Bartholomew's Notes

WorldNetDaily has another crackpot end-of-the-world theory to promote:

A Christian minister who uses NASA tracking of solar and lunar eclipses in his teaching of the great event is now explaining how at least one constellation is an outright declaration of the “Second Coming.”

…In his videotaped lectures, [Mark] Biltz focuses on a star called Arcturus, which is mentioned in the Old Testament Book of Job: “Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south.” (Job 9:9)

If one were to consult a map of the night sky, Arcturus could be found in the “left knee” of a constellation called Bo-otes (often spelled Bootes), meaning “the Coming One,” depicted as a warrior coming to harvest, according to Biltz, citing previous research by noted 19th century Bible scholar E.W. Bullinger who wrote “The Witness of the Stars.”

Biltz explains the Hebrew word translated as “Arcturus” in Job comes from the same root word found in the Book of Joel discussing the return of Jesus, but is rendered in Joel 3:11 as “assemble.”

“The word ‘assemble’ is the same word that is translated as ‘Arcturus’ in Job,” he said. “So it means the same thing, to assemble, to come. And if you’ll notice the word ‘come’ is ‘bo,‘ which is the name of this constellation: ‘Bo-otes.’ So this constellation …. He’s got a sickle in one hand and a spear in the other. This is a sign of the Messiah who says ‘I’m coming.’ That’s what this constellation is all about, the Coming One. In Revelation it talks about He has a sickle in His hand.”

The Book of Revelation states from the apostle John’s perspective, “And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. … And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.” (Revelation 14:14-16)

And, if that farrago doesn’t make you weep with despair, we reach a grand climax with this:

Interestingly, on March 19, 2008, a powerful gamma ray burst detected by NASA’s Swift satellite in the Bo-otes constellation shattered the record for the most distant object that could be seen with the naked eye.

A few points:

(1) The identification of the Hebrew “Ayish” in Job with “Arcturus” is uncertain – it may refer to Ursa Major (with which of course Arcturus is associated, as the “Bear Watcher”) or the Hyades.

(2) The etymology of “Bo-otes” as “the Coming One” is fanciful. Bullinger claimed that it was derived from the Hebrew “bo” via Egyptian:

The Greeks called him Bo-ö-tes, which is from the Hebrew root Bo,… meaning the coming… The ancient Egyptians called him Smat, which means one who rules, subdues, and governs. They also called him Bau (a reminiscence of the more ancient Bo), which means also the coming one. (Witness of the Stars p. 42)

This seems to be based on the belief that Hebrew culture was the originator of ideas that were later corrupted in other societies – an outdated view even in Bullinger’s time. There is no sensible reason to reject the standard etymology of the constellation as being related to the Greek for “herdsman”. What problem does Bullinger’s speculation solve? (According to Frances Rolleston, whose work inspired Bullinger, the identification of  Bo-otes with ”bau” by the Egyptians was noted by Ulugh Beg, the fifteenth-century Tartar astronomer. However, while his name is invoked as an authority, she doesn’t give any direct reference, and there’s no way to assess why he made the identification, supposing that he did).

(3) The Book of Joel does not discuss “the return of Jesus” – the section refered to is in fact describing post-Exile period in eschatological and triumphalist terms. The existence of Jesus hundreds of years later is not the author’s concern, let alone his “return” thousands of years after that.

(4) Even if the root for the Hebrew word “Ayish” means “assemble”, so what? It’s a bit of leap from that to the wild speculation that a constellation was given that name because Hebrew astronomers saw it as depicting a coming Messiah. There’s no Hebrew tradition of a Messiah being foreshadowed in Bo-otes or any other constellation.

(5) The author of Revelation does not represent Jesus as Bo-otes; the person on the cloud has a sickle because he’s about to start reaping symbolic grapes. If he’s Bo-otes, why doesn’t John give him a spear? And why don’t any of the other New Testament authors make such a link?

(6) The record for the gamma burst may have been “shattered”, but it seems to me reasonable that as the technology for noticing gamma ray bursts improves, so we will see more impressive gamma rays being observed. It’s unlikely that just three years after Swift was launched it would spot a phenomenon that is so rare as to be anomalous.

But don’t let that put you off; WND continues:

“I believe that this sign in the heavens points to the imminent return of Christ to judge His household,” wrote Joseph Herrin of the Georgia-based Heart4God website. “We do live at the end of the age. It has been 6,000 years since Adam and 2,000 years since Christ first appeared. … This sign in Bootes is another witness, and those who have set themselves apart to follow the Lord can anticipate what is to come.”

It’s fascinating to see the way fundamentalism can be impressed with one bit of scientifc discovery while repudiating the scientific paradigm – the “gamma burst” of 19 March 2008 actually occurred 7.5 billion years ago.

UPDATE: I’ve just seen that the late D. James Kennedy was an exponent of the “Gospel in the Stars” theory, and wrote a book entitled The Real Meaning Of The Zodiac.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 9 Comments »

Claims BNP “condemns use of contraceptives”

Here’s one I missed from a few days ago – the BNP’s Rev Robert West (blogged by me a number of times, such as here) has been out campaigning; the Daily Telegraph reports:

Griffin gets into his car and we drive to Dagenham Broadway, where the BNP has erected its stall. We pass the BNP music bus, pulled over by the police for playing loud music. Griffin gets out and glad-hands; he seems to adore it. Reverend Robert West, the BNP candidate in Lincoln, shouts, “It is not racist to love your country!” as Pastor James Gitau, a black BNP supporter, stands next to him. Every time the Rev Mr West shouts a slogan, Gitau shouts, “Hallelujah!”

Details about Pastor Gitau are scarce, although he is apparently a Pastor with the United Holy Church; whether this is the American denomination of that name or another grouping is not clear. Most information about him is available from postings at Misterseed.com, a site for diaspora Kenyans. Here a press release from Gitau is available, in block caps:

WHEN I ARRIVED IN THE U.K IN THE LATE NINETIES I CAME TO LEARN THAT THERE WAS A FAR RIGHT PARTY CALLED BRITISH NATIONAL PARTY. I WAS SHOCKED BECAUSE I DID NOT EXPECT SUCH A RACIST ASSOCIATION IN THE LAND BECAUSE UNITED KINGDOM IS ONE OF THE PIONEER DEMOCRACIES WHICH EMBRACES ALL RACES IN THE COUNTRY WITHOUT ANY FORM OF DISCRIMINATION.

I DID SERIOUS HOMEWORK TRYING TO FIND OUT IF THAT ALLEGATION WAS TRUE AND IT WAS CONFIRMED THAT IT WAS TRUE. THE PARTY WAS NOT ACCEPTING MEMBERS FROM THE BLACK COMMUNITY.

 I DID SOME SERIOUS CAMPAIGN TO HAVE THE PARTY OPEN UP MEMBERSHIP TO ALL RACES AND ABOUT A MONTH AGO MY AMBITION CAME TO PASS AND THE PARTY STARTED ALLOWING ALL RACES TO BECOME MEMBERS…

 AS THIS WAS A PART OF MY SWEAT, I DECIDED TO BECOME A MEMBER BECAUSE OF THE FOLLOWING REASONS…

B.N.P. IS THE ONLY PARTY WHICH BOLDLY SPEAKS AGAINST SODOMY IN PUBLIC….

…CONDEMNS USE OF CONTRACEPTIVES ( E.G. CONDOMS, MORNING AFTER ETC. ETC.).

…ABHORS OUR CHILDREN’S ABORTIONS WITHOUT PARENTS CONSENT ETC. ETC.

…IT IS TRUE THAT THE OLD B.N.P. POLICY WAS TO SEND ALL BLACK BRITISH CITIZENS BACK TO THEIR ORIGINAL COUNTIES. THE NEW B.N.P. EMBRACES ALL RACES FROM THE MINORITIES.

…I WAS GIVEN A PLATFORM TO PREACH AGAINST THE SINS OF SODOM AND GOMORRAH ( HOMOSEXUALITY, AND I REALLY HIT THE ABOMINATION HARD! ) WHEN B.N.P WILL FORM THE GOVERNMENT BECAUSE ONE OF THESE FINE DAYS IT WILL BE IN THE GOVERNMENT, ALL THOSE EVIL LAWS E.G. HOMOSEXUALITY WILL GO. THEY WILL BE REMOVED FROM THE BOOKS OF STATUTES OF THE GREAT BRITAIN!

…IF YOU LOOK AT MY PICTURE AT DAGENHAM INTERNATIONAL PRESS CONFERENCE, THE MOST IMPORTANT THING THAT YOU WILL NOTICE IS THE NAME OF JESUS APPEARING CLEARLY ON MY RED ‘JESUS SCARVE’.   

  PASTOR/EVANGELIST (.REV, ) JAMES K.N. GITAU

Mr Seed himself gives some background information, on the same page:

Pastor Gitau is the former manager with KENATCO Mombasa before joining business and later coming to the UK. Originally he comes from Kiambaa, Kiambu, Kenya. He is well known in the church circles because he is the first to shout in most of the crusades in London. You would always hear him saying “Glory” playing his manyanga with a beautiful dancing style the King David style. Many others knows him by his dressing. He dresses with several coloured clothes with long coat on top. My mother asked me last year when he saw him: “Mr. Seed, who is that man in the church? Which one, I asked, “Glory” – the man who shouts glory in the church. Why does he dress like that?” she asked. When asked why he dresses like that Pastor Gitau explained that the coat he wears is a coat of many colours.

This site has a short blurb:

I am an International Evangelist and a Kikuyu, but I support ODM [Orange Democratic Movement].  My message however is one of peace.  The violence must stop and the political leaders must listen to the word of reason, let them sit and resolve their difference so that we can go on with our lives.  I grew up in Luoland, I schooled in Kamusinga High School in Bungoma-Luhyaland, I worked in Mombasa, and married a Mkamba lady, so to me tribalism is non-existent.

The pastor also has a request for Josh Groban, regarding his song “You Raise Me Up”:

THIS SONG IS TOO PIOUS AND SWEET TO BE A SONG OF THE WORLD ( SECULAR ). THE EARLIER SECULAR BEINGS DROP THEIR CLAIM TO IT THE BETTER. LOVERS AND GIRLFRIENDS WILL LIFT YOU UP ONLY TO DROP DOWN WITH A BIG BANG WHEN THEIR LOVE FOR YOU NOSEDIVE BUT JESUS ( GOD ) WHOSE OTHER NAME IS LOVE ( 1st. JOHN 4:8 and 16 )IS ‘ LOVE ‘ WILL LIFT YOU UP WHEN THE STORMS OF LIFE RAGE AND WILL NEVER EVER DROP YOU BECAUSE HE CARES FOR YOU ETERNALLY. I VERY HUMBLY REQUEST MR. JOSH GROBAN TO BE SAVED BY JESUS BY REPENTING HIS SINS AND DECLARE THE SONG A GODLY SACRED SONG.

I blogged on some other BNP ecclesiastics here, and on Nick Griffin’s decision to emphasise Christianity as a “new dimension of our struggle” here.

(Name variation: James Kamau N. Gitau)

Filed under: Uncategorized | 35 Comments »

…demands the English Defence League, in a confrontation with British Kentucky Fried Chicken executives at a board meeting in Manchester.

As has been widely reported, certain KFC restaurants in the UK have decided to become halal, on a trial basis, as the firm explains here. The Daily Mail noted eight such restaurants in May last year; the scheme has recently been extended, which has brought new media attention. The intention is obviously to compete with the various halal fried-chicken outlets that one can find in parts of London and elsewhere; the EDL, however, believes that halal-only KFCs are taking their “rights” away.

Meanwhile, it seems that some Muslims are sceptical of KFC’s halal status anyway:

Imam Yusuf Shabbir of the Lancashire Council of Mosques said: “If KFC confirms to us that it has no intention of changing the mechanical method of slaughter we will advise members of the Muslim community this.”

But a KFC spokesman said: “We’ve worked with animal welfare organisations and the Halal Food Authority to ensure our processes fully comply.

The HFA website does indeed endorse the KFC method. The spokesman also adds:

“And wherever possible we’ve made sure our trial stores are near non- halal restaurants, to provide customers with a choice.”

Filed under: Uncategorized | 8 Comments »

The Daily Show has had a bit of fun with this; if you’re in the UK, you can watch the show on More4 here. Apparently, the discovery was made by Crescent-Finder General Alec Rawls, author of conspiracy-tome Crescent of Betrayal: Dishonoring the Heroes of Flight 93. Rawls dismisses the “official” explanation, that the logo was inspired by a hydrogen atom:

Most obviously, why the gap in the electron’s orbit? The only purpose of this gap would seem to be to turn the crescent into the familiar Islamic-shaped crescent.

Less obviously, notice that the fattening of the crescent at the lower left indicates visually that the electron is coming closer at that point. That would only be the case if the orbit were being observed somewhat edge-on, but that would make the orbit appear to the observer as an ellipse, not the circle seen in the NSS logo.

By the same token, since the orbit is seen as circular rather than elliptical, that means it is being observed from above (from one of the poles of the axis of rotation), which means the electron is not moving closer to and further from the observer, hence no crescent-like fattening of the arc would be observed.

The only purpose for the unnatural fattening of the circle on one side representation would again seem to be to create the familiar Islamic shaped crescent.

Meanwhile, other wingers are complaining that the logo was superimposed over a map of the world at the summit:

…I read about it at The Lonely Conservative who… asks “what’s at the center of the earth?” The answer is not the United States. The answer is Africa, Saudia Arabia, Yemen, Oman, U.A.E, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Europe…

In February (H/T Ed Brayton), Frank Gaffney was part of a bandwagon warning that the DOD’s Missile Defense Agency’s new logo represented the “morphing of the Islamic crescent and star with the Obama campaign logo…” and was an act “of submission to Shariah by President Obama”. However, Gaffney backtracked (grudgingly, and to the dismay of Rawls) when it was pointed out that the DOD logo had been commissioned in 2007. Fox pushed that as a story, too.

In 2008, I noted someone who perceived an Islamic crescent in a map of an earthquake.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 38 Comments »

A couple of weeks ago, Terry Krepel wrote a piece on WorldNetDaily‘s Aaron Klein for the Huffington Post, noting Klein’s skewed reporting on the far-right in Israel:

Klein has long been associated with far-right elements in Israel. One of his earliest acts as a WorldNetDaily reporter was to portray an AWOL Israeli soldier, Eden Natan-Zada, who had — unprovoked — shot and killed four Arabs on a bus in Gaza, as a victim because Palestinians who witnessed the cold-blooded shootings killed him before authorities could step in. Klein declared that the Natan-Zada was “murdered” by a “mob of Palestinians”; Klein never described the soldier’s victims has having been “murdered.”

…Another beneficiary of Klein’s whitewashing is Yekutel Ben Yaacov, whom Klein benignly described in a 2006 WND article only as a “northern Samaria resident.” In fact, he has another identity: Mike Guzovsky, a one-time leader of Kahane Chai. Klein even featured “Mike Guzofsky” (spelling is a bit fungible in Israel, apparently) in an August 2004 article that attempted to show that people like Guzofsky whom Israeli officials were portraying as “dangerous Jewish extremists” were just regular Joes and not prone to violence, and that “Jewish terrorism … is considered extremely rare.” Klein made no attempt to explain that Guzofsky and Ben Yaacov are one in the same.

…Another favorite extremist source for Klein is David Ha’ivri, whom he portrayed in a December 2008 article only as a West Bank settler. But again, he’s much more than Klein has reported to his readers: Ha’ivri is a Kahanist who has organized numerous protests at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, the ancient site of a Jewish temple that is now the site of a mosque. Eden Natan-Zada — the AWOL soldier who slaughtered four people on a bus in Gaza — joined in one of those protests before committing his massacre…

The various links take you to Terry’s earlier ConWebWatch pieces on the subject, where you’ll see my name mentioned a couple of times – I brought some of these points to Terry’s attention (e.g. here, here, and here).

Klein has now responded to the article on his 77WABC radio show with some of the most shameless and blustering whataboutery I’ve ever come across. Why, he demands, is he being accused of being “associated” with Kahanists when Obama has links to Bill Ayers?

Do they have me, like say, launching my journalist career in the living room of a Kahane Chai leader, sort of like Barack Obama, who is associated with real extremists, launched his political career, remember, in the living room of Weatherman terrorist Bill Ayers, who of course sought the downfall of the U.S. government? … Do they have me being hired for my first job by a Kahane Chai leader, like Obama was actually hired for his first position, which would be at the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, an education reform organization. He was hired by the chairman of that group, the CAC, Bill Ayers. … Do they have me sitting on the board of a nonprofit organization as a paid director with Kahane Chai leaders like Obama served on the board as a paid director of the Woods Fund with Bill Ayers? …There better at least be a suggestion that Kahane Chai leaders ghost-wrote my previous books, like a lot of people have strongly suggested that Bill Ayers may have ghostwritten Obama’s book ‘Dreams of My Father.’

Klein goes on to complain that George Soros’s money is behind it all (hey, George, any chance I can have some of that?), and that he is being targeted for exposing Obama’s extremism. The only attempt at any engagement with the substantive points raised by Terry above is to complain that the New York Times and the Jerusalem Post have also both quoted David Ha’ivri without mentioning his Kahanist links, so it is unfair that he is being criticised for the same omission.

Klein goes on to attempt to clarify his own position:

Just for the record, I personally do agree with some of the sentiments of Rabbi Meir Kahane. I think he was right about certain things, wrong about other things, but I have absolutely nothing, no association whatsoever with Kahane Chai leaders. Further, I actually — I believe that some of these leaders of Kahane Chai in Israel are extremists, and more than that, they’re absolute embarrassments to the religious national community in israel. And I think that unfortunatly, the media is using the Kahane extremists to basically paint all the Jews in the West Bank as extremists. So, bottom line, I have absolutely nothing to do with these Kahane Chai extremists.

This begs two rather obvious questions: which of these “leaders of Kahane Chai in Israel” are the extremists, and which are the moderates? Which “sentiments” of Kahane does Klein embrace, and which does he reject?

Filed under: Uncategorized | 12 Comments »

“Is your family or your community threatening you?”

Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller have come up with a new wheeze: anti-Muslim bus ads on the sides of buses in Miami. Here’s the poster:

Geller tells us that:

Our pro-freedom campaign rolled out today on the following buses all over Miami — Route 3 (Biscayne Blvd and US1), Route 88 (Kendall Drive SW 88th Street, from the Dade and North Metro Rail station to SW 80th street), Route 40 (Bird Road SW 40th Street), Route L (Hialeah along 79th Street Causeway, Collins Avenue to Miami Beach Convention Center), Route E (Collins Avenue), Route 11 (FIU Bus terminal to FIU South campus, West Flagler street ends at Government center Metro station) — split between curb side and street side. 

Spencer explains that:

One of the first projects that we’ve been working on for Stop the Islamization of America and the Freedom Defense Initiative organization that I started with Pamela Geller was this bus ad campaign… This is the first time anyone has offered public help to those who are threatened under Islam’s apostasy law. In the Land of the Free, government and law enforcement should be on this. But they aren’t. So we are. It is time for free citizens to stand for freedom — or lose it.

Spencer and Geller agreed to take charge of Stop Islamization of America a couple of weeks ago, at the request of Anders Gravers and Stephen Gash of Stop Islamisation of Europe; SIOA, as I blogged here, was formed in September (at the time the link to SIOE was not clear; DL Adams and Kendra Adams of the New English Review were named as the SIOA founders [1]). Spencer goes on to pose a rhetorical question:

…Why did we create and organize a bus ad campaign to offer resources to Muslims who want to leave Islam but feel threatened?

Because you realised it’s a clever way to annoy Muslims, since if anyone objects you can accuse them of acquiescing in threats against ex-Muslims? Apparently not…

 We wanted to show that some people will stand up against violent intimidation, some people will stand up for religious freedom in America. And we wanted to counterbalance the smooth deceptions of the CAIR campaign. We wanted to show that some people will stand up against violent intimidation, some people will stand up for religious freedom in America. And we wanted to counterbalance the smooth deceptions of the CAIR campaign.

…Sharia law holds no weight or legitimacy here. Apostates are free to leave Islam and to be who and whatever that want to be.

In January 2009, CAIR had run a number of bus adverts offering Muslim literature; Fort Lauderdale’s Christian fundamentalist mayor Jim Naugle had called for these to banned (a demand Spencer implicitly endorsed).

The “Refuge from Islam” website promises to “call public attention” to cases that they are contacted about. However, the “resources” on offer at the site are a token effort: there is a link to an evangelical Christian apologetics site, and links to Amazon pages for books by Robert Spencer and Ibn Warriq. Three women’s shelters in Miami are listed, since Miami is “site of the first SIOA Religious Freedom Campaign”. That’s about it – but, of course, the ads are primarily a stunt calculated to provoke rather than a serious effort to help closet ex-Muslims extricate themselves from difficult (and of course sometimes dangerous) circumstances.

Spencer also tells us that the design for the bus ad was developed “with the help of the enormously talented Big Fur Hat“. BigFurHat is a conservative satirist who is also responsible for the new SIOA logo; before Christmas, he designed a Christmas card for Geller’s readers to print out and send to Rifqa Bary, the ex-Muslim teenager who claims that her Muslim parents want to kill her and who is currently in foster care and the subject of a court case. That was another stunt: not unexpectly, Bary’s parents objected to their daughter receiving a deluge of letters from strangers that might contain all kinds of ravings, and they asserted through their lawyers that the cards should be intercepted because “the [Guardian ad Litem] for Fathima Rifqa Bary, [Franklin County Children Services] and the parents of the minor child have a right to know when third parties are communicating to the minor child particularly when the third parties might endanger the health and safety of the minor child.” This was inevitably picked up by various sites (including Fox News) as further evidence of Muslim heartlessness (the motion was eventually dropped for unstated reasons). The card also advertised BigFurHat’s satirical website, I Own the World; the site is largely devoted to anti-Obama and anti-liberal jibes, some of which tend towards the coarse.

I blogged on the general trend for using bus ads for religious controversy here.

UPDATE (16 April): It is now being reported that the adverts have been pulled by the bus company; according to the Miami Herald:

…on Thursday, Miami-Dade Transit spokeswoman Karla Damian said that after reviewing the ads, the department decided they “may be offensive to Islam” and would remove them before the buses ran on Friday.

Damian said the ads were able to initially go up because Miami-Dade Transit has an outside company sell ad space and does not routinely review ads before they run.

The South Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations had critiqued the ads as promoting “bigotry” and making false statements about Islam.

Spencer has responded to this with the pronouncement that Miami-Dade Transit is “submitting to Sharia and Islamic supremacist intimidation” and with an appeal for funds – inevitably, SIOA intends to sue:

We are deeply grateful that David Yerushalmi, P.C., an expert in Sharia, and The Thomas More Law center are taking this case on a pro bono basis. But there are many costs involved — and so please donate to the legal fund. Any funds we can raise to offset David Yerushalmi’s costs will allow him to take on more cases like these — and nothing is more certain than that there will be more.

I wrote a blog entry on Yerushalmi’s supposed expertise in Shariah here.

UPDATE 2 (21 April): The ads are now back up; SIOA reports that

By Friday, the day after the bus ads had been pulled, Mr. Yerushalmi and his co-counsel Robert Muise were prepared to go into federal court early the next week. A teleconference was arranged first with the Miami-Dade County Attorney’s office, which took place Monday afternoon. After listening to Mr. Yerushalmi’s brief, the county attorneys conceded the ads should not have been pulled. By Tuesday, Mr. Yerushalmi had negotiated a full and complete retraction of the contract termination with a NY-based attorney for CBS Outdoor. Not only would the original 10 king-sized ads go back up on the Transit Authority buses, but CBS would run an additional 20 king-sized bus ads for the same original contract price.

***

[1] Kendra Adams has now posted a statement on the NER Facebook page announcing that “Our affiliation which many here noted and followed with an organization that opposes the growth of Islam in the United States is now at an end. While the affiliation is concluded, the work continues”, oddly failing to mention SIOA by name. The SIOE website, meanwhile, tells us that “Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer are deeply grateful to Kendra Adams for her previous work with SIOA, and applaud her dedication to the cause of stopping the spread of Sharia in the United States.”

Filed under: Uncategorized | 21 Comments »

The recently-revamped website of the English Defence League carries a prominent news feed from “Politically Incorrect” (PI), a German site which carries some English-language materials. The stories focus on particular incidents which are presented as proof of the essential depravity of Muslims – once again undermining the EDL’s claim that it is opposed to Islamic extremism, rather than Muslims as such. Here’s a recent entry:

While the victims of Catholic child abuse are still in everyone’s conversation, the same human rights individuals have no interest in the victims of Islamic abuse. In Yemen, a 13-year-old girl has now bled to death due to serious vaginal injuries that her perverse 30-year-old “husband” inflicted upon her.

…Aha! Poverty is to blame. And tribal cultures! And – oh yes – a couple of (evil) Islamists. It was certainly not the “example” of the paedophilic “prophet.” Child marriage is Islamic!

The perversity of Muslims is not the site’s sole interest, though: the current top article is an an attack on the Israeli whistleblower Anat Kam, and the German parent site has pieces against the “CO2 religion” of global warming. There’s also merchandise for sale, including items with this English-language logo:

PI is currently co-organising  a demonstration in support of Geert Wilders, having been inspired by the recent EDL rally in Westminster.

PI is run by a certain Stefan Herre (var. Stephan Herre), a former sports teacher, and the site reportedly receives a large number of visitors. In 2008 there was controvery when it took advertising from the Jewish Task Force, a US-based Kahanist organisation, as reported in Der Speigel here. Details about PI in English are scarce, although Google Translate provides some gleanings for those of us who cannot read German. A journalist named Stefan Niggemeier is one prominent critic of the site (Herre reportedly threatened a libel action in 2008 over his remarks on the JTF advertising), complaining in particular of the excesses of the discussion boards. The site has also been studied by Yasemin Shooman of the Centre for Research on Anti-Semitism at the Technical University of Berlin (in 2008 the Centre organised a controversial conference comparing anti-Muslim discourse of today with traditional anti-Semitism). In 2007, a South African writer for the site named Jens von Wicht repudiated his involvement with PI, complaining of its “cultic character”.

PI also berates critics as “Dhimmis”, and, like the EDL, it has particular vitriol for left-wing opponents. Here’s another logo from the site:

Filed under: Uncategorized | 11 Comments »

Crosswalk reports:

…Rifqa Bary, who fled her Muslim parents’ home in Ohio last year after her conversion to Christianity, remains in fear of deportation. Her attorney told a judge Monday that the 17-year-old is being blocked by her Muslim parents from fighting the possibility of deportation. Rifqa has been in foster care for months, but is an illegal immigrant, along with her family, from Sri Lanka. She maintains her fear of harm if she is forced to return to the Muslim state.

Perhaps they got their information on the country from pseudo-expert Robert Spencer; last August he regaled FrontPage readers with the detail that

…Rifqa Bary hails from Sri Lanka, where the Shafi’i school of Islamic jurisprudence prevails. A Shafi’i manual of Islamic law directs that “when a person who has reached puberty and is sane voluntarily apostatizes from Islam, he deserves to be killed. In such a case, it is obligatory for the caliph (A: or his representative) to ask him to repent and return to Islam. If he does, it is accepted from him, but if he refuses, he is immediately killed.” (‘Umdat al-Salik o8.1-2).

Bary herself has tearfully warned that Sri Lanka operates “asylums” where “they put people like me”.

The notion of Sri Lanka as a “Muslim state” where a fourteenth-century manual of jurisprudence “prevails” is somewhat baffling. The Times reported last month:

An expatriate Sri Lankan woman who wrote two books about her conversion from Buddhism to Islam has been arrested while on holiday in Sri Lanka, apparently for causing offence to Buddhists.

Sarah Malini Perera, who was born in Sri Lanka but has lived in Bahrain since 1985 and converted to Islam in 1999, was arrested last week under the country’s strict emergency laws, according to the police.

…Sri Lanka’s constitution guarantees freedom of religion, but also says that the state “shall give Buddhism the foremost place and accordingly it shall be the duty of the state to protect and foster” the religion.

I blogged previously on Bary here.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 6 Comments »

A new science textbook controversy in the USA; from The Tennessean:

The father of a Knox County public school student wants the school board to get rid of a high school biology textbook that he calls biased against Christians.

…The Knoxville News Sentinel reported [Kurt] Zimmerman wants a change of textbooks because the honors biology course book used at Farragut High School describes creationism as a “biblical myth.” He is asking that what he termed non-biased textbooks be used.

…The newspaper reported Zimmerman’s documentation included a quotation from page 319 on which the authors describe creationism as “the biblical myth that the universe was created by the Judeo-Christian God in 7 days.”

Inevitably, Fox News is making a meal of it.

The textbook is entitled Asking about Life, by Allan Tobin and Jennie Dusheck. The above quote from the book is indeed quite misleading: Biblical literalists believe that the universe was created in six days, not seven. But from his complaints form, it seems that the school is still using the 2001 second edition; the 2005 third edition has corrected the point, now on page 299:

…In the 1970s and 1980s, antievolutionists in Arkanas, Tennessee, and Louisiana passed ididentical bills calling for “equal time” for teaching evolution and creationism, the biblical myth that the universe was created by the Judeo-Christian God in six days.

The quote forms part of a discussion of the historical controversy over evolution. But of course, six or seven days is not Zimmerman’s complaint; he objects that the book will “mislead, belittle and discourage students in believing in Creationism and pointedly calls the Bible a myth”, and he commends the school authorities to read a review by a certain Charles H Voss – by which he almost certainly means this 21-page document, which includes the following:

…The statement “…and creationism, the biblical myth that the universe was created by the Judeo-Christian God in 7 days” has not been proven. Such a statement is not science but an opinion of the textbook authors and reveals a decided bias. Such statements do not belong in a science textbook.

…The statement “But creation ‘science’ is not science” is very m isleading in that by context it implies that evolution is science. The truth is that neither the term “evolution” as commonly used or “creation science” is science. Neither can be tested, falsified or repeated because they are concerned about happenings in the past that no one person observed. A special definition of science must be formulated in order to assert that “evolution” is science unless it is broken down into its two parts as discussed in the next chapter and in the section on the next page labeled “What is evolution.” Any definition of science that can label the term “evolution” as commonly used as science will also include creationism a s science.

The author then goes on to expound the usual Creationist fare. Voss is a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Louisana State University, and he is vice-president of the Origins Resource Association. According to a second report:

Karen Carson, of the West Knox County 5th District, tried to find middle ground with an amendment that would have upheld the school committee’s recommendation but also offered to biology teachers a critical analysis of the textbook submitted by Zimmermann and written by Charles Voss… But Carson’s amendment satisfied no one, especially after she revised it to make it subject to review by school system science staff, and it failed on a 3-6 vote.

(Hat tips: Bulldada Newsblog; Media Matters for America; Little Green Footballs)

Filed under: Uncategorized | 8 Comments »

“Satanism, Witchcraft, Goth Culture (Vampirism), The Afro-Caribbean Religions and the crimes associated with them”

From Delmarva Now:

ACCOMAC — The Virginia Gang Investors Association will host a training seminar April 30 on the subject of “Occult and Ritual crimes” at the Accomac Elks Club.

The speaker will be Don Rimer, who has been involved in many high profile cases involving this subject matter.

Rimer will discuss several topics including, New case studies, Satanism, Witchcraft, Goth, Animal abuse, Fantasy role playing, Death/metal music, etc.

Actually, that should be the Virginia Gang Investigators Association; according to their website:

This presentation will encompass the speakers knowledge of several occult groups, specifically: Satanism, Witchcraft, Goth Culture (Vampirism), The Afro-Caribbean Religions and the crimes associated with them. While differences exist among these groups, it is the common denominators of homicide, suicide, self mutilation, grave robbery, animal abuse, blood/death metal music and fantasy role playing games. Examples of each of these, case studies and video interviews will be presented. The history of the occult will also be explored. The categories of generational, religious, self styled and teenage dabbler will be explained. Since the beginning of time every culture and society, has had a form of occulted belief. Satanism is centuries old, and like most pagan religious, predates Christianity. It survives and prospers because its mysterious and elaborate rite are filled with secrets, sins and sex.

The VGIA presided over by a former police officer who has been blessed with the wonderful name of Randy Crank. He has been running seminars for some time; in 2005 the AP reported that

The Gang Investigators Association, which holds about 10 rural seminars each year, has focused on MS-13 and the Bloods, who have been actively recruiting across the state, Crank said.
 
At the recent seminar, officials listened to rap music in the morning session and learned about Satanism that afternoon.

There were “70 law enforcement officers, juvenile justice employees and others” present. Crank also appears in a couple of Virginian-Pilot articles from the early 1990s that are pay-per-view; one bears the title “‘Yeah, I worship Satan’, Teen Tells Police“. He pops up again in the Newport Daily Press in 2000:

[Randy Crank] said it’s not unusual to have white suburban teens in a gang or group. He said that kids in street gangs, no matter what race, often came from broken homes – but that gang members also came from two-parent families. Gangs come in all forms, he said, from the street gang to upper-middle-class white teens who are into Gothic themes, witchcraft and Satanism.

But what of Don Rimer, the VIGA’s upcoming speaker? Kerr Cuhulain (H/T Jason Pitzl-Waters)  has the low-down:

In the summer of 2002 I became aware of a police officer going about lecturing the public and law enforcement on “occult crime”: Don Rimer. At that time Rimer was the Spokesperson and Media Relations officer for the Virginia Beach Police Department in Oklahoma. He is a member of the Oklahoma Gang Investigators Association (OGIA) . The OGIA web site (www.ogia.net) lists Rimer’s credentials as follows: “Don Rimer is… an inter-nationally recognized authority on ritual crime and the occult. He serves as both an Investigator and consultant to agencies throughout the United States. Since 1986, Mr. Rimer has spoken to more than one thousand schools, churches, civic groups and professional organizations. More recently, he served as a consultant to the Governor’s Task Force on Ritual Crime. In addition, he has contributed to or has been featured in numerous books, publications, and both national and worldwide television broadcasts. In 1999, He signed a contract with a major Hollywood motion picture company to produce a series of documentary films on the occult.”

…Jill Medicineheart, an Officers of Avalon member from Ohio, recalls attending one of Rimer’s seminars in 1992 or 1993. Jill reports that she and her ex-significant other wanted to check out Rimer as they understood that he would be speaking about how he thought that participating in Fantasy Role Playing Games leads to Satanism. Jill’s ex played D&D. Jill reports that 50% of the people in the room at the mental health center where the talk was held were “professionals”. Jill said that to her it was obvious that Rimer was a born-again Christian and a “crackpot”. Jill recalls that Rimer “thought that Dungeons and Dragons… lead people to the occult and Satanism”.

Rimer putports to be careful of the differences between Paganism and Satanism, but Cuhulain is sceptical. He also notes that Rimer has a bibliographic handout of resources, which includes several well-known bogus “Satanic survivor” fundamentalist paperbacks (of the sort I blogged here). Last year, his focus was on the “vampire lifestyle”. The website of trhe Oklahoma Gang Investigators Association promotes a document by Rimer entitled Ritual Crime & The Occult (the New Youth Subculture); here we learn that he is actually the Chaplain for the VGIA. It ends with the warning that “When You Ignore Evil, You May Become A Servant of Evil”.

Both the OGIA and the VGIA are part of a wider organisation called the National Alliance of Gang Investigators Association, based in Florida. According to this document, the president in 2007 was a certain Rusty Keeble, although the website of the Florida Gang Investigators Association suggests there has been a falling-out since then. Keeble runs a separate foundation.

(Hat tip: Bulldada Newsblog)

Filed under: Uncategorized | 7 Comments »