Bartholomew's Notes

An interesting article in the Journal of Medieval History, by Catherine Lawless:

This article will examine an unusual legend contained in Florentine fifteenth-century manuscripts concerning St Ismeria, the ‘grandmother’ of the Virgin. Unlike more well-known versions of the Holy Kinship of Christ, where Ismeria is described as the sister of St Anne and grandmother of St John the Baptist, in this legend she is instead firmly described as St Anne’s mother and thus the grandmother of the Virgin and the great-grandmother of Christ. Most of the legend is concerned with Ismeria’s life of penitential piety as a wife and widow and has little in common with standard legends of the Virgin or of St Anne, but has strong resonances within the world of late medieval Florentine piety and the type of ‘new’ sanctity defined by Vauchez, where sanctity is earned by a life of penitence rather than with blood martyrdom. The contents of the codices which house the legends are typical of medieval vernacular writings and contain more traditional lives of the Virgin and accounts of the Holy Kinship. The way in which these legends lay side by side with such contradictory material suggests a fluidity in the way holy narratives were accepted.

For Discovery News (associated with the Discovery Channel), this becomes:

JESUS’ GREAT-GRANDMOTHER IDENTIFIED

The great-grandmother of Jesus was a woman named Ismeria, according to Florentine medieval manuscripts analyzed by a historian.

The legend of St. Ismeria, presented in the current Journal of Medieval History, sheds light on both the Biblical Virgin Mary’s family and also on religious and cultural values of 14th-century Florence.

…Lawless studied the St. Ismeria story, which she said has been “ignored by scholars,” in two manuscripts: the 14th century “MS Panciatichiano 40” of Florence’s National Central Library and the 15th century “MS 1052” of the Riccardiana Library, also in Florence.

This is a risible misinterpretation of the article: Lawless put quotation marks around the word “grandmother” for a reason, and no-where does she claim that the legend might have any basis in historical reality. And while this Florentine variation on the story may have been “ignored by scholars”, the sources are known: Google Books brings up other references for both the  “MS Panciatichiano 40” and for “MS 1052” in the Biblioteca Riccardiana.

“Ismeria” is also sometimes given as “Emeria”, “Esmeria”, “Hesmeria”, or “Hismeria”.

(H/T Robert Cargill and Jim West)

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Here’s an item of interest from October:

The 5th Annual Homeland Security Professionals Conference & Expo in Las Vegas, hosted by The Counter Terrorist Magazine, was a complete success. “At a time when there is increasing evidence of home-grown terrorism and viable bombs being sent from Yemen, we were extremely proud that it felt like ‘it was the counter terrorism equivalent of Harvard,’ according to one participant,” said Sol Bradman, CEO of Security Solutions International, the publishers of The Counter Terrorist Magazine.

…Security Solutions International (SSI) has helped more than 800 Federal, State and local agencies to prevent prepare and respond to the asymmetrical threat of organized crime, gangs, drug cartels, terrorist organizations, disease and natural disasters since 2004.

Security Solutions International also provides the professional First Responder community with the leading media in the field as the publishers of The Counter Terrorist Magazine, The Counter Terrorist Newsletter, webinars and interactive learning, as well as the Annual Homeland Security Professionals Conference – the central event in the First Responder calendar. The company has been contracted to provide content for the newly established, first in the nation, Homeland Security Network which debuted in October 2010.

The Counter Terrorist Magazine is distributed to members of the ICTOA; according to a 2008 press release:

The ICTOA (International Counter Terror Officers Association) has made the Counter Terrorist magazine a welcomed addition to their quarterly newsletter for all of its members. The magazine like the newsletter will be issued to all existing and incoming members. “We are very proud of this achievement,” says Solomon Bradman, CEO of Security Solutions International (SSI) the publishers of the Counter Terrorist Magazine. “The Counter Terrorist magazine is the official journal of the Homeland Security Professional and is privileged to be the official magazine of the ICTOA,” whose members are on the front lines of the war on terror both here and internationally.”

I blogged on the ICTOA last month; the organisation co-sponsored an unofficial “memorial” event near Fort Hood organised by self-proclaimed “ex-terrorist” Walid Shoebat and featuring, among others, William Boykin and Robert Spencer (who kept his involvement low-key). Shoebat and Boykin are both known for their views about Islam’s Satanic role in an apocalyptic conflict with Christianity leading up to the End Times (Shoebat teaches that the Bible predicts a “Muslim anti-Christ”). I noted the ICTOA’s links to the weird “Griffith Colson Intelligence Service”, which is itself a “division” of the Securitas Global Group (SGG).

SSI, meanwhile, has received some critical comment in the past. The Seattle Times reported in 2008:

Some local Muslim community members are upset about a training course for local law enforcement, saying it could promote stereotypes and ethnic and religious profiling.

The program, called “The Threat of Islamic Jihadists to the World” and conducted by a Miami-based company, began Thursday and continues today at the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission campus in Burien.

…Arsalan Bukhari, president of the Washington state chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said the program appears to be linking an entire religion to terrorism.

…But Solomon Bradman, CEO of Security Solutions International, which is conducting the program, said, “I can’t take the responsibility of my course linking their religion to terrorism. I think their religion got linked to terrorism a long time ago.”

The purpose of the course, Bradman said, is to teach officers how to protect people from terrorism. His company has provided training to hundreds of agencies, including the FBI, the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security.

The two-day program covers some of the history of Islam to provide an “understanding of the terror mind-set and reasons for global jihad,” Bradman said. It’s not intended to be an all-inclusive course on Islam.

The SSI website promotes the Clarion Fund’s Obsession DVD, using an endorsement for the documentary from Glenn Beck. Alongside Bradman as CEO, the President is a certain Henry Morgenstern, who, according to his blurb, has

pioneered the Homeland Security training in Israel, a program that has taken more than 400 Homeland Security Professionals to Israel…

An internationally recognized consultant on issues related to counter-terrorism training for law enforcement officials and First Response teams, he has briefed NorthCom and many law enforcement agencies on terror threats. His book, (edited with Ophir Falk) Suicide Terror; understanding and confronting the threat has become a textbook on dealing with Suicide bombers.

Details of the book, which is a serious work published by Wiley, can be seen here. His co-editor, Falk, is with the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel. Falk takes a relatively hawkish view on the West Bank, asserting that the Bible is evidence that “Jews have a right to live in Judea and Samaria” but acknowledging that it is also home to the Palestinians.

The SSI’s Homeland Security Network, meanwhile, has a website here. According to its blurb:

This network addresses the needs of more than 3 million Homeland Security First Responders by providing an information backbone that is completely secure (law enforcement sensitive) that offers an efficient, private-industry alternative to the disparate and fragmented sources now available at the Federal, State and Local level. ALL CONTENT WILL BE COMPLETELY FREE. Private industry with products and services designed to make the difficult mission of the First Responder easier and more efficient will support the Network.

According to a list of press releases, the network has made links with a number of organisations: Homeland Security Television (“HSTV currently supports two major Department of Homeland Security training and education efforts through its relationship with Total Security Services International Inc.”); Alert Publishing Inc. (“From communications to defensive tactics and on up to the use of lethal force, ALERT Publishing uses expertise and experience to properly train police officers”); Armed Response Training (“The Armed Response Video Training Series by David Kenik and Ralph Mroz is by far THE most comprehensive and complete resource available!”); Richard A. Ganey II (“Ganey is well-known throughout the Homeland Security sector at the Federal, State and local levels.  As a person who has worked at the level of elite units both here in the US and in Israel, Ganey brings expertise”; he also heads Blue Diamond Consulting and Training); Line of Duty Learning (“vast Streaming Video Library and E-Learning Courseware”); S2 Online Inc. (“S2 has developed highlyspecialized, multimedia training programs that it offers via the Internet to students who are in the military, the private security industry, and law enforcement”); and Emergency Film Group.

(Some links H/T Right Web)

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BBC Wales’ Week in Week Out strand carried a documentary on Monday on the Welsh Defence League, the sister organisation of the English Defence League. There were few surprises for those who have been following developments: the programme explained that the WDL’s founder, Jeff Marsh, has a background in violent football hooliganism (see my blog entries here and here), and a voice recognition expert was consulted to confirm that Marsh is the same person as the aliases “Arrylad”, “Joe Cardiff”, and “Mike Smith”. We were also treated to extracts from his balaclava-clad Arrylad discourses.

Predictably, the programme also provided overwhelming evidence that, despite disavowals of racism, the WDL has attracted supporters who are indeed racist, including against black people and Jews. A trawl through Facebook and some undercover recording showed WDL members chanting “If you all hate Pakis clap your hands” and (in the case of a certain “Euge Owa” and Carwyn Wood) boasting of threats and acts of violence.

The programme also highlighted links between some members and hardcore neo-Nazism: present at demos have been Trevor Hannington (currently in jail) of the Aryan Strike Force, and a certain Bryan Powell of Combat 18. He and his brother David Powell, we were told, now run a breakaway “True Welsh Defence League”, based in Swansea. The BBC journalist, Graham Thomas, tried doorstepping both brothers; neither answered their door, although Thomas managed to confront another neo-Nazi, Luke Pippin, while Pippin was out walking his dog. Thomas explained that Pippin had run the WDL website and organised transport, but Pippin insisted that his involvement with the WDL had been “minuscule”.

Marsh apparently declined to be interviewed, while the EDL’s “Tommy Robinson” failed to show up for a meeting with the BBC. However, the programme did make clear that Marsh had denounced racism and the neo-Nazi “idiots” in Swansea. Almost as an afterthought, Thomas explained that Marsh has now disbanded the WDL (which Marsh declared had been “murdered by Nazis”), setting up “Welsh Casuals” in its place. Thomas also listed the “Cymru Defence League” and “Active Welsh Nationalists” as successor organisations, although he gave no details.

Somewhat curiously, an interview with a spokesman from the Muslim Council of Wales was introduced with Tuvan throat singing.

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Another baseless claim from WorldNetDaily, in a plug for a book:

…a controversial new book that makes the case that the biblical Antichrist is one and the same as the Quran’s Muslim Mahdi.

Meet “The Islamic Antichrist,” a book greeted in the Muslim world with the same enthusiasm as Salman Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses.” The author, Joel Richardson, is prepared. He has written the book under a pseudonym to protect himself and his family.

There is no evidence that anyone much in “the Muslim world” has ever heard of The Islamic Antichrist, let alone “greeted” it with the same kind of scenes that we saw with Rushdie back in 1989. If I were Richardson, I’d be embarrassed by such a whopper.

But why make up such a thing? The clue is in an older WND article, from last year:

…Meet “The Islamic Antichrist,” a book almost certain to be greeted in the Muslim world with the same enthusiasm as Salman Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses.” The author, Joel Richardson, is prepared. He has written the book under a pseudonym to protect himself and his family.

Yes, some WND hack has simply updated an old puff-piece by putting the claim into the past tense.

As I also noted last year, this is not the first time that WND editor Joseph Farah has trivialised what happened to Rushdie by suggesting that his own wares are under threat from extremists. In 2008 WorldNetDaily published a book about ex-Muslims – also co-authored by Richardson – calledWhy We Left Islam. Farah gleefully predicted riots across the Muslim world, but instead all that happened was that CAIR issued a statement pointing out that Farah was known for anti-Islam views and that the book should be ignored. Farah then laughably claimed it was unfair to suggest he was anti-Islam, and that CAIR had lied by suggesting he had run a column which suggested dropping pigs’ blood over Afghanistan. In fact, Farah has always been perfectly open with his anti-Islam views, and he had run a post-9/11 column which suggested (jokingly) putting pigs’ blood in Kabul’s water supply. Farah whined that CAIR’s “Hooper put a target on my back”, and he threatened to sue for libel. Obviously, this was a shameless attempt to concoct a death threat where none existed.

I discussed Richardson’s ludicrous theory – which comes with an endorsement from Robert Spencer – here.

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Staying with the subject of child-witches, Al Jazeera recently ran a documentary in its People and Power strand on children accused of witchcraft in Benin. While many of the cases of child-witch stigmatisation I’ve blogged about, mainly from Nigeria and Congo (and spilling into the UK), can be traced back to the  teachings of powerful neo-Pentecostal evangelists, in Benin the phenomenon remains more closely rooted in traditional, non-Christian, beliefs and taboos around a child’s birth and development: a child born feet-first, or face down, or whose upper teeth appear before their lower teeth, may be regarded as evil and as a source of misfortune.

The consequences of an accusation can be dire: the documentary’s producer, Charles Stratford, speaks to Alidou Boukari, a traditional village healer who explains that if a child is thought to be causing misfortune, then various steps are taken. First, an exorcism; if that does not work, magic, and if that is ineffective, the child is expelled. However, should attacks continue, a child may be killed:

The killing is done by an elder. He takes the child into the bush and he kills it there. It is not done in the village. The practice goes on where the Bariba are. But no one will tell you who is doing the killing. Noone will tell you that such and such a person is the one appointed to kill the child. But there is always someone in the community who is old and spiritually powerful who does the killings.

Stratford also meets Nicholas Biao of the Family Protection Office in Parakou, who has been trying to change attitudes:

You don’t know when they go to kill a child. You can live with them for many years in the same area and children are being killed and you would never know. The phenomenon continues because it is cultural. It is tradition. It is deeply rooted in the mentality of the people… Despite efforts to raise awareness, the belief is passed from generation to generation. For example, when the executioner is old, he will train young executioners to take over the power of killings. This means it is perpetuated. … Personally, I have never witnessed a killing myself, but I talked to the executioners who told me how they do it.

Biao points to a poster in his office (see above), which shows how a child is killed by being dashed against a tree. More commonly, though, a child will simply be abandoned.

In Akwa Ibom in Nigeria, there is now a State Child Rights Law which makes it illegal to accuse a child of being a witch; however, the government of Benin will not support a similar measure there, on the grounds that some children really are witches. According to  Roland Djagaly, Assistant Director for the Department of Childhood and Adolescence in Atacora-Donga:

If this law was implemented one of the problems we would be confronted with would be that children could be accused rightly or wrongly. Not all natural laws are physical. A human being is a physical being, a spiritual being and witchcraft is highly spiritual. So beside the physical aspect the spiritual aspect supports our people in whatever they’re doing. That’s why today there are witches among children, witches among youngsters, witches among adults, witches among peasants, witches among intellectuals, witches among traders, witches among intellectuals.

…It doesn’t mean that we don’t have witch children, because today adults who are witches have a method of transmitting their power to children without the child’s consent. There are some children that are innocent, but due to circumstances are said to be witches.

Not everyone accepts this, though: Biao explains that some young couples will prefer to leave a village than to abandon their child, and Stratford meets some adults who have adopted abandoned children. He also talks to a mother who switched from vodou to Christianity after vodou priests told her that her disabled child had been responsible for causing her father’s death.

Watch the whole thing, entitled “Magic and Murder”, here.

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The News has the latest on child witches in Akwa Ibom, Nigeria:

Governor Godswill Akpabio has set up a six-man Commission of Inquiry into witchcraft accusations and child rights abuses in Akwa Ibom State, charging it to help government bring justice to bear on the society.

…At the swearing-in of members of the Commission headed by Hon. Justice Godwin Abraham, on 22 November, the governor urged the Commission and all Akwa Ibom people to “rise up to this challenge because injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Let us cooperate with this Commission and let anyone who has useful information see his giving same to this Commission as a civic duty and social obligation. We must remember that a society that kills on suspicion and superstition is neither safe for the saint nor for the villain”.

…He therefore urged the Commission, set up on the authority of Section 2 of the Commission of Inquiry Law Cap 33 Laws of Akwa Ibom State 2000, to among other things determine the veracity of the allegations of witchcraft against children and infliction of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment upon such children.

It is also to determine the number of those stigmatised, abused or killed on suspicion of involvement in witchcraft; identify the shallow graves and the particulars of children affected under paragraph 5 (e) and also identify those who maltreated, stigmatised or caused their deaths and make appropriate recommendations.

The idea that the court needs to consider “the veracity of the allegations of witchcraft against children” is disturbing, since it leaves open the possibility that children might really be witches who cause harm by supernatural means, but perhaps this is just a device to have the whole notion put to bed. Overall, though, it seems to be an encouraging development, if Akpabio means what he says; however, back in September, he claimed that reports of witch-stigmatisation were “propaganda against the state”, and he vowed to act against organisations highlighting the problem. And just a couple of weeks ago, the charities Stepping Stones Nigeria and the Child Rights and Rehabilitation Network (CRARN) were complaining of harassment:

The two groups claimed that the Akwa Ibom State government has launched a media campaign against them, stating that SSN and CRARN are fraudulent organisations who have used the children under their care to extort millions of pounds from the international community and demanding that the President of CRARN, Sam Itauma and the Programme Director of Stepping Stones Nigeria , Gary Foxcroft should both be arrested.

“I am genuinely living in fear for my life,” Mr Ituama said. “I know there are people who would like to see me dead because I have stood up and told them that it is wrong to torture and murder innocent children who have been accused of being witches. I have had to leave my home and family and go into hiding. How can this be right?”

The issue was discussed in the UK House of Lords a few days ago.

However, the problem of child-witch stigmatisation is not just confined to Akwa Ibom; the Vanguard recently highlighted the case of a teenage girl named Comfort Sunday, who had been doused in acid in Nasarawa State by her father after a pastor (unnamed) accused her of killing her grandfather with witchcraft (warning: distressing photographs). The paper has an interview with Tashi N Tashi, of an NGO named Better Leven; he explains that:

The accusation against her is that she has been responsible for all the bad luck that had befallen the family.  That she is involved in witchcraft or “secret society”. That the only solution for the lack of progress in the family was to kill her.

…My brother, it is a common occurrence here. All the time you have children between the ages of five to 15 being accused of belonging to secret cult. They are made to suffer untold brutality in the hands of the family or in the hands of some pastors or someone who claims to have the powers to remove the magic in the children.

Tashi blames pastors from Abuja:

…They believe here that the local pastors do not have enough powers to clean these children. So they bring the prayer people from Abuja, usually at an agreed price per child. Sometimes the children are taken away. We do not know what usually happen to  some of the children, whether they ever return or not.

Click on the picture below for further details about a campaign to end this situation.

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As has been widely reported, former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey has put his weight behind Christian Concern‘s “Not Ashamed” campaign. Carey has penned a leaflet to go with the campaign, which can be seen here:

In spite of having contributed so much to our civilization and providing its foundation, the Christian Faith is in danger of being stealthily and subtly brushed aside. The evidence has been mounting in recent years. Teachers and council employees are suspended for offering to ‘say a prayer’. A devoted nurse is banned from wearing a cross, a British Airways worker told to remove hers. Roman Catholic adoption agencies are closed down under new laws. Christian marriage registrars who cannot, in good conscience, preside over civil partnership ceremonies are summarily dismissed.

This is a ragbag of causes célèbres that have come up over the past few years. The “suspended teacher” was Olive Jones, who had been employed to teach maths to a girl suffering from leukaemia – instead, she talked about miracles and heaven and exhorted the girl to pray with her, causing distress and annoying the girl’s parents, who complained.  The parents then found themselves not only having to cope with a dangerously ill daughter, but with being at the brunt of a media backlash against “political correctness”. According to the council concerned,

“It is acceptable to offer prayer but not to impose it against a family’s wishes. Teachers like Olive do not have to set aside their faith, but personal beliefs and practices should be secondary to the needs and beliefs of the student and their family and the requirements of professional practice.”

The council worker, meanwhile, was a homeless prevention officer for Wandsworth Council named Duke Amachree. Amachree claims he merely “discussed his faith” with a client, while the council claims he subjected her to a “religious rant”. He lost an appeal against dismissal in August.

The nurse was Shirley Chaplin, who lost a discrimination case in April:

Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital had acted reasonably in trying to reach a compromise. It had argued that the objection to the crucifix, which Mrs Chaplin, from Kenn, near Exeter, had worn for 30 years, was based on health and safety concerns about patients grabbing the necklace, not religion.

The British Airways worker was Nadia Eweida, who was also known to proselytise colleagues. However, although the case against her was upheld (after she declined a pay-out), it was also reported that

British Airways is changing its uniform policy to allow all religious symbols, including crosses, to be worn openly… The airline now says it will allow religious symbols such as lapel pins and “some flexibility for individuals to wear a symbol of faith on a chain”.

The suggestion that Roman Catholic adoption agencies have been “closed down under new laws” is misleading and perhaps inflammatory; they have been required to accept non-discrimination legislation when it comes to potential gay adopters, and some have decided that they had no choice other than to close down rather than accept this.

And the “Christian marriage registrar” was Lillian Ladele, who refused to conduct same-sex civil partnerships because of her “orthodox Christian beliefs” (in the words used in her tribunal).

Carey continues:

This attempt to ‘air-brush’ the Christian Faith out of the picture is especially obvious as Christmas approaches. The cards that used to carry Christmas wishes now bear ‘Season’s greetings’. The local school nativity play is watered down or disappears altogether. The local council switches on ‘Winter lights’ in place of Christmas decorations. Even Christmas has become something of which some are ashamed… The Church is far from dead but is definitely under attack.

This is silly. Non-religious Christmas cards have been around for decades, and many of those that use the word “Christmas” have a secular theme (including the first card ever). And the extent to which the phrase “Winter Lights” has replaced “Christmas Lights” (which is debatable, although Carey at least avoided the “Winterval” hysteria) or nativity plays have declined reflects a general indifference caused by wider trends in society rather than some sort of “attack”.

Carey’s complaints have provoked some critical commentary, most notably perhaps from Bishop Nicholas Baines:

I do not believe that Christians are a persecuted group of people in this country today.

We live in a society which I sometimes call a hierarchy of victimhood.

If people feel that the job they’re doing requires them to go against their Christian conscience, it could be in areas of sexuality or the wearing of a cross or whatever it is, then they have a choice to make, and if you feel that what you’re being asked to do is incompatible with your faith then you shouldn’t do it, but that isn’t persecution, you have a choice and you can go and do something else.

My personal view (if anyone is interested) is that society is in the process of trying to adapt to an individualistic culture in which people increasingly feel that their their professional lives should not completely stifle their sense of personal identity. This isn’t a bad development: terrible things have happened because people gave up any sense of individual responsibility once they were given a uniform and a job to do. It has long been recognised in the UK that there should be some accommodation for personal conscience (I blogged on this here), and the area where there is most likely to be a conflict here in is in the area of religion.

The question is how much accommodation should be given, and with the arrival of immigrant faiths and the rise of alternative religions we can see to a greater degree than before how this plays out in the public sphere. Sometimes it’s not clear where the correct balance should lie: in the case of BA, the airline decided on reflection that it had made a mistake, even though a crucifix is not a religious requirement such as a Sikh turban or a kippar. There is less likely to be compromise where conscience involves an expression of disapproval of other people’s identity in relation to sexuality or religious belief.

It’s still somewhat messy: for instance, should a non-religious BA worker still be barred from wearing a locket containing the photo of a loved one, simply because he or she can’t claim that God had told them to wear it? I recall some years ago the case of a supermarket worker who refused to work at a tobacco counter because a relative had died from lung cancer.

At the same time, there is public uncertainty over the balance between freedom of expression and the need to protect individuals from harassment and incitement: we know that some attacks on minority religions are really motivated by racism, just as members of some minority religious groups will use the race card to deflect reasonable criticism. The upshot of this is that aggressive attacks on minority religions are more likely to end in some sort of legal action or censure than similar attacks on Christians.

It’s reasonable for Christians to fight their corner while these processes are still being thought through, but there is a temptation to use dubious cases and the politics of resentment to drive the argument. Carey – and Christian Concern – give the impression of having succumbed to this temptation.

(Further discussion of the subject from Hannah M here and from Simon Barrow of Ekklesia here)

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Pseudo-activist Charlie Flowers is at it again, dispensing threats and abuse in the middle of the night on his “NiceOnesUK” Facebook page for the amusement of his various hangers-on:

You’re going to love this guys- apparently the communist lowlife filth “Richard Bartholomew” has been writing letters to our members, trying to get them to “disassociate” themselves from us. No dice.

Bartholomew, you are utter scum, and a pimp for the internet bully and stalker “Tim Ireland”. And now you’re going to reap the whirlwind, you fat, anti-religious gimp.

This somewhat “tired and emotional”-sounding outburst comes just a couple of weeks after Flowers left a late-might comment on my blog under the pseudonym “Righteous Death Angel”.

As I’ve blogged numerous times over the past year, Flowers is himself actually a stalker and a bully, and more than once he’s complained bitterly that I’ve had the effrontery to make people aware of what he’s done. He’s insinuated himself into various groups, such as British Muslims for Secular Democracy, and I have let certain people know what he’s like, but I really don’t know what’s set him off this time: perhaps some associate has fallen out with him and he thinks it must be my fault. He certainly appears to have a remarkable capacity for self-delusion. The preposterous accusation of “Communism” is an attempt to make his rather self-debasing way of carrying-on look like some sort of a political activism rather than the vicious rantings of a middle-aged phony in a tantrum because a teenage James Bond fantasy turned to ashes.

For those who are interested, here’s the background: Flowers first contacted me – under a pseudonym – on Christmas Day 2008, by leaving a comment on an old blog entry I had written about the VIGIL Network, a self-described “terror-tracker” organisation:

Richard- maybe you’d like an update from someone who works with them? (i.e. me)

drop us a line at the email I sent you and I’ll fill you in on the latest.

A few weeks later, Tim Ireland exposed how Glen Jenvey, who was also associated with VIGIL, had made postings to an Islamic discussion board under a fake name, which he then used as evidence of a terrorist threat against Alan Sugar; this had formed the basis for a Sun front-page splash (later withdrawn). Following Jenvey’s initial exposure, Tim and and I were contacted by Dominic Wightman, who had run VIGIL. Wightman told us a story about how VIGIL had collapsed due to the machinations of Jenvey and a university lecturer, whom he urged us to expose. He also passed to us an audio recording of an interview with Jenvey; he told us that Flowers had made the recording while posing as a journalist. Meanwhile, Flowers and his “Cheerleader” accomplices were being generally creepy: an attempt was made to befriend my Facebook contacts to fish for personal information; a package of printouts from an Islamic webforum were delivered by hand to a former workplace, and Tim received “I know where you live” type comments. Various links for all this can be found here.

In the summer of 2009, a supposed interview was posted on-line between Jenvey and a US-based journalist named Jeremy Reynalds, containing information which could only have come from someone who had physically walked along Tim’s street. Reynalds and Jenvey both confirmed they had had nothing to do with it, and Wightman exhorted us to believe that the university lecturer had done it. However, this turned out to have been a lie: the police traced the document back to Wightman. It turned out that this lecturer had had some involvement with VIGIL, but had become convinced that Wightman lacked personal integrity; Wightman was in fact a failed and bankrupt businessman, and an employee of VIGIL was just one of his many creditors. It seems that Wightman had been been hoping to use Tim and me to get revenge on the university lecturer.

At this point, Flowers and his “Cheerleaders” turned nasty: they published Tim Ireland’s home address on-line in the stated intention that hostile parties would know where he lives, and that he would be forced to leave the country. There were also threats of violence and a distasteful expression of malice against Tim’s family. What was Flowers’ goal? One possibility is that he was acting on behalf of Wightman, despite denials from Wightman and expressions of contempt for Wightman from Flowers: a contentless blog was created in Wightman’s name and made to look as though it had been hacked by Flowers’ “Cheerleader” accomplices. However, it’s more likely that the penny dropped and Flowers realised that he had been wasting his time with VIGIL. The only way to retain his self-image was to lash out against those who had burst his bubble: primarily Tim.

In the year that has followed, Flowers has been attempting to build a reputation as an activist against Islamic extremism: he became closely associated with various English Defence League activists, and he held the megaphone for Guramit Singh during the EDL rally in support of Geert Wilders; he also, as noted above, became associated with British Muslims for Secular Democracy. However, he appears to be genuinely affronted that his campaign of harassment against an innocent man should continue to be raised against him.

Of course, Flowers wants this to be about politics rather than character. His “Cheerleader” gang (consisting of an accomplice named Matthew Edwards and one or more other individuals) see themselves as cyber activists monitoring and exposing Islamic extremism, although, as with most vigilantes, a kind of self-righteous thrill-seeking is the main motivation. Flowers has a music band called the Fighting Cocks (although several the members split from him a few months ago when his activities come to light); on his website there, he boasts that his group does “bad things to bad people” (the line is taken from a character in a book by thriller author Tom Cain. Cain – actually a showbiz hack for the Daily Mail named David Thomas – is a personal friend of Flowers, although I’m sure he wouldn’t approve of Flowers’ activities). Flowers claims credit for discovering titbits about Islamists that have reached the media, in particular a 2008 comment by Asghar Bukhari of MPACUK about how Muslims who fight Israel will go to paradise; this was publicised by Policy Exchange.

Flowers’ predictable riposte has been to suggest that because what he’s done was against Islamic extremists, anyone who holds him to account must therefore be in league with Islamic extremists, and this is a familiar refrain on his “NiceOnesUK” Facebook page and on various anonymous attack blogs he’s set up. It seems that Flowers had hoped to expose extremism on a couple of other Islamic forums, but that the bad publicity around Jenvey had spoilt things somewhat. Of course we all know that Islamic extremists do post on-line, but the question is whether anything of significance had been discovered; and posting in the guise of an extremist to elicit evidence and entrap real extremists had been shown to be a rather foolish and problematic activity.

I’ve tried to investigate the extent to which Flowers and others have been making “undercover” postings to Islamic websites to manipulate discussions – for example, it’s obvious that when Jenvey temporarily converted to Islam last summer, it was Flowers or an accomplice who made postings “outing” Jenvey as gay in the hope that Jenvey might come to harm. Some bogus postings had also formerly been made to MPACUK, and I asked for IP information about these. There was no secret here, but at the time I shared the email with Wightman. Wightman then forwarded the email to Flowers, who then concocted a Glenn Beck-esque chart supposedly showing how I “share information” with extremists; Wightman tried to explain away his dishonesty with the same excuse. Flowers extrapolates from this to claim that I’m a friend and ally of Bukhari (I’m not), and, noting that Bukhari once offered to donate money to David Irving (as I blogged here), he suggests that I am in fact a “Nazi”.

Flowers also incorrectly asserts that I either am or was a member of the SWP, which is where his 1950’s-style “Communist” jibe comes from. It’s true that I did, long before I started this blog, have some association with some SWP members, but a look around this blog shows that the idea of me sharing the SWP’s perspective or agenda is utterly absurd (e.g. this blog entry, which drew hostile comment from SWP blogger Richard Seymour). However, as I’ve pointed out previously, it doesn’t really matter who I am or what my shortcomings might be: I’m just a guy with a blog, I’m not associated with any sort of activist organisation. Some of Flowers’ Islamist opponents throw around accusations of “racism” and “Islamophobia”, which miss the mark and which of course Flowers can easily dispatch. That’s not my complaint; my problem with him is that he didn’t like scrutiny, and so he decided to publish Tim’s home address in an attempt to intimidate him by making him fearful for his family’s safety. That remains true even if I really am “Communist pondlife filth”, and it obviously affects the credibility of any group he links himself to.

The key to all this is psychology rather than politics. The real underlying reason that Flowers published Tim’s home address is that if he can make a man worried for his family’s safety, it means he has “dominated” him in some way. The lie that Tim is a “stalker” has borrowed some one of Tim’s other opponents – Nadine Dorries MP – and Flowers has made constant use of this excuse. That was always flaky, and now that Dorries has been publicly discredited his claim looks utterly risible. Tim puts the whole “stalker” lie to bed here, with evidence.

Here are the facts: I don’t share information with extremists, but Flowers has (“outing” Jenvey as gay to Islamists, and passing Tim’s home address to “everyone he’s ever pissed off”, which if he’s true to his word included the BNP); I’m not involved with groups links to extremism, but Flowers is (the EDL); neither Tim nor I have used personal information to harass or bully on-line, but Flowers has. Neither Tim nor I have “stalked” women, but Flowers has (he sent a warning to a woman writer – unconnected to any political activity – that he was “watching” her). Neither Tim nor I have been investigated by the police, but Flowers has (and boasted at the “lack of evidence” they found). All Tim and I have ever wanted is that the truth should be known. The greatest weapons against Islamic extremism, as with everything else that is malign in our society, are the truth and open discussion – games with false identities and threats are a distraction. We might forgive teenagers for not realising this, but not mature adults the wrong side of forty.

The question remains as to why Flowers manages to retain so many hangers-on. Perhaps it’s the chance for middle-aged men to get in touch with their inner playground bully; one such associate is a man named Iain Westland, who calls me a Nazi and who posts to MPACUK accusing me of posting there under anonymously (again, untrue). He knows exactly what Flowers is like: he recently made a posting to NiceOnesUK decrying the publication of a Islamist’s home address by someone else, and Flowers made it quite clear that he considered there was nothing wrong with such a thing. This did not apparently give Westland pause to consider whether he needed to reassess the situation.

Incidentally, the notion that I am “anti-religious” is apparently based on the fact that I don’t like the idea of children being accused of witchcraft by evangelists. That’s the extent of Flowers’ hypocrisy and lack of good faith. He stinks, not of extremism or racism, but of phoniness. It’s time he grew up.

UPDATE: Flowers deleted his threat some time this morning, before my own post was published. One wonders what other threats and abuse he puts up and then takes down. I know that some months ago he created a fake Facebook thread in my name and placed it on the NiceOnesUK page for his cronies to giggle over; he also thought better of that after a few hours.

UPDATE 2: On 3 December I encountered Westland on a discussion forum and drew his attention to the above. Westland, who is a middle-aged mature student, promised me “an answer” that night, which failed materialise. Instead, he summoned Flowers onto the thread to provide further late-night abuse, followed by his own taunt that I am “fat boy”. He then deleted the discussion.

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From a brochure for the recent Second World Halal Forum Europe, subtitled Halal Products & Services – Going Mainstream:

WHF EUROPE RESOLUTIONS:

The World Halal Forum recognises the importance of animal welfare in the production of Halal food especially in the context of religious slaughter. The forum has resolved that organisations and communities involved in Halal food production should explore ways to reduce pain, distress and other welfare problems in the sourcing and treatment of animals during rearing, transport and slaughter. The World Halal Forum should collaborate with academic researchers and other experts in investigating the welfare implication and acceptability of different practices including pre-slaughter methods of restraint and applications to minimise pain and distress at the time of slaughter.

Halal values and principles are in line with those of Fair Trade. The forum resolved to work towards the integration of Halal with Fair Trade.

The forum resolved to work towards a European Halal Regulations and Accreditation system, starting with a single country as a pilot project, with the country proposed being the United Kingdom.

The Forum is backed by the Malaysian government, and the above has now generated a conspiracy theory for why Halal food is so widely available in the UK. Step forward Andrea Minichiello Williams, of the Alliance Defense Fund-associated UK group Christian Concern:

Halal and Polygamy – Whose Culture Do We Want?

How far are we willing to let our society be influenced by the demands of Islam and its encroaching culture?

One area of Islamification that has come to light recently concerns the food that we eat. Islamic food agencies are pushing to integrate halal into the mainstream market in the UK. The World Halal Forum held its annual conference in London earlier this month and has identified the UK as a pilot project for halal in Europe.

Consequently it has been discovered that halal meat has been regularly and secretly served in many places from Wembley and Ascot to Cheltenham College and even to MPs in Parliament!

Surely it can’t be right to force ritually slaughtered meat onto consumers? Are we really willing to be imposed upon like this? Please join me in resisting this imposition by boycotting places that don’t clearly label halal meat and give non-halal options. Please sign the Operation Nehemiah petition here.

Operation Nehemiah is run by the Barnabas Fund (previously blogged here); the organisation explains its campaign its website:

Halal food is being introduced secretly. All over Britain, schools, hospitals, pubs and sporting venues (including Ascot and Twickenham) are serving halal meat, often without informing the public. For example, all the beef, chicken and lamb sold to soccer fans at Wembley is halal-compliant, but the public has not been informed. Whitbread, Britain’s largest hotel and restaurant group, which owns the Beefeater and Brewers Fayre chains, has admitted that more than three-quarters of its poultry is halal. Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust in London serve halal meat without notifying the public. Ascot racecourse justified its actions by claiming that it was easier to store and cook only one type of meat: “All our chicken is halal. This is not advertised as the menus are kept as simple as possible.”

It has also been alleged that some big supermarkets, including Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose, Somerfield and the Co-op are selling unlabelled halal meat products.

…Although Muslims make up only some 3% of the UK population, halal meats now make up 11 % of all meats sold in the UK. Halal is being used as an underhanded way of furthering the Islamisation of the country.

…Some see this as appeasement of the Muslim communities in the face of their increasingly assertive demands. Others see it as discrimination against non-Muslims, who in circumstances will be forced to eat Muslim religious food. Still others see it as undermining Western secular values.

Many Christians in particular are uneasy about buying halal food or other products because of its inseparable association with Islamic da’wa. They see such purchases as advancing the cause of global Islam, and of Islamist radicalism in particular, and as putting them implicitly under the authority of Islamic sharia. For this reason, while in no way objecting to the provision of halal products for Muslim consumers, they argue that these should not be forced on the non-Muslim community or sold without appropriate labelling. Christian farmers also do not want to be responsible for sacrificial slaughter of animals to Allah.

…We give due weight to the argument, on grounds of religious liberty, that halal slaughter should not be prohibited by law, and we acknowledge the different views held among Christians (and others) regarding its alleged cruelty.

There is also a mention of “the Biblical teaching on the eating of foods associated with non-Christian religious practice and its spiritual and social effects within the Christian community” – presumably a strained reference to 1 Corinthians 8: 4-13.

This is not the first complaint against halal meat; back in April, the English Defence League rallied to the cause of the KFC Bacon Boxmaster.

What will the meat-buying experience be like for non-believers after Islamification is complete?

(H/T to a reader)

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A visit to WorldNetDaily brings up a prominent pop-up from an advertiser: a site called vaticancatholic.com, which promises to tell us “What Really Happened to the Catholic Church” (it also has a column ad on WND). Clicking on the link, or typing the url, in fact takes us to mostholyfamilymonastery.com, where we find sections such as this (emphases in original):

Jewish Power and Control Watch

*This section of our website will contain news updates and posts concerning the growing Jewish control of society.  These items are just some of the things we come across; they by no means represent an adequate presentation of all the material that could be brought forward on this issue, especially if more time and an extensive study were dedicated to this topic.  Many people aren’t aware that Jews dominate the media (both television and print), as well as other important positions shaping our society.  This is something traditional Catholics need to be aware of.  It’s important to note in advance that, as Catholic Christians, we desire the conversion and eternal happiness of all Jews (as well as all other non-Catholics) to the one true Church of Christ, the Catholic Church, outside of which there is no salvation.  As Catholics, we reject all forms of racism as being un-Christian and illogical.   Jews have frequently been tremendous, and some of the very best, converts. As shown in our video, Abortion, Rock Music and Freemasonry Exposed, the Jewish “holy book,” The Talmud, blasphemes Christ, condemns Christians and considers Jews to be a master race.  That’s why it’s common for them to promote only Jews and thus come to dominate particular organizations and important positions in society.  For a foundational understanding of Jewish control in America and Jewish beliefs, we recommend Ted Pike’s video The Other Israel (watch it here) and Michael Collins Piper’s book, The New Jerusalem (available from americanfreepress.net).*

Bill in Congress makes it a crime to speak against homosexuality!

Related: Jews pressure Bush to sign “Hate” Bill…

Hate Laws: Making Criminals out of Christians Holocaust denial is a crime in 14 countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Israel, Lichtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Switzerland.  Those found to be in violation of the law are sent to prison. (wikipedia..com)

Author of best-selling “Holocaust” survival-story admits whole thing was made up….

Etc. Pope Benedict, meanwhile is described as an “anti-pope” and as “apostate”.

The site is run by Michael Dimond, a well-known fringe traditionalist.

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