrote concerning a mass wedding in Gaza:

…Then the grooms, aged about 18 to about 28. They are holding hands with their young nieces and cousins, little girls aged from about 3 to 8, made up to the nines, wearing white wedding dresses.

…Our report on this put it into context saying that it took place just a mile from the Israeli border and was a message from Hamas about its strength confidence and future fighters. Oh and that the brides were elsewhere. Pretty straightforward.

It never struck me for a moment that the little girls might later be described in the bloggersphere as the brides! How naive I am.

Dozens, and I mean dozens, of websites took the video of the event and wrote lurid stories about Hamas mass paedophilia with headlines about ‘450 child brides’, and endless copy about how disgusting this was, how it showed how depraved Islam is, et al, ad infinitum. Site after site jumped on the story, linking from one totally wrong load of rubbish to the next . I’ll give credit to Tundra Tabloids who at least took down the video, but most sites just ploughed on regardless.

The many websites that picked this up have responded in various ways: some issuing corrections, some quickly deleting their postings, and some insisting that it’s all true and that Marshall is trying to cover up the fact: “Why”, demands one site “would Tim Marshall defend the Gaza pedophiles?” One of the sites that decided to scrub was Robert Spencer’s Jihad Watch, which is worth noting as Spencer claims some sort of academic expertise on Islam. Of course, we know that child weddings do occcur in the Islamic world, but the idea of a mass child wedding becoming the focus for popular public celebration in such an urbanized environment as Gaza should have evoked some scepticism. Even WorldNetDaily has – grudgingly -debunked the tale.

George Readings recently posted a good article to the Spittoon which puts this kind of thing into some context:

The “argument” goes that Muslims believe Muhammad to be a perfect model for behaviour and therefore the fact of Muhammad’s marriage to A’isha somehow proves Islam to be a depraved religion…This attempt to aggressively apply a modern British definition of paedophilia to seventh century Arabia strikes me as a sign of severe anthropological illiteracy…

…Marriage to a pre-pubescant child with whom consummation occurs upon reaching puberty is not a model most people would be happy with in the modern world (although Bolivia sets the age of consent at puberty).

Which is probably why nearly all Muslim countries have reformed these rules beyond recognition. The age of consent in Algeria and Malaysia is 16, in Indonesia it is 19 for males and 16 for females. In Egypt it’s 18 for both and Tunisia 20. Reform has not, however, come to Saudi Arabia. Back in April the world followed the case of a mother trying to obtain a divorce for her eight-year-old daughter who had been married off by her father to a friend he owed a debt. In the end she succeeded and now there is even talk of Saudi Arabia preventing marriage before the age of 18.

In Christianity, the traditional story of the Virgin Birth is focused on a female who was probably supposed to be a young teenager at the time she is made pregnant; in the USA, some fundamentalist Mormon sects continue the practice of  marrying older men to young girls. Most famously, the singer Jerry Lee Lewis – a member of the Assemblies of God and a relative of Jimmy Swaggart – married a 13-year-old cousin in Tennessee in 1957; reportedly, the girl at the time still believed in Santa Claus.

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