Bartholomew's Notes

Lou Engle on the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill, as reported in the Christian Post:

The head of a Kansas City, Mo.-based ministry on Thursday issued a formal apology after discovering that the controversial Anti-Homosexuality Bill was promoted during his prayer event in Uganda.

“After returning home, I was told that the Bill had been clearly promoted after I left the meeting,” said Lou Engle of TheCall. “I apologize that this took place and that my stated purpose of not promoting the Bill was compromised. I take responsibility for what was done on the stage of TheCall, even in my absence.”

…According to his statement Thursday, Engle explained that he met with Christian leaders in Uganda and found “not one” of them to be “carrying even an ounce of hatred for homosexuals.”

“They actually desired to influence the lawmakers in Uganda to lessen the penalties,” he said. “However, they were committed to raise up a principled stand to protect their people and their children from an unwelcome intrusion of homosexual ideology into an 83 percent Christian nation.”

“I appealed to them that in all their labor and their stand they express the mercy of Christ to broken people, but I also stood with them in their desire to not succumb to the political ideological pressures of the West and many of the voices of the Western Church that have come strongly against them,” he added.

I blogged on Engle’s prayer event here;  Michael Wilkerson at Religion Dispatches was present and his report prompted Engle’s statement.

Lou Engle on the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill, as reported by Bishop Julius Oyet and David Bahati in conversation with Jeff Sharlet:

Both Oyet and Bahati told me that Engle had explicitly expressed his support for the bill, telling them that he had to lie to the Western media because gays control it. They said he said one thing to the BBC and then walked over to Bahati and said that he really supported the bill. Either Engle isn’t telling the whole truth, or Oyet and Bahati aren’t. I tend to believe Bahati here, since Engle didn’t mean anything to him until he met him that day. He hadn’t heard of him and decided to attend the rally only after I’d told him a few things about Engle. In other words, he left the rally thrilled with Engle based on that encounter with Engle alone. Clearly, Engle did something to please him.

Also:

…Here’s Oyet on the death penalty: “There is not the death penalty at the end for everybody. There is the death penalty at the end for aggravated homosexuality.” He explained that the death penalty already applies for four crimes in Uganda (child rape, treason, murder, and causing death by female genital mutilation) “So I want the world to understand,” Oyet continued “that homosexuality is not the first death penalty in Uganda. I think that U.S. journalists should make that known. It is not the first one, it is going to be the fifth one.”

…”If the Bible supports the death penalty which is true and then you call yourself a Christian nation, listen. If I would be killed because I am dying scripturally I can repent to God before I am killed but [if] I am [eliminated] from the Earth that’s ok… if the victim confesses or repents, we can waive it off. Something like that…. In my view, homosexuals should be grateful. But instead they are not. Why I’m saying they should be grateful is because in Ugandan culture if you go and rob someone, if you go and rape a child and people find you, they will kill you.”

For more background on Oyet, see here. Oyet is correct that “aggravated homosexuality” refers to repeat “offences” between consenting adults, although the Bill’s supporters have usually sought to downplay this point, which becomes apparent only when several passages in the Bill are cross-referenced.

Engle’s claim that he could not find a pastor with “even an ounce of hatred for homosexuals” is risible; many people have now seen the video of Martin Ssempa’s notorious presentation on the subject in a church in February, in which he deliberately conflated homosexuality with coprophilia (the video has since formed the basis for a number of satirical music remixes).

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Pamela Geller has posted a warning to the Washington Post, in response to a critical article by Michelle Boorstein entitled “How Influential will Anti-Muslim Groups Become?“:

I am not anti-Muslim.
I love Muslims. I am pro-freedom and anti-islamic supremacism.
Stop the slander and defamation. It’s an incitement to violence.
Do it again and I am going to sue you.
Yours in liberty,
Pamela Geller
Atlas Shrugs
SIOA
FDI

I’d like to see how that would play out in court. It’s true that her associate Robert Spencer talks of “Muslims of conscience” (albeit while simultaneously sneering at the idea of moderate Muslims by sarcastically calling extremists “misunderstanders of Islam”), and that she has promoted an organisation called “Muslims Against Shariah”. It’s also the case that the groups with which she is involved tend to support reformists in Iran, which disgusts those further to the right; Debbie Schlussel, for instance, recently attacked Geller on this point as part of a denunciation of HBO for a documentary about Neda Agha-Soltan (“I don’t mourn her one bit”, sniffed Schlussel, refering to the murdered Iranian).

However, while Geller’s complaints against the “Ground Zero mosque” referenced the supposed secret extremism of those behind the project, her rhetoric has made it quite clear that any sort of mosque close to the site would be unacceptable, on account of the character of Islam per se – not because of “Islamic supremicism”:

“The only Muslim center that should be built in the shadow of the World Trade Center is one that is devoted to expunging the Quran and all Islamic teachings of the violent jihad that they prescribe, as well as all hateful texts and incitement to violence”.

As I noted a few days ago, this isn’t a statement made in good faith: a Muslim center with an “expunged” Quran makes about as much sense as a church with the anti-Jewish parts of the New Testament expunged or a synagogue with the more sanguinary passages of the Torah expunged – ancient religious texts may be re-interpreted or contextualised in ways that make them more amenable to the modern world, but they are seldom repudiated by adherents. And Geller didn’t write “Islamic center” – she wrote “Muslim center”.

And as for the whine about “incitement to violence”, this shows Geller to be someone who can dish out the most inflammatory abusive but not take any of the same treatment. In Geller’s world, critics of Israel are (inevitably) Nazis, and anyone who raises concerns about the Rifqa Bary media circus must be in favour of honour-killings.

(Correction: I originally wrote that Boorstein was with Newsweek rather than the Washington Post)

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Walid Shoebat’s handler Keith Davies announces a new event for November: the Fort Hood Memorial Convention:

The one-day convention will be held in Killeen just a mile or so from the Ft Hood base. It will comprise of former Military leaders, experts in the field of Islamic terror and two former terrorists including Walid Shoebat.

…You can purchase tickets which are only $25.00 each by calling 1 877 832 7200. For those that can sell or purchase to resell 50 tickets… they will receive a free dinner in which they will personally meet all the speakers who include Lt General William Gerry Boykin Retired., former head of Military intelligence and commander of Delta Force, Major Stephen Coughlin former analyst with the Pentagon and expert on Islam who was fired for telling the truth, Robert Spencer best selling author and expert on Islam, Walid Shoebat former Islamic terrorist best selling author and pro Israel/America activist and Kamal Saleem former Islamic terrorist best selling author and activist.

Further:

In July we have lined up meetings with 56 churches in the Killeen area who have all expressed an interest as well as at least 6 churches who have already volunteered to be actively helping us with the event – both within their church and in the community. The combined attendance of the 6 churches is over 4000 people and of the 56 churches their membership is over 20,000.

…Tickets are only $25.00 and VIP tickets which include a buffet dinner, preferred seating as well as meeting the speakers personally are $100 per VIP ticket. All purchases are regarded as donations and are tax deductible. If you purchase 50 tickets you will receive 48 tickets and two VIP tickets; You will only pay regular price of $25 for the VIP tickets.

….Our organization is determined to speak the truth loud and clear in our nation. You can help us by attending, or if you cannot then a donation will be greatly appreciated as we expect to run over budget by at least $15,000 without extra donations. We have made the tickets as cheap as possible so everyone including lower income people can attend who wish to.

The event is being organised by the Forum for Middle East Understanding, which describes Shoebat – risibly – as a “world-reknown [sic] speaker”. I provided some background to the forum here; it was set up as a non-profit for donations to the Walid Shoebat Foundation.

Shoebat, as I have written about on numerous occasions, has three shticks: (1) going on about his supposed past as Jew-hating Palestinian terrorist and Islamic extremist (one would have thought this had been milked to death by now); (2) using his past to pose as an expert on all things Muslim (such as his Obama conspiracy-mongering here); and (3) using his Arabic background to promote a bizarre re-interpretation of the Book of Revelation which purports to prove that the Bible predicts a Muslim Anti-Christ (a subject I looked at here).

Boykin, meanwhile, is well-known for the controversy around the intersection between his public role and his religious beliefs. He is now a regular speaker at this kind if event, and  in 2008 I noted his presence at a Christian Zionist conference in Jerusalem where he plugged an old apocalyptic paperback called Armageddon, Oil, and Terror.

As for Coughlin, Fox reported in early 2008 that:

Stephen Coughlin was fired after a confrontation with one of the deputy defense secretary’s aides, which ended with Coughlin being called, “a Christian zealot with a pen.”

Apparently sharing a platform with someone who promotes the theory of a “Muslim Anti-Christ” is good way to correct that misapprehension.

It is doubtful that Robert Spencer believes such nonsense, but he sees Christian fundamentalists as useful allies, and he has endorsed a  book promoting the “Muslim Anti-Christ” theory.

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Patrick Mercer MP in The Sun:

TALIBAN fighters are burying dirty needles with their bombs in a bid to infect British troops with HIV, The Sun can reveal.

Hypodermic syringes are hidden below the surface pointing upwards to prick bomb squad experts as they hunt for devices.

…The tactic, used in the Afghan badlands of Helmand, was exposed by Tory MP and ex-Army officer Patrick Mercer.

Senior backbencher Mr Mercer said yesterday: “Are there no depths to which these people will stoop? This is the definition of a dirty war.”

Patrick Mercer MP talking to Stars and Stripes’ “Rumor Doctor” Jeff Schogol, in the wake of the above (emphasis added):

Mercer said he learned about these devices from British bomb disposal technicians training ahead of their deployment to Afghanistan. The technicians have been issued Kevlar gloves to counter the threat.

He could not say for certain whether the Taliban have used these devices.

“That wasn’t a question I asked directly, but I got the impression that these are certainly being employed by the Taliban, al-Qaida, etc.,” he said. “I’m not aware of any injuries that have been caused by it so far.”

Schogol adds that neither the International Security Forces-Afghanistan nor the Joint IED Defeat Organization have heard anything about it, and he concludes that it

Sounds more like an enemy propaganda campaign than a widespread new tactic.

I doubt it’s even that. More likely, Kevlar gloves are being issued as a general precaution, someone at Mercer’s office noticed that such gloves are advertised as giving “the wearer the added protection from infected hypodermic needles, knife and razorblade wounds”, and this was seen as a chance to publicise a Mercer soundbite.

The Daily Mail has also reported Mercer’s “exposure”, adding a quote from someone on the front-line:

Lieutenant Colonel David Southall, Commanding Officer of the Counter-IED Task Force said: ‘Improvised explosive devices remain a tactic of desperation and last resort.

‘The Taliban know they can’t take us on and win in a conventional toe-to-toe fight – whilst they resort to some pretty despicable IED emplacement tactics, my IED operators, now drawn from all across the three services, are well equipped and up for the fight.’

Presumably Southall was unable to confirm any instances of needles being planted – otherwise he would surely have given the details.

Back in February, Mercer endorsed a “bombs in breast implants” story, which again was not supported by an actual evidence and which appeared to have begun life as a columnist’s conjecture. And before that, of course, he regularly passed material provided by self-styled “terror-expert” Glen Jenvey to tabloids, even after a Jenvey-sourced story was found to have been bogus. Mercer also promoted the  now-defunct “VIGIL Network”, which was run by Dominic Wightman, and with which the cyber-bully Charlie Flowers was also involved.

There’s no argument about how awful the Taliban are, and the needle story may indeed be true (although unlikely to be effective in spreading HIV) – but given the many instances of unsourced scare-stories turning out to have been untrue, we really need more than just one person’s word for it. Especially when that person is Patrick Mercer, who, although I am sure is a honest person, appears to be completely lacking in discernment – and unwilling to take full responsbility for the consequences of his poor judgement.

(H/T: The Sun – Tabloid Lies)

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Right Wing News has an article about the two Egpytian Christian journalists who were mistaken for Muslims and abused at Sunday’s anti-mosque protest in New York; the author spoke to one of the two men, Joseph Nassralla:

Right off the bat, I asked him if the description of the incident given by North Jersey.com was accurate.

Regrettably, he said that it was. He said that they were talking to people back at the studio in Arabic, some people in the crowd overheard, thought they were Muslim infiltrators who were there to disrupt the event, and became increasingly hostile despite their attempts to explain. At one point, Joseph Nassralla told me he was shoved and his camera was knocked out of his hand. He said he was worried that things might have really gotten out of hand if the police hadn’t escorted him and Karam El Masry away.

However:

Mr. Nassralla seemed mainly to be chagrinned that there had been such a misunderstanding. He also noted that after hearing about the incident, Robert Spencer personally phoned him to apologize for what had happened.

…[Pamela Geller] told me that she was surprised that there had been problem and noted that there were other Coptic Christians at the rally and even a few Muslims and none of them had any problems.

…I also informed Pamela about my conversation with Joseph Nassralla and his affirmative response to my question about speaking at the next rally against the Ground Zero mosque. Her response?

“I would absolutely love to have him speak at the next protest.”

There are also a couple of videos, showing the police intervention and impromptu speeches by Nassralla and other Coptic Christians. They complain bitterly of persecution in Egypt, and warn that Muslims in the USA are planning to take over the country. Nassralla also denounces Obama and the government because they “want God out”, and he calls on Muslims to accept Jesus. He also tells us that he spent three months in prison in Egypt, that he came to the USA the day before 9/11, and that there is a $2 million price on his neck.

It should always be remembered that however distasteful, corrosive, and obviously self-serving that Geller and co’s hate-mongering might be, it wouldn’t get much of a hearing without the very real represssion that currently exists across the Muslim world.

Nassralla’s “The Way” satellite channel has a website here;  its schedule includes Coptic Orthodox programmes, but also shows featuring ex-Muslim converts to Christianity, who are more likely to be Protestant (those featured include the polemicist Nonie Darwish, whom I blogged in passing here). It seems that the “The Way” is part of a wider organisation run by Nasralla, called “Media for Christ“. There is also a YouTube channel here, and a Facebook page here.

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Apparently this was said with a straight face at Sunday’s anti-mosque protest in New York:

“We’re not here today to condemn Muslims or Islam” said Pamela Geller, executive director of ‘Stop the Islamization of America’, “but we are here today to condemn the kind of mosque that will teach the very same radical ideology that gave birth to the 9/11 attacks…”

As has been widely reported, Geller was speaking at a protest against plans to build a mosque and Muslim community centre a couple of blocks away from the site of World Trade Center. A few days before, Geller had thundered that

“The only Muslim center that should be built in the shadow of the World Trade Center is one that is devoted to expunging the Quran and all Islamic teachings of the violent jihad that they prescribe, as well as all hateful texts and incitement to violence”

Of course, this isn’t a statement made in good faith: a Muslim center with an “expunged” Quran makes about as much sense as a church with the anti-Jewish parts of the New Testament expunged or a synagogue with the more sanguinary passages of the Torah expunged – ancient religious texts may be re-interpreted or contextualised in ways that make them more amenable to the modern world, but they are seldom repudiated by adherents.

Some background to the Cordoba House Muslim centre project was provided by the WSJ‘s Metropolis blog in May:

The project is driven in part by the needs of a growing Muslim population in Lower Manhattan. The nearest existing Islamic prayer space, the Tribeca Mosque, has been holding three evening prayer services on Fridays to keep up with demand.

“New immigrants coming to the area — you see a lot of people coming to Canal Street, a lot of street vendors and laborers,” says Daisy Kahn, executive director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement. “But also a lot of people in the financial community coming to prayers as well.”

When Kahn’s organization found a vacant property on Park Place, the former site of a Burlington Coat Factory that had been damaged by airplane debris on September 11, 2001, the potent symbolism of the site also became a compelling rationale for the project. “We decided we wanted to look at the legacy of 9/11 and do something positive,” she explained in an interview. Her group represents moderate Muslims who want “to reverse to trend of extremism and the kind of ideology that the extremists are spreading.”

For Geller and her Stop Islamization of America organization (currently on a roll following the “Leaving Islam?” bus-ad controversy), this is all a ruse – the purpose of the mosque is to gloat over the site of the World Trade Center and to establish Muslim supremacy over America; as reported by the London Times:

“What could be more insulting and humiliating than a monster mosque in the shadow of the World Trade Centre buildings that were brought down by an Islamic jihad attack?” said Pamela Geller, the group’s director. “Any decent American, Muslim or otherwise, wouldn’t dream of such an insult. It’s a stab in the eye of America.”

Ms Geller’s group said that Islam had a history of building mosques on top of the holy places of other religions as a symbol of Muslim dominance. It cited al-Aqsa Mosque on top of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Ayasofya Mosque in the former Hagia Sophia basilica in Istanbul, and the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus atop what was once the Church of St John the Baptist.

The Times refered to an “anti-Muslim backlash”, which Geller objected to as a “lie” (Geller’s ally Robert Spencer does occasionally refer positively to “Muslims of conscience”, but how exactly they are to be defined is unclear).

Khan’s quote – slightly re-edited – has also been turned against her in a press release:

Daisy Khan has trivialized and insulted the memories of the victims of the 9/11 jihad attacks by saying that the mosque is intended to “make something positive out of 9/11.”

We’re also told that

…Ground Zero mosque Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is an open proponent of Sharia, Islamic law, a system that denies the freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience, and the equality of rights of all people before the law.

Abdul Rauf has said that “an Islamic state can be established in more then just a single form or mold. It can be established through a kingdom or a democracy. The important issue is to establish the general fundamentals of Shariah that are required to govern.” Thus it is clear that this mosque will teach Sharia, Islamic supremacism, and the denial of basic rights.

Abdul Rauf and other mosque organizers have been inconsistent and deceptive about whether their planned Islamic Center at Ground Zero will contain a mosque; ultimately they have admitted that it will. Belying his claim that this mosque will become a place for interreligious harmony, he has told the Arabic press: “I don’t believe in religious dialogue.”

This information was provided by Walid Shoebat (who was not at the protest himself);  it seems he’s realised that he needs to come up with some new material if he’s going to keep his profile up. However, even Shoebat’s article puts the “religious dialogue” comment into some context; in his translation, it refers to:

Religious dialogue as customarily understood is a set of events with discussions in large hotels that result in nothing.

From the Google translation of Shoebat’s source, it appears that Rauf goes on to praise American diversity and to criticise Egypt. But whether Rauf is secretly an extremist is hardly the main point – it is clear that SIOA objects to any mosque in principle.

The protest itself brought together the usual “anti-jihad” activists, along with a few 9/11 rescue workers and bereaved family members – Geller has posted a number of speeches. The event also gave a politician named Jay Townsend an opportunity to grandstand, and there was an attack on Obama from a certain Bev Carlson, who insisted that America is a “Christian nation”.

The size of the rally has been disputed; a journalist named Mike Kelly puts the figure at 500, Geller herself has declared there were 8,000, while WorldNetDaily rounds the number up to 10,000. Sentiments expressed on some of the protest signs made further mockery of Geller’s claim that “we are not here today to condemn Muslims or Islam”, and Kelly notes one telling incident:

At one point, a portion of the crowd menacingly surrounded two Egyptian men who were speaking Arabic and were thought to be Muslims.

“Go home,” several shouted from the crowd.

“Get out,” others shouted.

In fact, the two men – Joseph Nassralla and Karam El Masry — were not Muslims at all. They turned out to be Egyptian Coptic Christians who work for a California-based Christian satellite TV station called “The Way.” Both said they had come to protest the mosque.

“I’m a Christian,” Nassralla shouted to the crowd, his eyes bulging and beads of sweat rolling down his face.

But it was no use. The protesters had become so angry at what they thought were Muslims that New York City police officers had to rush in and pull Nassralla and El Masry to safety.

“I flew nine hours in an airplane to come here,” a frustrated Nassralla said afterward.

[UPDATE: More on this incident here]

Ahead of the protest, there were various objections, ranging from some Muslim criticisms of the project through to the most vitriolic spewing. As was widely reported, a Texas radio host named Michael Berry expressed the hope that the mosque would be bombed, and his excess was matched by the Tea Party leader Mark Williams, who denounced the Manhattan Borough President, Scott Stringer, as “a Jewish Uncle Tom who would have turned rat on Anne Frank” because he supports the project. Across the Atlantic, atheist comedian Pat Condell fired off another of his hectoring (and curiously joke-free) rants, insisting (I paraphrase) that the mosque was obviously being built to celebrate 9/11 and as part of a strategy to take over the USA, that Islam ought to be suppressed as a political ideology akin to Nazism, and that anyone who can’t see this is a fool (Condell objects to religion in general as being authoritarian and supported by people who are self-righteous).

The Forward carried a thoughtful editorial on the subject a few weeks ago. While backing the project, it notes that

Some families of those who perished on September 11, 2001, have displayed great courage by supporting the proposal to create a 13-story hub for Muslim religious and cultural life, two blocks north of where the twin towers stood. But other families have not and — unlike some of the bigots who oppose the project for unjustifiable reasons — their qualms and resistance need to be respected.

But with so much overheated rhetoric on the subject, it is difficult to see how the project organisers could make any revisions to their plans without opponents trumpeting alterations as climb-downs that supposedly prove extremist intent.

Meanwhile, Geller’s motives have been derided by her equally-unpleasant rival “anti-jihadist” Debbie Schlussel; she dismisses the protest as “a cleverly designed PR vehicle”, and claims that Geller is expressing

…faux-outrage in a “battle” that we already know won’t be won.  It’s already lost.  They have the property.  Move on to something we can win, not a… attention-whore trick, just weeks before her book is about to be released and needs to earn back a bloated advance.  If you think it’s anything other than this, you are a malleable tool, easily manipulated and not of much substance.

Schlussel, who has been in a feud with Geller for some time, also makes reference to the p0lice investigation into Geller’s ex-husband’s business affairs (I noted Geller’s book – which has a Foreword by John Bolton – here).

(Some links H/T Loonwatch)

UPDATE: Ed Brayton has some fun with one detail:

Geller added, “There is a large piece of an airplane in that building. That is a war memorial”… That’s funny, there were pieces of airplane and debris in pretty much every building for many blocks in every direction after 9/11. And yet the only one she demands be made into a museum is the one owned by Muslims.

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Paul Ray has posted a series of messages to his Lionheart blog, in which he and his friend Nick Greger announce their intention to take control of the English Defence League. Ray was the original mover in creating the EDL, although he quickly fell out with the other leaders and moved to Malta. Aside from a rumour that he was involved with the anti-mosque protest in Dudley, he has not apparently played any active part in the EDL’s various events, and he and Greger have instead focused their efforts on making Crusader-themed anti-Muslim promotional videos (1). He styles himself as the EDL’s “spiritual leader” and “Grandmaster“, and he and Greger have just issued an “expulsion” of the EDL’s leaders, along with a demand for control of the EDL’s websites.

Greger, wearing an IDF t-shirt, explains that direct control of the EDL in England is now in the hands of a certain “Deano Saint-Church” (see here at 6:30, not sure if that is the correct spelling or pronounciation), and he also tells us that (here at 1:44)

another well-known man will soon appear within the new leadership, a man from Ulster, who is also currently in exile…

This is almost certainly a reference to his friend Johnny Adair, a prominent Loyalist ex-terrorist who now lives in Scotland following an intra-loyalist feud. Adair’s friendship with Greger was the subject of a Donal Macintyre documentary in 2006, and Ray has also written positively about him. In his new videos, Ray makes the unlikely suggestion that  “IRA sympathisers” (here at 6:08) are leading the EDL, pointing out that “Tommy Robinson” is of “Irish Catholic descent”. Ray explains that he has no problem with the IRA, since the war is over, but he calls on “IRA godfathers in Luton to pull their people into check”.

Back in March I noted reports that the EDL had expressed an interest in taking part in the marching season in Northern Ireland, but that this had been “met by howls of derision from loyalists”.

Ray also makes various serious allegations against named EDL leaders, one of whom he accuses of threatening to set fire to his mother’s house, and another of allegedly promising to put Ray in “a wheelchair”. He also claims that there is “a price” on his head. As expected, there is also particular animus against Chris Renton, who has apparently left the EDL anyway.

(Hat tip: One Million United)

****

(1) Most recently this one, which includes a reference to Eugene Terreblanche at 4:16; some sort of Serbian militia at 6:40; Jobbik at 7:43; and various shots of Charles Taylor.

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Once again, from WorldNetDaily:

A council of rabbis in Israel says their nation’s conflict with Turkey over a flotilla of “aid” ships headed for the blockaded Gaza Strip controlled by the terrorist Hamas organization just may be the beginning of the “Gog and Magog process where the world is against us, but which ends with the third and final redemption.”

The announcement comes today from the Rabbinical Council of Judea and Samaria, whose statement was reported by Israel National News.

WND columnist Greg Laurie just months ago explained the biblical reference to Gog and Magog, in the book of Ezekiel, as a prophecy that a “large force,” will attack Israel from the north.

“We don’t know why or exactly when this will take place. But this much I know: There is a lot going on in our current headlines that leads me to believe it could happen at any time,” he wrote then, at the end of 2009.

…According to the INN, the council stated, “the legitimacy of our people is not derived from the nations of the world and their poisonous traditions, rather from the Torah of Israel which teaches us that [Israel] ‘is a people that shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.'”

The council, which was assembled by Rabbi Zalman Melamed of Beit El and is supported by religious Zionist rabbis in the regions of Samaria and Judea, included a blessing for soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces.

Also enthusing over the rabbis’ statement is Christian Zionist Joel C. Rosenberg (previously blogged by me here), although he also hedges his bets:

There is growing interest in the Ezekiel prophecies and whether they could play out in our lifetime. I believe it is still too early to say anything definitively. But I agree that current events are strikingly consistent with the prophecies and I believe it is possible that we could see these events unfold soon. The mention of “Gomer” in Ezekiel, for example, refers to the modern-day State of Turkey which will be an enemy of Israel and part of a Russian-Iranian alliance against the Jewish state. I’m not saying the prophecy will necessarily come to pass soon, but I can’t rule out that possibility. We’ve never seen a convergence of geopolitical and spiritual events so consistent with Ezekiel 38-39 in history like we are seeing today. We need to be prayerful, sober, alert and prepared.

The Biblical exegesis here is as foolish as ever: there is nothing in Ezekiel to suggest that the author knew anything about “the modern-day State of Turkey”, and “Gomer” in fact probably refers to the Cimmerians, who lived in the area now occupied by Ukraine and Russia. In reality, the Cimmerians fizzled out rather than leading an apocalyptic attack on ancient Israel, but US rivalry with Russia has unsurprisingly meant that American Biblical literalists have been keen to read modern Russia into the text. Recent conflict with the Islamic world has shifted “Gomer” a bit further south, just as the predicted Anti-Christ has gone from being a European to being a Muslim leader.

A Jewish blog called Mystical Paths adds a graphic to explain the apocalyptic dimension to the flotilla raid and its political fallout, noting that Turkey is a member of NATO:

Yechezkel (Ezekiel) 38 lists the nations that will join Gog’s coalition to come to Israel and to divide Jerusalem…

‘Persia, Cush, Put, will be with them, …Gomer and all her cohorts, Bet Togarmah in the north and the many peoples.’ How’s NATO align with this?  (Perhaps) Gomer and all her cohorts and Bet Togarmah in the north.

Of course, this kind of thing comes around every time there is increased political tension involving Israel; the 2006 conflict in Lebanon prompted a similar outburst, as I blogged here. And Melamed has been pronouncing on a final “redemption” for Israel supposedly unfolding through current events for years – apparently he was at it at the start of the original Intifada (1).

(1) See Aviezer Ravitzky (1993) , Messianism, Zionism, and Jewish Religious Radicalism, p. 144

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Blogger Junipus in the Desert reports from Wednesday’s Zionist Federation rally in support of Israel, which took place outside the Israeli embassy in central London as a response to the Gaza flotilla raid:

There were about 2000 of us, including the EDL, JewishEDL set up by the wondrous Joe Bloggs who set up the LGBT EDL.

Th EDL had reportedly previously announced its intention to join the rally, although there is not much information about how many showed up or what part they played; Tony Greenstein, who was part of a pro-Palestinian counter-protest nearby, alleges that at least one steward was EDL, but other than “Junipus” those who took part in the rally itself have been keen to stress that the EDL was not involved. The BBC reports:

Organisers of the pro-Israel protest said they had made it clear that the EDL, who have been accused of Islamophobia, were not welcome but that a separate space had been reserved for them.

Jonathan Hoffman of the Zionist Federation writes on his own blog at the Jewish Chronicle that

There may have been EDL members in the vicinity but to my knowledge there were none with the ZF in the area enclosed by barriers…. The BNP and EDL have known links. The ZF will have nothing to do with either organisation.

The Jewish Chronicle tells us that

Rumours that the English Defence League were planning to attend the demonstration appeared to be unfounded. One EDL member was spotted by protesters on the other side of the street but he did not join the throng.

The JC also has an article with further details of the “EDL Jewish division”, noting that

The former CST member, Mark Israel, claimed Jews should back the EDL as an alternative to existing community groups.

However,

Mark Gardner, CST communications director, said: “The EDL intimidate entire Muslim communities, causing tension and fear. Jews ought to remember that we have long experience of being on the receiving end of this kind of bigotry.”

Jon Benjamin, Board of Deputies chief executive, said: “The EDL’s supposed ‘support’ for Israel is empty and duplicitous. It is built on a foundation of Islamophobia and hatred which we reject entirely…”

The “English Defence League Jewish Division” has a Facebook page here. Last year, the EDL website had a hyperlink to the Kahanist “Jewish Defense League” in the USA, although this was taken down shortly after I wrote a blog entry about it.

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Staying with WorldNetDaily, Joseph Farah has turned theologian. Here he is expounding on the parable of the virgins in Matthew 25:

For Christians, the marriage feast represents redemption with Yeshua, our Messiah and Savior. The oil is the Holy Spirit, who provides believers with discernment about biblical truth. The virgins – both wise and foolish – represent the church.

 …Just as there are in this story, there are a lot of foolish virgins in the church today – superficial believers who are not utilizing the discerning spirit God provides us to understand and interpret His Word.

Here’s proof: The most popular book in so-called “Christian” bookstores over the last two or three years is one called “The Shack,” a paperback novel by Paul Young that represents unmitigated heresy in its view of salvation, an anti-biblical portrait of the Creator of the universe as our buddy and a thoroughly paganistic message that there really are no consequences for sin.

What humbug – if Farah is believed in “consequences for sin”, surely he’d be terrified of how he’s going to explain to God why WND publishes so many lies? The use of “Yeshua” is a silly affectaton, too, since Farah is not a Messianic Jew – however, there is an increasing evangelical appropriation of Jewish expression, for reasons I explore here.

As ever, Farah’s pious pose is an attempt to flog books:

…I jumped at the opportunity to publish an enlightened critique of the this dangerous and spiritually subversive book called “Burning Down ‘The Shack: How the ‘Christian’ Bestseller Is Deceiving Millions,'” by James De Young.

It officially releases tomorrow, but you can get it right now, autographed by the author, at the WND Superstore.

De Young brings some important credentials to the project. He is professor of New Testament Language and Literature at Western Seminary, Portland, Ore., where he has taught for 34 years. He has served as chairman of the hermeneutics section within the Evangelical Theological Society. And he’s also personally well-acquainted with Young, the author of “The Shack,” having been part of a small-group Bible study with him for years prior to the latter’s break with orthodoxy.

…I think I can safely say that no “Christian” publisher would touch “Burning Down ‘The Shack'” because it might disrupt the profit stream. Opposition to this thoughtful and enlightening and scrupulously documented book has been vehement – not from the secular world, mind you, but from within those who consider themselves part of the Body of Christ!

A second article has further attacks on The Shack:

Yet it is infused with counterfeit Christianity, argues “Burning Down ‘The Shack’: How the ‘Christian’ Best-seller is Deceiving Millions,” a new title from WND Books that publishes June 1.

Worse, says author James De Young, its depiction of God as an African woman who suffered Christ’s crucifixion – and the book’s exclusion of any existence of Satan and hell – represent just some of its many dangerous deceptions.

“‘The Shack’ presents a depiction of God that changes, ‘the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man,'” said Joseph Farah, publisher and CEO of WND Books, citing Romans 1:23. “But Paul Young also offers a warped portrayal of the Trinity, denies the supreme divinity of Jesus Christ, diminishes the realities of sin without redemption and shrugs off damnation.

“Christian leaders can no longer countenance this cancerous manipulation,” continued Farah. “I’m heartened that Jim De Young is exposing and opposing it.”

Controversy over Young’s book has actually been going on for some time. Farah has picked up the baton from one his columnists, Jim Fletcher, who has attacked the book as part of a wider Jeremiad against the Christian publishing industry, tinged with some conspiracy theory:

 Not surprisingly, actress Demi Moore has “tweeted” her enthusiasm for William Young’s “The Shack.” On her Twitter account, Moore said she’d “definitely recommend” the “life-changing” novel, and fellow intellectual/husband Ashton Kutcher commented that the book sounded like a “must-read.”

…For the record, I am not a fan of “The Shack,” and feel it is a significant boost to the multi-cultural, pluralistic effort to change America once and for all. Young appears to be an amiable chap, and history will one day record whether that persona is real or simply employed by a skillful change agent.

In purely book promotion terms, however, Moore’s endorsement is the kind sought by all authors and their publishers. One is reminded of Amy Grant’s concert endorsement of a novel by a fledgling writer two decades ago. When the Christian music icon recommended Frank Peretti’s “This Present Darkness,” it launched his career.

…More signs of the destruction of American evangelicalism: The Evangelical Press Association recently announced award winners for 2009. Among the publications cited were Sojourners (winner in the General category) and Charles Stanley’s “In Touch” for the devotional category…Sojourners is a periodical loaded with raging liberalism, helmed by Jim Wallis, who cleverly labels himself an “evangelical,” just like his buddy Brian McLaren.

Fletcher also complains:

One of the problems conservative Christians have with “The Shack” is the portrayal of God.

At one point, the (okay, I’ll say it) Oprah-esque figure says to Mack, “Don’t just stand there gawkin’ with your mouth open like your pants are full.”

That kind of dialogue and imagery just doesn’t square with our understanding of God from Scripture.

Of course, many don’t have a problem with that.

Others of us do, however, and the portrayal of God is one of the reasons I urge readers to be very cautious with “The Shack.”

Farah and Fletcher see trends in modern evangelicalism as insufficently conservative – as I’ve blogged previously, Farah harbours a deep hatred of Rick Warren.

The Shack is published in the USA by Windblown Media and in the UK by Hodder & Stoughton (both are Hachette imprints). The Windblown website has a page responding to various theological criticisms. The American edition carries a number of blurbs, including one from Eugene Peterson.

One wonders why De Young has chosen WND Books as the outlet for his apparently serious critique, since the WND website is better-known for promoting crank theories about the Bible. These include support for a book rehashing Pyramidology, entitled The Nephilim and the Pyramid of the Apocalypse; the suggestion that the Bible predicts a Muslim anti-Christ; the suggestion that Jesus named Satan as “Barack Obama”; and a bizarre foray into Biblical astrology.

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