One of the strangest developments in the saga of Glen Jenvey occured last summer, when the former “terror tracker” announced his sudden conversion to fundamentalist Islam and was received into the religion by members of an Al-Muhajiroun front group. This came a few weeks after the Daily Mail had referenced him as someone who had been “accused by several newspapers of fabricating stories about Islamic extremism”.
Why did Jenvey convert? Although he later claimed that it had been an undercover research project, at the time it was clear to me that Jenvey was in a vulnerable state as regards his mental health. The Mail reference had left him very depressed, and he had in fact threatened suicide. Going over to the other side would re-confirm his importance, and the establishment which had turned its back on him would be sorry.
During this period, I had some private email discussion with Glen. I urged him towards moderation and away from Al-Muhajiroun, and asked him not to conflate the Israeli right-wing with Israelis or Jews in general. In short, I decided to deal with him honestly, in the hope that he could be pulled away from the brink.
However, someone else was also watching Glen’s conversion with interest – someone who, like Jenvey, had been monitoring and leaving messages on Muslim websites to find evidence of extremism. But while I was trying to get Jenvey to extricate himself from his new friends, this person was sharing personal information about him on-line in what seems to me to have been a malicious attempt to use his sexuality to put him in danger. And typically, this person remained in the shadows, recklessly playing games with an ill man in a dangerous situation while hiding his or her own identity. Step forward “Darkwind”, writing on Ummah.com:
Jenvey lives with a man?? Is this true?
As I’ve blogged previously, I’ve had communication with Ummah about IP addresses used to post bogus messages on-line here and elsewhere. For these efforts, I’ve been smeared by a couple of people as someone who “shares information with extremists”. I suspect that “Darkwind” is one of those who would like employ this argument to discourage investigation into evidence that he or she has been doing exactly that.
UPDATE: I belatedly note that prior to Darkwind’s post, the subject was introduced by someone using the name “Angel 1-5”:
right, and what does Glen’s boyfriend has to say about all this?
The same name was used to leave a comment on my in April 2009, and the author was obviously one of the cyber-bullies calling themselves “the Cheerleaders”.
UPDATE 2: I emailed Charlie Flowers to ask him whether he denies any association with Darkwind. In the past, Flowers and the “Cheerleaders” have sent me messages bragging about their antics, but this time there was no reply. Presumably he’s too ashamed to put his name to his actions.
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