Bartholomew's Notes

As planned, yesterday saw an English Defence League rally in support of Israel outside the Israeli embassy in London, with a special guest appearance by California’s “surfing Rabbi” Nachum Shifren. A photo gallery of the event, by  can be seen here and here; EDL posters on display included images of the Israeli flag, and messages such as “There is no Place for Fascist Islamic Jew Haters in England”; “Islam Must Learn to Leave Israel Alone”; and “The True English will Never Abandon Israel”. There was also a large poster attacking Islamic homophobia and citing a warning by Peter Tatchell about Hizb ut Tahrir, and a few LGBT rainbow flags. The EDL’s Kevin Carroll is shown wearing a chain necklace bearing the EDL’s cross logo, and a shirt commemorating his recent participation at Pam Geller’s anti-mosque protest in New York.

Shifren sent an account of the event to Geller, who has published extracts:

Today was one of the biggest most organized demos in London . It was an honor for me, and I was quite humbled with the esteem shown to me by Londoners whom I’ve never met. Something very special happended here today, something the whole world noticed.

[..]

When I was introduced at the demo, I got a minute long standing ovation, with shouts of : “Rabbi, Rabbi, Rabbi” Never in my life have I been appreciate so much. The love was overflowing, they were so grateful for me thinking of them and supporting them. Of course, it was I that was grateful. Today was a shot heard round the world!

Apparently, there were around 300 EDL members present – not quite “the biggest” demo in London.

Geller also points us towards Carroll’s speech on the EDL website; Carroll used the occasion to rail against the “lies” about the existence of a “Palestinian people”.

The EDL has supported Israel since its inception, vicariously identifying with the country for its militant approach to Palestinians and foreign enemies, although it’s doubtful whether most EDL supporters know much about the conflicts. 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 (Shifren, incidentally, was “excommunicated” from the JDL in 2005 after offering support to Pat Buchanan). Several months ago, the EDL’s “Jewish Division” showed up to support a Zionist Federation rally at the same location, although the ZF and other mainstream Jewish organisations repudiated its presence.

UPDATE: Shifren’s speech has been posted to YouTube; it’s a boilerplate rant which effectively whips up the crowd’s hatred and resentment. Despite some reports, he doesn’t directly say “Arabs are dogs”; here’s the actual quote:

I’m still waiting for Arabs and Muslims to have peace with each other. Sunni versus Shi’i. The Al-Qaeda versus the Hamas. Hamas versus Al-Fatah. Like the dogs that they are, they eat each other alive.

(1) Shifren’s own view on the subject of homosexuality is that it should remain a private matter, and he has railed against “Gay radicals” who want a “quasi Gay/Lesbian hegemony, where a huge ‘bookburning,’ reminiscent of the Nazis, will purge any remnants of the ‘Christian, White, mainstream America’ that has given ALL AMERICANS the most profound scope of freedom, liberty, and justice that Mankind has yet to experience).

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As is being widely reported, a Parliamentary investigation has cleared Nadine Dorries MP of having lied about the location of her main residence in order to claim a second home rent allowance. Some of the evidence against her came from statements on her blog, in which she gave the impression of living in Woburn, in her constituency of Mid Bedfordshire. Dorries explained the discrepancy away by admitting that information on her blog is mostly untrue; even the right-wing Daily Mail is incredulous:

Amazingly, she told Standards Commissioner John Lyon: ‘My blog is 70 per cent fiction and 30 per cent fact’.

‘It is written as a tool to enable my constituents to know me better and to reassure them of my commitment to Mid Bedfordshire. I rely heavily on poetic licence.’

This explanation has elicited howls of derision, and Dorries has now changed tack:

Last night Miss Dorries said the police had advised her to ‘disguise’ her movements on her blog.

According to a news report by Matthew Hudson on Anglia Tonight, Dorries claims that she has reported “four stalkers” to the police. But who are these “four stalkers”? We know that she has claimed to have reported the blogger Tim Ireland to the police, but no-one from the police has had any communication with Tim on the subject. It’s a blatant lie by Dorries: as I wrote here, Tim’s blog has satirised her mercilessly, and he has persistently called her to account on various matters. He has never, though, either threatened her or crossed the line into anything that could be regarded as invasive of her as a private person. She has also attacked a Labour blogger named Chris Paul along similar lines – but again, there is no evidence that the police have so much as had a word.

As for the other two – who knows? She was recently affecting anguish over a satirical Twitter feed by someone pretending to be her dog (“It’s like someone setting up an account as one of my kids. Go away sick person you need help.!”). And we know she is generally vicious with her accusations – when a constituent who uses the on-line name Ms Humphrey Cushion complained about her comments concerning Tim to Conservative HQ, Dorries’ response was to smear Ms Cushion as a benefits cheat.

Dorries’ story simply does not hold up. As Tim notes, her blog is usually a record of where she has been, not where she’s going to be. And even if she felt unable to publish certain details for privacy reasons, there was no need to disseminate false information that just so happens to be advantageous to her political reputation – no-one who is accountable to the public should consider that to be acceptable. Tim has dissected her narrative with customary attention to detail:

Dorries maintains that she told lies on her blog about where she was staying and when to throw stalkers of the scent, and began doing so when she attracted “unwanted attention” from “unsavoury people”… (important bit coming up) following the expenses scandal.

The expenses scandal began for Nadine Dorries with this report in the Telegraph on 15 May 2009.

And here are the dates of the blog entries mentioned in the Standards and Privileges Committee report (PDF) that she explains away as ‘fiction’:

– 15 May 2009
– 16 May 2009

Dorries apologised for misleading her constituents about where she lived in this entry on her not-really-a-blog on 16 May 2009.

Apparently, we’re supposed to believe that in one day – on 15 May 2009, to be precise – Nadine Dorries not only attracted four stalkers, but then made credible reports to police about all four of them (in London and Bedfordshire), then went on to receive advice from police that convinced her that she should publish largely fictional accounts on her blog about where she was living/staying, then did so, and then went on to apologise for doing so the very next day.

Sorry, but no.

…The truth is that Dorries published the misleading content before any concerns she claims to have had about stalking.

When it comes to stalkers, she cries wolf to gain false sympathy, to make life difficult for (male) critics, and to explain her actions after the fact (such as why she at one point deleted her blog).

This is not a matter of political partisanship. My blog obviously has a progressive perspective, but I have no complaints about my own local Conservative MP. It’s also clear that Mid Bedfordshire is a safe Conservative seat, and I have no particular interest in whether that changes in the future. My main reason for blogging about Dorries is that her false accusation of stalking against Tim Ireland has led to Tim being targeted by a cyberthug named Charlie Flowers. Flowers, angry that Tim had exposed some on-line activism against Islamic extremism as tainted by fakery, used Dorries’ claim as his justification for a campaign of harassment against Tim which included Tim’s home address being posted on-line and brought to the attention of hostile parties (which, if Flowers was true to his word, would have included the BNP). As I blogged here, Flowers’ accomplices also used Dorries’ claim to try to draw other people into the attacks.

Dorries’ false accusation was also taken up by Patrick Mercer MP, who was desperate deflect Tim’s enquiries into Mercer’s associations with Dominic Wightman and Glen Jenvey.

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From the website of the Central Stockport Area Committee, announcing a meeting on 14 October:

At the next meeting on 14 October 2010, the following issues will be considered…

14 items are then listed; at number 4 we find:

A retrospective Planning application (DC044716) for the retention of extraction vent to front of shop at 159 Adswood Road, Cale Green – recommendation grant.

So far so boring – but a local resident named Graham Webb-Lee showed up to make an objection. The Daily Mail reports:

‘The vent is 12 inches from my front door. Every morning the smell of bacon comes through and makes me physically sick.

‘I have a lot of Muslim friends. They refuse to visit me anymore because they can’t stand the smell of bacon.’

He also mentioned “a daughter with an eating disorder” and a supposed odour on his clothes (His description of the position of the vent can be confirmed by looking on Google Street View). Consequently:

A spokesman for Stockport Council said: ‘The retrospective application was rejected on the grounds of residential amenity, as the committee felt the odours given off from the vent were unacceptable for neighbouring residents.

The inevitable headline, of course:

Cafe owner ordered to remove extractor fan ‘because smell of frying bacon offends Muslims’

This was later amended to:

Cafe owner ordered to remove extractor fan because neighbour claimed ‘smell of frying bacon offends Muslims’

And it’s off around the world:

Beverley Akciecek, de 49 años, abnegada cocinera y propietaria del “Snack Shack”, un local donde sirven comida para llevar en Manchester, no se puede creer todavía la carta del Ayuntamiento donde la ordenan derribar su extractor de humos porque el olor del bacon y panceta a la plancha “ofende” a sus vecinos musulmanes. Los inspectores municipales…

Plus:

Sur ordre de la municipalité, le gérant d’une sandwicherie doit désinstaller une hotte aspirante car “l’odeur du bacon offense les musulmans”…

And:

Einer Imbissbuden-Eigentümerin aus England ist befohlen worden, einen Dunstabzug zu entfernen, weil der Geruch von gebratenem Speck Moslems missfällt.

Planungschefs der Stadt handelten gegen Beverley Akciecek (49), weil sich muslimische Nachbarn wegen des “stinkenden Geruchs” physisch krank fühlten…

With doubtless more to come – US anti-mosque demagogue Pamela Geller is on the case, predictably opining that

The world is descending into madness accommodating the most radical, intolerant ideology in the world.

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WorldNetDaily “reports”:

Taliban taking over university life?

Undercover agents of the United Kingdom’s MI5 Security Service have discovered that Islamic extremists have created a “Taliban-type culture” in Britain’s universities that is dedicated to installing Islamic law and intimidating faculty, staff and students, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

This week a top-secret report detailing the attempt to radicalize the campuses has been sent to vice-chancellors across the nation by Jonathan Evans, the head of the security service.

The document contains a stark warning from the MI5 chief that in the past year there has “been sewn on campuses in England and Wales the seeds of Shariah law which has intimidated students and staff.”…

Apparently, the document is so top secret that only a fringe Birther website on the west coast of the USA has got wind of it – there are no other media reports anywhere.

However, it just so happens that two days before the WND article, the UK Sunday Times carried a similar story about a report into university Talibanisation:

Islamist extremists imposed ‘Taliban rule’ at British university

Islamist extremists at a British university tried to impose a Taliban-style culture of intimidation, creating a “chilling effect” on the lives of staff and students.

…A confidential report on the radicalisation of British universities found that Islamists at City University London engaged in “sub-criminal extremism”, abusing staff and students and leaving them feeling threatened.

The report, circulated last week to more than 90 vice-chancellors in England and Wales, documents how members of the university’s 180-strong Islamic society said adulterers should be stoned and forced women students to wear the hijab. One, after hearing a homophobic visiting preacher, said Islam condemned homosexuals to a violent death.

…The 38-page report by Quilliam, a think tank partly funded by the Home Office, will reinforce fears in government about the way that some British universities are failing to prevent extremists from using them as incubators of terrorism.

So, did vice-chancellors receive two confidential reports on the subject of Islamist extremism over the past week… or has WND decided to sensationalise the Sunday Times article? Given WND’s history of lies and pseudo-journalism (see many posts at ConWebWatch), I’m willing to bet it’s the latter: there is no report from MI5, just the one from Quilliam, which WND has learnt about second-hand via the Sunday Times and fed through the mangle of WND editor Joseph Farah’s obsessions.

However, it should also be noted that the Sunday Times article is itself guilty of sensationalism; the report is not “confidential” (let alone “top secret”) – it’s freely available from the Quilliam website. And the phrase “Taliban-style” (or WND’s “Taliban-type”) does not appear. There is only one passing comparison to the Taliban:

…In essence, the ISoc’s [Islamic Society]  ideology is one that aspires to a system of law mirroring countries like Saudi Arabia or Taliban-era Afghanistan, where moral misconduct is punishable by the state.

As for the actual problem:

…It is clear that the ISoc’s members, without necessarily breaking any laws, have had a chilling effect on the academic and social life at City University. Through exerting its own freedom of speech, expression and action, the ISoc successfully and deliberately reduced the freedoms of others, as well as undermined efforts to improve understanding between people from different racial, religious and social backgrounds. Thus, the ISoc leadership directly undermined two of the five key objectives put forward by the government for university campuses in 2007: ‘to break down segregation amongst different student communities’ and ‘to ensure student safety and campuses that are free from bullying, harassment and intimidation’.

To its credit, City University has recognised many of the serious problems arising from the ISoc’s behaviour. After being alerted to the numerous problems on the ISoc’s website, the university forced the ISoc to shut it down at the end of May 2010. It remains inactive. In addition, due to a number of transgressions of SU [Student Union] rules, the ISoc had their privileges as an officially recognised society removed by the SU in June 2010. These privileges include having access to their members’ registration fees, being allowed to host a stall during Freshers’ Week, and being allowed to host a website. As a result, under these restrictions, a society is unable to easily recruit members and is therefore in effect largely inactive. In response to this pressure, the ISoc signed an agreement promising not to again transgress SU regulations in return for having their privileges reinstated before the start of the new academic year.

The information was gathered from interviews undertaken by a graduate researcher, not via WND‘s fantasy “undercover agents” from MI5. The report is essentially a case study of how Islamists have caused trouble at a university, and how the university has sought to manage and defuse the situation. Quilliam highlights a real problem in a sober way, and offers some recommendations to City University and to other institutions; but it does not claim that “Britain’s universities” now exist in a “Taliban-type culture”. Of course, such fear-mongering hyperbolic distortions of the report serve only to obscure Quilliam’s research.

And what of the quote attributed by WND to Jonathan Evans, head of MI5? It’s not available on-line anywhere else, and I’m sceptical that he would have used the “seeds of Shariah law” phrase. The idea that the problem of Islamic extremism can be crystallised as “Shariah” is a crudely polemical formulation that belongs for the most part to the American right: its purpose, of course, is to re-cast Islam as an insidious political ideology like Communism. Muslims therefore should not enjoy religious freedom, and “Shariah” can be detected as a secret motivating factor of political opponents (see here). I would hope that Evans is rather more sophisticated than that. This is not the first time that WND has mysteriously got hold of a unique quote from the head of MI5; as I blogged here, earlier this year WND reported on Evans supposedly opining on the dangers of “breast-implant bombers”.

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From the Florida St Petersburg Times:

Leaders of the Nation of Islam are in Tampa to mark the 15th anniversary of the Million Man March.

…Nation of Islam leaders have had ties with Scientology recently, but Muhammad would not say if they were meeting with Scientologists in this area.

“We are studying the Dianetics as a technology that can help members of our community,” [Minister Ishmael Muhammad] said.

Louis Farrakhan has had an interest in L. Ron Hubbard’s Dianetics for a while; in 2006 the same paper reported on an awards ceremony organised by Ebony Awakenings, which is a grouping for African-American Scientologists:

This evening’s black-tie celebration of Black History month at the Fort Harrison Hotel is a clear signal Scientologists are forging fruitful relationships with persuasive voices in some of the nation’s black communities.

Among the four black clergy to be honored at Scientology’s annual Ebony Awakening awards ceremony is Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam.

…In interviews this week, Muhammad and [Baptist pastor Alfreddie] Johnson said they are comfortable partnering with Scientology. They both disclosed a plan to train members of the Nation of Islam to administer Hubbard’s “study tech” and drug treatment methods. The programs will be offered at mosques in the Los Angeles area to start. A similar collaboration is playing out in East Tampa at the Glorious Church of God in Christ. Rev. Charles L. Kennedy has arranged for his congregants to be trained by Scientologists to teach Hubbard’s scholastic and drug treatment techniques to residents in the predominantly black neighborhood.

This wiki page has further information and links to original sources, including a recent report by Mother Tynnetta Muhammad taken from Final Call:

On the eve of Ramadan on August 10th and the 11th [2010], a few sisters headed out from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, on a spectacular journey to the Clear Water Scientology Center… Following dinner, we were taken on a brief tour of the two hotel’s ballrooms, one of which was host to the Ebony Awakening Awards Program held on June 19th, where my son, Rasul Muhammad, was invited to perform. From there, we ascended the elevator to the 10th floor to view the Crystal ballroom; and from there we were escorted to the balcony… As we looked up to the sky, there was a soft gathering of grayish black clouds. Sister Callie Muhammad noticed a small light coming from behind one of the faint cloud formations… A variety of color hues began to appear around the object, which were clearly visible to all of us. The shape of a dome emerged on the top with an angular slant on both sides. At a certain point, we recognized a rotating center ring or hub of bright oscillating lights. The color sequencing that we observed went from amber to reddish tints, to soft greens and blues.

I blogged on links between Scientology and certain Pentecostal churches here, and on links between the Nation of Islam and Rev Moon’s Unification Church here and here.

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The website of the New Generation Church in Ukraine has an interesting report of a visit to Northampton; Google Translate allows us to see the details (I’ve tidied it slightly):

Ukrainian pastor-evangelist Dmitry Makarenko spent last weekend with his wife Natalya in… the United Kingdom… where they arrived at the invitation of the local community movement “New Generation” in the town of Northampton… Dmitry Makarenko held an evangelistic ministry dedicated to the discovery [establishment?] of the New Generation Church in London… Also participating in this ministry was the administrator of the base church “New Generation” in Riga (Latvia) Ludwig Koshin,… British Christian human rights organization [Christian Concern for Our Nation] Andrea Miniciello Williams and Alex Spak, who talked about the position of the church and Christian values in modern society that legal methods to defend their organization.

Makarenko apparently gave a standard evangelistic speech, but the New Generation “base church” in Riga is known more for its virulent anti-gay activism; as I blogged here, the church’s head, Alexei Ledyaev (with whom Makarenko has worked closely), is a huge fan of Scott Lively and his book The Pink Swastika, which claims that the Holocaust was the work of homosexuals. I drew attention to a report published by the Southern Poverty Law Center in 2007, which noted Ledyaev’s influence in the USA:

…Lively credits the popularity of Russian-language translations of The Pink Swastika to the support of Pastor Alexey Ledyaev, the head of the New Generation Church, an evangelical Christian megachurch based in Riga, the capital city of Latvia. New Generation has more than 200 satellite churches spread throughout Eastern Europe, Argentina, Israel and the United States.

…The New Generation theology Ledyaev preaches borrows heavily from R.J. Rushdoony, the late founding thinker of Christian Reconstruction. Pastor Ledyaev’s 2002 book, New World Order, calls for evangelical Christians around the world to influence the wealthy and powerful in their home countries to implement biblical law in order to stave off a supposed alliance of gays and Muslims hell-bent on destroying Christianity. “The first devastating wave of homosexuality makes a way for the second and more dangerous wave of islamization [sic],” writes Ledyaev.

…In addition to Lively and Robertson, Ledyaev has cultivated the support of Rev. Ken Hutcherson, the African-American founder of Antioch Bible Church, a Seattle-area megachurch. “Hutch,” as the ex-NFL player is known, played a key role in persuading Microsoft to temporarily withdraw its support for a Washington bill that would have made it illegal to fire an employee for their sexual orientation. In 2004, his “Mayday for Marriage” rally drew 20,000 people to the Seattle Mariner’s Safeco Field to oppose legalizing same-sex marriage.

One of Ledyaev’s nephews saw Hutcherson speak in Seattle at a March 2006 debate on gay rights and arranged a meeting with the Latvian pastor. By the end of the year, Hutcherson, Ledyaev and Lively had teamed up with Vlad Kusakin, the editor of The Speaker, to form an international alliance to oppose what Hutcherson characterizes as “the homosexual movement saying they’re a minority and that they need their equal rights.”

(I blogged on Hutcherson’s views here – he once famously declared that “If I was in a drugstore and some guy opened the door for me, I’d rip his arm off and beat him with the wet end”)

Following a protest against a gay-rights march in Riga, Ledyaev complained that “Security of the gay was more important than security of the people” and warned that

…Islamization goes full speed wherever homosexual lifestyle is legally accepted. Muslim organizations and committees, centers and mosques, schools are being opened overwhelmingly everywhere…. Homosexuality and islamization are two sides of the medal and integral elements of the one destructive process of European culture and civilization.

Christian Concern for Our Nation has close links with a US Christian Right organisation called the Alliance Defense Fund; I blogged some background on this here. CCFON is also particularly close to Nadine Dorries MP; prior to the election, CCFON members registered and created her campaign website.

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A letter in the Nigeria Nation:

SIR: I am writing to draw the attention of the general public to the incessant threats, attacks and harassment on me and my family members by some state and non-state agents in my community since 2007.

For over three years, a campaign of intimidation has been carried out against my family members by some thugs with the help of some local police officers following our attempt to bring to justice a 50 year old man who allegedly raped a 10 year old girl in the community some years ago.

Several police actions have been brought against us. I and my family members have been invited, arrested and detained by the police over 18 times based on fictitious and malicious allegations brought by these local thugs.

On August 4, 2010, two hired assassins invaded my family house in Mbaise. They attacked my parents and beat up my father, which resulted to his loss of an eye. These criminals are having a field day because of corruption and lack of rule of law in our country. Particularly because the police at all levels have failed in their duties to protect civilians and guarantee justice. Also because our police system is morally bankrupt.

I hereby call upon the Inspector General of Police, Abubakar Ringim, the Commissioner of Police in Owerri, Imo State and the Divisional Police Officer in Ahiazu Mbaise to rise up to their constitutional duties with integrity by protecting my family members and ensuring that we do not suffer further attacks and harassment.
Leo Igwe,

Ahiazu Mbaise,

Imo State

I blogged on this incident here, and the background here. Leo has many enemies in Nigeria, including the evangelist Helen Ukpabio, who hates Leo for his efforts to end the practice of children being accused of witchcraft.  Ukpabio’s followers have left comments on this blog expressing their joy that Leo’s father was attacked and their hope that more misfortune will come.

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Quoted on 2006 Gay Pride event in Jerusalem: “I promise there’s going to be bloodshed, not just on that day, but for months afterwards”

Carl Paladino ‘s manager in his campaign to become governor of New York explains Paladino’s recent remarks in the K’hal Adas Kashau synagogue in Brooklyn (H/T LGF):

“He [Paladino] said the remarks were suggested by his “hosts at the synagogue.” His campaign manager, Michael Caputo, told The New York Post that the congregation distributed the draft in Paladino’s name without clearing it with the campaign. A message was left at the synagogue early Monday.

…”In my speech today to Orthodox Jewish leaders in New York City, I noted my opposition to gay marriage, inspired by my Catholic beliefs,” Paladino said in the statement. “I also oppose discrimination of any form.”

As has been widely reported, Paladino had also expressed opposition to gay pride events, adding that:

Don’t misquote me as wanting to hurt homosexual people in any way. That would be a dastardly lie… I just think my children and your children would be much better off and much more successful getting married and raising a family, and I don’t want them to be brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid and successful option—it isn’t.

However, the New York Times notes that Paladino’s outreach to ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups is being organised by the notorious Rabbi Yehuda Levin:

…a self-described right-wing Brooklyn rabbi named Yehuda Levin… had heard that other Jewish leaders were accusing Mr. Paladino of being an anti-Semite because of disparaging comments he had made about Sheldon Silver, the Assembly speaker. After Mr. Caputo explained Mr. Paladino’s side of the story, Rabbi Levin, a fierce critic of Mr. Silver’s, invited the Republican candidate for governor to address his congregation.

“I told him, ‘I have the credibility that when I go in front of the media and I am representing the Paladino camp, and that if he is coming to my synagogue, right before the holiday of Sukkot, it will mean something,'” Mr. Levin said in an interview on Monday.

 …Mr. Paladino first came to Mr. Levin’s synagogue in September. Mr. Levin then helped arrange his visits to a Williamsburg synagogue and a Borough Park yeshiva — both affiliated with relatively minor sects — on Sunday.

Levin’s vicious monomania on homosexuality rivals that of Fred Phelps: in 1997 he urged a boycott of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, because the museum had dared to mention homosexual victims of the Nazis, and in 2005 (as the Times notes) he described a gay rights march in Jerusalem as the “spiritual rape” of the Holy Land. In 2006, his invective against gays in Jerusalem included an apparent threat of violence. As was reported:

Much more ominously for Jerusalem, thousands of orthodox jews protested this week about the Supreme Court’s decision to allow Gay Pride to go ahead on November 11

…”I promise there’s going to be bloodshed, not just on that day, but for months afterwards,” New York rabbi, Yehuda Levin of the Rabbinical Alliance of America said in July at a joint meeting of Muslim, Jewish and Christian clerics, “In America, we are outraged and disgusted over this event.”

I blogged on this at the time. So, Paladino doesn’t want “to hurt homosexual people in any way”, yet he’ll take advice on what to say on the subject from someone shows no interest in making such a distinction.

On 22 July, Paladino received the endorsement of anti-Islam activist Pamela Geller; a few days later, Paladino came under fire for racist and obscene emails, and Geller responded by promising that “If it turns out that Mr. Paladino did indeed send those emails, I will withdraw my support from him…I will keep you posted”. What this amounted was that she stopped writing about him for a few weeks, until the fuss had died down. A couple of months before that, Geller and her sidekick Robert Spencer had distanced themselves from Martin Mawyer over (to quote Spencer) Mawyer’s “ugly, vitriolic rhetoric” on homosexuality; they had formerly been willing to turn a blind eye to what Mawyer stood for, but the controversy had eventually become too damaging. We look forward to a statement Paladino’s alliance with Levin, who is synonymous with “ugly, vitriolic rhetoric” on the same subject.

UPDATE: Alas:

…On Tuesday, after broad condemnation, Mr. Paladino apologized for his “poorly chosen words” and said he would “fight for all gay New Yorkers’ rights” if elected.

Rabbi Levin said that he considered the apology a betrayal, and that he pined for the “old Carl” who spoke from his heart rather than bending to political whims. 

…Rabbi Levin said Wednesday that Mr. Paladino probably did not write his apology either. He suggested that “militant gays” wrote it and handed it to a naïve Mr. Paladino…

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Bedfordshire-on-Sunday has picked up on Nadine Dorries’ attack on a Twitter user:

A prospective Labour candidate has hit back at her local Tory MP’s remarks about people claiming disability benefits who post on Twitter, which she says were aimed at her.

…Because she is unfit to work as a carer, Ms [Sue] Cullen receives longterm sick pay from the agency she is employed by, but says she doesn’t get any ‘health related benefits’.

Ms Cullen… also writes erotic fiction for a blog called Word Ejaculation.

…”I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it because the blog isn’t offensive and it’s for adults. I don’t see why disabled people shouldn’t be allowed to have a sex life and I wanted to show that.”

Ms Dorries said: “I know many decent members of the local Labour party who will be both shocked and embarrassed to realise they have selected a candidate who writes such sexually graphic literature supported by even more graphic photographs, all of which are easily viewed by children with access to a computer.
 
“To date, Ms Cullen has tweeted 37,000 times, a phenomenal amount, many of which have been about me personally.

“I do not regard someone who can strut around, use a keyboard with such dexterity and had displayed both stamina and an excellent attention span to be ‘disabled’.

“In fact, I think someone who can tweet so frequently is giving housebound disabled people a bad name.”

I blogged on the background to this situation here; Dorries’ attack came days after Ms Cushion (she prefers “Humphrey Cushion” over “Sue” or “Ms Cullen”) had complained about Dorries’ smearing of Tim Ireland as a “nutter”. Dorries has told numerous lies about Tim as a strategy to counter his on-line satire and criticism of her activities, the most egregious of which was the lie that she had deleted her old blog because she feared Tim might physically attack her. Dorries has persisted with her lies even though she knows that a cyber-stalker has been using her accusations as a justification for a campaign of harassment against Tim and his family.

In this context, Dorries’ attack on Ms Cushion is par for the course, and she has followed up her comments in the newspaper with a tirade on her new blog:

Interesting comments by Sue Cullen, the candidate the local Labour party has selected for the forthcoming local elections. She is also the Bedfordshire Labour party organiser who attends meetings in the Jubilee room in the House of Commons with Kerry McCarthy MP, the Labour party Twitter Tsar and whom Kerry McCarthy visits at her home…

I understand that Ms Cushion has never been to the House of Commons or the Jubilee Room. The reference to McCarthy is presumably an attempt to muster support from other right-leaning bloggers: McCarthy was the focus of a weirdly vitriolic campaign against her prior to the election, led by Iain Dale. Dorries has already co-opted the pseudo-libertarian blogger Paul Staines into her attack on Ms Cushion; Dorries intitially pretended that her initial attack on Ms Cushion was only prompted because Staines had “found” her.

Dorries then fires indiscriminate accusations of dishonesty against Ms Cushion, beginning with her public profile:

…Apparently, according to her Labour party bio, she also writes for Bella and the Guardian. Obviously put on the party web site in order to impress and win votes. Or is it con votes? Because it implies she is a fully paid up journalist, or has been for both publications, which is interesting, as when writing a blog post recently, the only writing achievement she referred to was one where she won a competition at the age of sixteen? Conned blog readers?

The site said that she had written items for Bella and the Guardian. The was no implication that she was ever “a fully paid up journalist”, and no way that anyone reading the profile in good faith could have gone away with such an impression.

Next, it’s back to the erotica:

…The adult web site she writes for is not specifically for disabled people in any way whatsoever, or claims to be… It appears Sue Cullen, who writes as Ms Cushion, conned the Beds on Sunday journalist into thinking it was a provision for disabled people.

In fact, Word Ejaculation is a group blog with various contributers. Ms Cushion doesn’t claim that the site “was a provision for disabled people”, just that this was her motivation for writing.

Dorries then moves on to Ms Cushion’s current job:

…She claims her agency is paying her long term whilst she is off sick. And the journalist believed her.  I am sure every carer would like to know the name of the agency, so good that if you are off work for months they keep on paying. So, who’s being conned there? The tweeters or the journalist?

The concept of “long-term sick-leave” is known in a number of jobs, and Dorries offers no evidence that Ms Cushion is not on it.

We then get to the main topic, Ms Cushion’s medical situation:

She has twittered that her disability is due to the Coalition Government cancelling operations she is waiting for on both of her feet.

Really? An operation on both feet for arthritis? Let’s put aside that surgeons never operate on both feet at the same time. This is a medical breakthrough. Hips and knees, yes, now feet! Amazing.  Twitter followers conned again.

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EDL to be addressed by US Rabbi who calls Anti-Defamation League “mind-control wizards” working for “One World Order”

The UK Observer has an article on emerging links between US Tea Party groups and the English Defence League (links added):

…An Observer investigation has established that the EDL has made contact with anti-jihad groups within the Tea Party organisation and has invited a senior US rabbi and Tea Party activist to London this month. Rabbi Nachum Shifren, a regular speaker at Tea Party conventions, will speak about Sharia law and also discuss funding issues.

The league has also developed links with Pamela Geller… Devin Burghart, vice-president of the Kansas-based Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights, said: “Geller is acting as the bridge between the EDL and the Tea Party. She plays an important role in bringing Islamophobia into the Tea Party. Her stature has increased substantially inside the Tea Party ranks after the Ground Zero mosque controversy. She has gained a lot of credibility with that stuff…. As we move farther and farther away from the Tea Party origins, that were ostensibly around debt and bail-outs, social issues like Islamophobia are replacing that anger, that vigour. The idea that there is a war between Islam and the west is becoming commonplace.”

…In addition, two members of the EDL leadership, a British businessman called Alan Lake who is believed to fund the group and a man known by the alias Kinana, are regular contributors to web forum 4Freedoms. The forum claims to be “organising US activities” and has links to the anti-jihad group, American Congress for Truth, which in turn has supporters within the Tea Party.

Lake is also believed to have been in touch with a number of anti-Islamic Christian evangelical groups in the US…

I blogged on Pamela Geller’s enthusiasm for the EDL here,  and on Alan Lake’s endorsement of an attack on the theory of evolution (Stalin, Mao, and Hitler were all “Socialist Darwinist Communist killers”) here. American Congress for Truth, of course, is run by Brigitte Gabriel, who was repudiated by the United Jewish Communities in 2008 when she described Barak Obama as “anti-Semitic”.

It’s not clear why Nachum Shifren is described as being a “senior” rabbi; he’s famous in California as the “surfing rabbi” and for stunts such as calling Jesse Jackson a Nazi, but although he’s written a few popular books there’s no evidence that he is has any influence in American Judaism. His views on the Anti-Defamation League are somewhat outside the mainstream:

…Our history as a people has been divided, roughly, into two camps.

There is one camp that stood at Mt. Sinai, witnessed great miracles, received an awesome legacy, and despite the most horrific of human travails — pogroms, inquisitions, crusades, and more — decided to hand down that legacy from generation to generation.

…There is a second camp — a more sinister group, that has done more damage to the Jews and caused more murder and destruction than all of Israel’s enemies combined. To this troika belong Jews and non-Jews, and our Jewish heritage has been irrevocably altered by this movement.

This second camp is about control of human beings. It holds a vision of a One World Order, together with Marx, Trotsky, and Lenin — an evil that, to date, has claimed nearly two hundred million souls.

With these international bandits and mind-control wizards stands the ADL (Anti-Defamation League). Now, if anyone else would say this, that person would be labeled an anti-Semite. But as anyone that knows me will tell you, I am a Jew who strives always to do good, give to charity, and am diligent in study and prayer. Of my many shortcomings, anti-Semitism is not one of them.

…The entire world, including Christians of all faiths, knows and understands that there is only one people in the world that was given the Land of Israel as an eternal inheritance: the Jews. The only people in the world who rebel against this eternal truth is the ADL and their communist comrades and enablers. Why?

In order for there to be a ONE WORLD ORDER, man’s spirit and soul must be brought low, be subjugated to the level of the beasts. This was the communist credo, to claim that we are no better than animals that must be controlled. G-d must be destroyed, faith debauched, and religion — ALL RELIGION — extinguished.

The ADL has other Jewish critics, but they avoid describing it as an organisation of “mind-control wizards” out to create a “ONE WORLD ORDER”, for obvious reasons; the above has been cited with enthusiasm on David Duke’s website. A 1999 Salon profile notes that Shifren spent time living as an Israeli settler in the West Bank:

…he opted to reside in Kfar Tapuah, a West Bank settlement perched a half-hour from the “lousy” Mediterranean surf. Kfar Tapuah is considered an extremely militant, right-wing, anti-government stronghold. “I’d compare its residents to white militants in the United States,” says Hagit Yaari, an Israeli spokesperson for Americans for Peace.

Shifren is currently standing to be a State Senator in California, and he has been endorsed by Tom Trento, among others.

According to the “Liberties Alliance” website, Shifren

will be attending a rally outside the Israeli embassy [in London] on 24 October 2010 at 1pm. Join him and supporters of the English Defence League and support this rally.

The Observer quotes him as saying that

“One of the purposes of this visit is to put the kibosh on the notion in the Jewish community that they cannot co-operate with the EDL, which is rubbish”

l blogged on the nascent EDL “Jewish Division” here; the group was condemned by the British Board of Deputies and by the Community Security Trust – both presumably part of the “One World Order” Communist conspiracy.

(var: English Defense League)

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