Bartholomew's Notes

Last summer, Jeff Marsh of the Welsh Defence League and Casuals United explained how “police betrayal” had led to his arrest, just because he was standing up to Muslim extremists:

As you probably know, the powers that be decided to lift me from  outside a pub where a scuffle was occuring which was nothing to do with me, arrest me for nothing, then when they got me to police station they advised me that I was being arrested for incitement to religious hatred in reference to some videos I had on youtube.

They held me for 24hrs wouldnt let me speak to my wife at all, pulled my house to bits, damaging a lot of books in the process and have now bailed me after charging me with this ridiculous affray charge.

For some reason, it slipped his mind to mention that he had been arrested while carrying an offensive weapon. Wales Online has the latest:

FOOTBALL hooligan Jeff Marsh has been banned from football grounds for five years after admitting affray.

The 44-year-old Cardiff City supporter was found in possession of a knuckleduster when he was arrested for affray outside the Ninian Park pub in Canton, Cardiff, last June.

The self-proclaimed hooligan, who has written two books about his exploits with the city’s infamous Soul Crew and is one of the organisers of the Welsh Defence League, was fighting with Celtic fans after the inaugural match between the teams at Cardiff’s new stadium.

Marsh, from Barry, admitted affray and possession of an offensive weapon at Cardiff Magistrates’ Court in January and was sentenced yesterday.

So much for the idea of football “casuals” uniting against Islamism. But perhaps an exception was being made for Celtic; in September, Scotland Today reported that

…When Casuals United emerged last summer to protest against radical Islam around the same time as the EDL, hooligan gangs across Britain set up a Casuals United Facebook page, which listed the clubs they followed. Rangers were the only Scottish team listed.

The various “Defence Leagues” have also shown an interest in becoming involved with loyalist marches in Northern Ireland, although the UDA is reportedly not keen on the idea.

l blogged on Marsh’s hooligan memoir here; he thanked me for the extra sales that he says resulted.

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Also: Geller on Paul Ray: “He lies. I had a falling out with Ray in 2007 when he tried to strong-arm me into promoting the BNP, and I would have none of it…  I am so not his, uh, ‘Jewish friend.'”

A couple of days ago Max Blumenthal wrote a blog post about Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs, contrasting her attacks on the pro-Palestinian writer Ben White as being a “Nazi” with her support for the English Defence League. Observed Max:

So what happens at a typical EDL rally? According to a report by Wales Online, at an October 2009 rally in Swansea by the EDL’s Wales-based affiliate, the Welsh Defense League, “onlookers were confronted with scenes of jeering men giving Nazi salutes.”

Max also noted reports of various far-right elements seeking to infilitrate the EDL, and of possible links (albeit disavowed by both sides) with the BNP. I left a comment on the post, pointing out that although some neo-Nazis appear to have shown up at EDL events, the EDL has made it clear they are unwelcome. There is, though, certainly a lot of crudely-expressed anti-Muslim sentiment; just yesterday, the EDL’s Sikh spokesperson Guramit Singh proffered the theological view “God bless the Muslims – they’ll need it when they’re burning in fucking hell”, and there is an undoubted overlap with hooliganism.

Geller’s response is a predictably abusive tirade, consisting to a large extent of mocking references to Blumenthal’s masculinity and including the crude suggestion that White is his “bitch”. She complains that Max has spun “the most outrageous smears and libels”, which is rather shameless coming from the woman who suggested that Orlando Sentinal journalist Michael Thomas “ought to be charged with incitement to violent honor killing” because he raised some doubts about the Rifqa Bary case.

Geller also raises the subject of Paul Ray, who is not mentioned by Max anywhere in his post. Ray was the originator of the EDL, although he has since been sidelined, and he has launched a number of bitter attacks on the EDL leadership. She writes that:

I have seen Paul Ray’s wild accusations against the EDL, but I trust nothing he says. He lies. I had a falling out with Ray in 2007 when he tried to strong-arm me into promoting the BNP, and I would have none of it. He insisted that the BNP had cleaned up their act, but I wasn’t buying, as I had seen nothing of the kind. He got very ugly, shouting, pejorative with me. He pressed me to have Nick Griffin on my radio show and I refused and he went off on me. Very nasty. I would take anything Ray says with a grain of salt, if that. He continues to lie about me.

She then quotes one of (cough) my blog posts on Ray:

Paul Ray adds that he will have nothing to do with neo-Nazis… 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. 

She adds that

Lie. I am so not his, uh, “Jewish friend.” I haven’t spoken to him or uttered a word to him in well over 3 years.

In 2007, before the EDL was created, Ray was investigated by the police for incitement – for a short time he was regarded as a “free speech martyr” by American conservatives, and both Pam Geller and Phyllis Chesler interviewed him. However, Ray’s qualified pro-BNP views then came to light (“the Living God is on the side of the BNP”), and Chesler repudiated him. Geller, it seems, simply deleted her post on the subject at some point (it was here, and can be seen on Wayback here).

Geller’s enthusiasm for the EDL is in contrast to her friend Robert Spencer’s attitude. A few months ago, Spencer visited the UK with Martin Mawyer of the Christian Action Network. While in London, Spencer arranged to have dinner at a restaurant with Douglas Murray and some other British “anti-Islamist” types; however, Mawyer had just a few days previously interviewed some EDL leaders, and unknown to Spencer and the other guests, Mawyer’s assistant had invited them along to the restaurant. Murray (who had no idea who Mawyer was) left as soon as he learned that the EDL had been invited; and Spencer subsequently – having been goaded by Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs – made it very clear that he had left the restaurant before the EDL leaders arrived.

Spelling variation: English Defense League

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Harry’s Place has posted footage of a remarkably crude talk given at the East London Mosque in 2007, at which a speaker named Abdul Karim Hattim discourses on “fags” and “faggots” in front of an image of Elton John and the late 2-Pac. Hattim tells his audience that 2-Pac was a “fag” because he lived a gangta lifestyle, a sign of which is the wearing of low-hung trousers – this apparently known as “sagging”. Quoting a book entitled Homosexuality and the Effeminization of Afrikan Males, Hattin explains that the fashion derives from prisons, where trousers would be worn in this way in order to facilitate quick and easy anal sex.

Snopes has an entry on this subject; it is of course an urban myth – the unhappy trend for “sagging” does indeed come from US prisons, but its origins there are in the more mundane realities of ill-fitting prison garb and the fact that belts are banned to prevent suicides.

The author of Homosexuality and the Effeminization of Afrikan Males is Dr Mwalimu K. Bomani Baruti, formerly a Morehouse College sociologist known as Larry Crawford (just to be clear, he has no association with Hattin). Baruti is also the author of a number of other books, including Excuses, Excuses: The Politics of Interracial Coupling in European Culture. From looking around his websites, he appears to take a conspiratorial view of the sociology and psychology of sexuality, in which “white supremicists” use sex to sow gender confusion in order to dominate and destroy black men’s essential “Afrikan male” gender identity. Here’s a taster:

In plain terms, there is a direct relationship between the forced enslavement of Afrikan males into European society, the ongoing fear of Afrikan men by European men, the racist economic order that has gradually but systematically reduced its need for Afrikan labor since the official end of the Afrikan’s physical enslavement and the subsequent growing effeminization of a significant number of Afrikan males in this Western society… In the Western cultural context, men fear men, not women. And European men fear Afrikan men for many good reasons. They understand that the best way to significantly reduce this threat is to turn your enemy’s males into females so that they make themselves into nonthreats.

Also:

Attempts to graft the European sex imperative onto the Afrikan personality began well before “old school” music, where a sexual priority was already being pushed beyond its natural limits through the airwaves and personal contact between members of these two groups. The goal has been the gradual but complete internalization of the peculiar bedroom behaviors of Europeans by Afrikans so that the extremes and perversions Europeans naturally practiced would appear less abnormal to a world where Europeans have always been a significant minority…

And so on. Although his essays are written in a radical academic style, one can see obvious similarities with the conspiratorial end of the Christian Right, which sees Communism and “cultural Marxism” as the secret key to explaining all kinds of social trends which are considered unwelcome.

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The BBC reports:

Nine people have been arrested in south India for vandalising the ashram of a Hindu holy man after TV channels showed him allegedly engaging in sexual acts.

The footage appears to show Nithyananda Swami, 32, in bed with two women.

…Last week it was announced that a self-styled Hindu holy man was being investigated by police in Delhi for allegedly running a prostitution ring.

Nithyananda was born in 1978, and his teaching is a five-step plan known as Nitha Yoga. This site has a biographical overview:

Paramahamsa Nithyananda, a renowned spiritual master of the modern age, was born in the famous spiritual town of Thiruvannamalai in the Southern part of India, which has been home for several enlightened masters like Ramana Maharshi and Yogi Ram Surat Kumar.

…Through intense meditation practices and in-depth study of Yoga, Tantra, Vedanta, and Shaiva philosophies, Swamiji attained the ultimate state of consciousness, the State of Nithyananda (Eternal Bliss) at the age of 22. Having received the ultimate gift, Swamiji felt the intense need to share this precious gift with humanity. Thus was born Dhyanapeetam in the east and Life Bliss Foundation in the west. The mission  – The advent of Paramahamsa Nithyananda on planet earth is to create a new cycle of individual consciousness causing Collective Consciousness to enter into the Super  Conscious zone. To achieve this, Nithyananda Mission aims to initiate 100 million people into the unique meditation Nithya Dhyaan and one hundred thousand people to ‘live enlightenment’.

…A multi-dimensional enlightened master Swamiji provides different techniques to his devotees and disciples, depending on their constitution, to raise themselves and connect with their higher self.  Worship is one of them.

And what might the others be, one wonders? Elsewhere, we read that:

To the question posed by a devotee of whether he is God, Nithyananda simply replies, “I am not here to prove I am Divine, I am here to prove you are Divine.”

An associated website adds the detail that

Yogiraj Maharishi Raghupati Yogi was Nithyananda’s teacher, and a Master of Yoga who expressed many miraculous powers, like levitation.

ln 2007, Nithyananda became the “spiritual leader” of the International Vedic Hindu University in Florida; “All degree programs in IVHU are designed by Paramahamsa Nithyananda, in collaboration with academic and Vedic Pundits to ensure quality, relevance and rigor.”

According to a Wall Street Journal blog:

…as I write this, the Nithyananda hashtag is trending at somewhere between #7 and #8 in the world, with over 1,350 contributors who have weighed in on the “X by day, Y by night” theme, with over 5,000 tweets. Go here to see the latest tally.

But Twitter aside, it is the top trending topic on Google search today – actually it’s 6 of the top 10 topics at this moment, the others being the name of the Tamil actress, his alleged partner in passion, that mainstream media has so kindly but futilely blocked out.

However, a notice on the Swami’s main website  assures us that he is not taking this blow lying down:

At this moment, we feel that a mix of conspiracy, graphics and rumor are at play in these recent events that have unfolded. We are working on a legal course of action and will come up with updates in due course.

In these trying times, we wish to reassure the lakhs of devotees and well-wishers whose sentiments have been deeply hurt by this conspiracy. We thank all the devotees and disciples for standing with us during these times…

The Swami’s books include Guaranteed Solutions: For Sex, Worry, Fear, Jealousy, Attention-need, Ego, Discontent.

The sex tape can be seen on YouTube here; there are only a couple of mildly explicit moments, and there is only one woman featured, not two. Someone has added a wonderful music soundtrack.

In 2005 the UK Guardian reported that a Greek newspaper had published pictures of a “91-year-old metropolitan bishop… cavorting in the nude with a young woman”.

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UPDATE: Some details about the Principado da Pontinha have been corrected and expanded.

A dramatic headline in the Daily Telegraph:

Nail from Christ’s crucifixion found?
A nail dating from the time of Christ’s crucifixion has been found at a remote fort believed to have once been a stronghold of the Knights Templar.

We are told that the nail was found last summer in a fort on “Ilheu de Pontinha”, a small island near Madeira which was “thought to have been held by the Knights Templar”. The paper quotes an arhaeologist named Bryn Walters, who explains:

“It dates from the first to second centuries,” he told the Daily Mirror.

While one would expect the surface to be “pitted and rough” he said on this nail the surface was smooth.

That suggested that many people had handled it over the centuries, with the acid on their hands giving it a “peculiar finish”.

So, the answer to the question in the headline is… no. But there’s more:

Christopher Macklin of the Knights Templar of Britannia said the discovery was “momentous”.

The original Mirror article can be seen here, and also on the Knights Templar of Britannia website here (That’s where I got the “Holy Nail” idea for the post title from). Macklin is shown holding the nail above the sub-heading “Knights Templar: It’s relic from crucifixion”, and the Mirror hack inevitably ties it in to the Da Vinci Code. But not even Macklin claims that it’s the genuine article – just that the medieval Templars believed it to be so.

It is difficult to find the Ilheu de Pontinha (or, rather, the Ilhéu da Pontinha) on the map. However, in English it is known (less romantically) as Loo Rock, and it is an atoll which is now connected to Madeira by the harbour arm of Funchal’s port. The atoll has fort, known as the Forte São José, which is owned by a teacher named Renato Barros. In 2007 Barros declared it to be an independent country, the Principado da Pontinha (see Portuguese-language news report here), and he is thus now Prince D. Renato Barros. He is also allowing archaeological work to take place, as reported here:

When questioned about lhe ‘Rock’s’ fate he summarily explained that, “a crew of local archaeologists have been working laboriously inside the Fort for the past few months in the hope of finding valuable artefacts”. ln spite of having uncovered a few human bones, bullet shells and a canon ball from the half-century old rocks this inquisitive teacher added that, “efforts to unearth the lost pieces to the ‘Puzzle of the First Port of the Atlantic’ will continue until some light is shed a propos to Europe’s best kept secret, the first port of the Atlantic – Fort of São José”.

Finding a relic from the Crucifixion clearly beats a few bones and bullet shells, and the principality’s website has also reposted the Daily Mirror article. The Templar angle remains mysterious, though, as Madeira was not even discovered until a hundred years after the Templars had been officially disbanded – so there is no way that the fort is a Templar structure. However, Christopher Columbus is known to have spent time on the island, and there is a legend that he was associated with secret Templars.

The “Knights Templar of Britannia”, meanwhile, are properly known as the “Hereditary Knights Templar of Britannia”. The organisation appears to have some unusual beliefs; here’s a taster:

Our Order’s knowledge is derived from the Temples of Egypt; whilst the names and even languages have changed throughout history the common beliefs are fundamentally the same. Derived from Akhennaten´s monotheistic religion (belief in ‘One God’) who created the Mer-Ka-Ba symbol where the original Knights Templar symbol is taken… Quite possibly the Magi came from Nazara and were known as Nazarenes. Did these “Three Wise Men” become the teachers of Jesus “Keepers of the Knowledge” the sacred knowledge taught to initiates of the Nazara… The Knights Templar used meditation daily, meditation is said to lead to higher consciousness used by Buddhists. Christianity does not mention meditation, yet the Knights Templar Order clearly used it, one can only deduce that the Knights Templar religious traditions came from a different source other than Roman Catholism… After the death of Jesus it is interesting to note that Mary Magdalene went to Europe and formed her own church, not based on Christianity, but the old religion of Egypt “Isis/Osiris”, believed to be the same beliefs of the Magi. Was Mary Magdalene a High Priestess of the Magi?

The site also extols the virtues of “white gold powder“, which can expand the lifespan to 900 years and facilitate teleportation, among much else, and that “anyone who uses the white powder will develop a halo about his body” (surely that’s Ready Brek?). Further:

…Is there a direct descendant of Jesus alive today, if so who is he/she? Would such a bloodline be powerful? Or is the real Holy Grail and secrets the truth about our planet, Humans & secret enemies within. Our we all living an illusion of freedom? Our the Templars the real Gedi Knights [sic]. Is there a secret WAR OF THE WORLDS going on today?

The connection of the “Hereditary Knights Templar of Britannia” to the original Templars has been confirmed by an unnamed “Former-Vatican Priest” who “carried out an investigation lasting 7 years into the various Knights Templar Organisations throughout the world.”

Strangely, besides the reproduced Mirror article, neither Macklin nor anyone else is mentioned by name on the site, and Macklin’s Linkedin  page has no reference to any of this. However, a companion US site mentions as its Grand Commander a certain “Sir Baron de Rochefort”, and a certain meditation teacher named Mark Borrington is involved in the UK. An earlier version of the site tells us that the organisation is “raising funds to purchase Spiritual Centres throughout the world for teaching meditation and spiritual matters”.

The book The Templar Code for Dummies (p. 212) claims that the Knights Templar of Britannia is run by Gary Martin Beaver, also known as “Lord Beaver of Newport; His Serene Excellency, the Magistral Prior of Notre Dame St. Mary of Magdalene; the Chevalier Baron de Richecourt, KGCNS, KtJ; the Marquis of Aulnois; and the Most Reverend Archbishop Gary, Hughes II”. However, Beaver seems to have been involved with other Templar groups, and so I am not sure that this is correct.

The old version of the organisation’s site, still in use a re-direction page, is registered to “Baron G. Fothergill”, who reportedly once sold a title to Beaver; this is Graham Fothergill of Manor Titles. There is also a phone number on the old site which corresponds to Paul Dunkley’s Noble Titles business (as does an address on the Knights Britannia Facebook page – which also features Macklin’s Templar ID card and this remarkable CD cover; we’re assured that “C.D Removes: Mind programing, Mind controls, Brain washing, unblocks Inhibitors and restores your natural higher consciousness abilities. Includes Free Postage in the U.K.”).

Macklin was previously in the news in 2007; the Daily Mail reported that:

After her twin sister Gabriela bagged an Establishment boyfriend in the curious shape of MP Lembit Opik, Cheeky Girl Monica Irimia may have thought she had raised the stakes by posing with a member of the aristocracy.

Alas, property developer “Lord” Christopher Macklin is not all he appears, despite his reported £35 million fortune. For rather than inheriting his title, burly Macklin bought his via a lord of the manor property deal.

The Cheshire-based businessman, who at 50 is 26 years older than Monica, is backing the launch of the Cheeky Girls’ perfume…

I previously blogged on chivalric orders here and here.

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A month ago, Hope Not Hate ran an interesting article about plans by the English Defence League to get involved with the marching season in Northern Ireland:

Searchlight, working with the Sunday World in Northern Ireland, has now discovered plans by the EDL to head to Belfast for the biggest event on the Orange Order’s calendar, where it only takes a small spark to ignite violence. Our researchers who monitor the websites and forums that the EDL uses to communicate with supporters uncovered an invitation from someone claiming to be part of the Ulster Defence League to “all EDL, SDL [Scottish Defence League], WDL [Welsh Defence League] members and supporters to Belfast for the loyalist 12th of July celebrations”.

A follow-up report in the latest Searchlight (1), however, notes that loyalist groups such as the UDA are currently keen to present a more moderate image of marching bands, “still openly sectarian historically, but without the antagonistic flags and banners of modern paramilitary groups” – and the last thing they need is the EDL causing trouble (link added):

The EDL’s plans and lack of geographical knowledge were met by howls of derision from loyalists. One senior loyalist told Seachlight “everyone is welcome to the parades, but if they think they’re going to turn Belfast into Nottingham or a Birmingham for the day, they’ll have more than a few angry Taigs to worry about. We’ll stamp them out very quickly. And firmly.

I previously blogged on EDL founder Paul Ray’s enthusiasm for Johnny Adair, a hardline loyalist with a history of violence, and on Ray’s association with Nick Greger, a German ex-neo-Nazi who is friends with Adair. However, Ray’s “English Defence League – St George’s Division” has been disavowed by the “mainstream” EDL, and he apparently now lives in Malta. Adair, meanwhile, now resides in Scotland following an intra-loyalist feud.

(1) Matthew Collins, “UDA Move Threatens EDL Plans”, in Searchlight, No. 417, March 2010, p. 23.

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