Bartholomew's Notes

As has been widely reported, Islamic hardliners in Bekasi, on the outskirts of Jakarta, have been throwing their weight around – and now posters have appeared calling for the lynching of a local Christian. The AP reports:

Outsiders have steadily poured into the Jakarta suburb in search of work, bringing with them their own religions, traditions and values. That has made conservative Islamic clerics nervous.

…In this context, it wasn’t surprising that when 14 busloads of villagers arrived last week at the Bekasi home of Henry Sutanto, who heads the Christian-run Mahanaim Foundation, rumors quickly spread that he and one of his colleagues, Andreas Sanau, were planning a mass baptism.

…The house has since been abandoned. [Sanau] ‘s bespectacled face now appears on a banner—draped in front of a mosque—with a fiery noose around his neck and the words, “This man deserves the death penalty!”

Leading the demands for action against “Christianization” is Murhali Barda of the thuggish Islamic Defenders Front, although he’s not the only one; the Jakarta Globe notes that

In a move that could add to already simmering religious tensions in Bekasi, a new group calling itself the Bekasi Islamic Presidium is planning a roadshow aimed at persuading every mosque in the city to prepare for the possibility of “war” against “Christianization.”

The group, consisting of nine members representing different Islamic organizations in the city, was formed on Sunday, the last day of the Bekasi Islamic Congress at Al Azhar Mosque that was convened to address the so-called Christianization problem.

A second article has further details of a meeting the week before:

Abdul Qodir Aka, a local official with the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), told the Jakarta Globe that the congress’s objective was to “create recommendations for the Bekasi administration on what steps it should take in the wake of recent incidents of defamation” of Islam.

Abdul Qodir was referring to Abraham Felix, a 16-year-old student of SMA 5 high school in Bekasi. Pictures of Abraham stomping on a Koran, the Islamic holy book, and one of him allegedly putting it in a toilet were posted on a blog, enraging the local Islamic community.

Police arrested Abraham in May on suspicion of creating the blog. He was charged with Article 156 of the Criminal Code for religious blasphemy.

That same month, the St. Bellarminus Catholic school in Bekasi was attacked by a group of people over another blog post, suspected to be Abraham’s work, which displayed the school’s name and posted pictures and writings that defamed Islam.

Abdul Qodir said on Sunday that the Islamic Congress was supported by the Bekasi administration, and was the culmination of talks between members of the local FPI chapter and Mayor Mochtar Mohamad.

The Malaysia Star has some further background:

“The job of the militia is to monitor the activities of Christians as there are many cases of apostates, baptism,” said Murhali Barda, head of the Bekasi chapter of the radical Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), who participated in the meeting.

…In February, FPI forcibly shut down the Galilea Church in Bekasi.

The Protestant Filadelfia Church in Bekasi have been holding services by the roadside since its church was shut down in January by another hardline group called the Islamic Communication Forum (FKUI).

“Since January, hundreds of demonstrators screaming ‘Burn!’, ‘Forbidden!’ will descend on us almost every weekend during service,” said Reverend Palti Panjaitan of Filadelfia Church.

“The site where we hold services are also often smeared with carcasses, animal faeces and rotten eggs,” added Rev Panjaitan.

As for the supposed “mass baptism”; the Jakarta Globe again:

Bekasi Police Chief Sr. Comr Imam Sugianto denied there had been a mass baptism. “All of them were students and they were at that house for recreation. They all went there for a swim,” he said.

Some poorly translated articles on Voice of al-Islam give the Islamist version of events, which show suspicion over Christian symbols:

The blasphemy procession of Islam was  done in carnival programme of “Bekasi free of drugs” sunday, may,2. While holding a poster Bekasi city drugs committee, Benny Tunggul claimed that the programme was conducted by BNK cooperated with team commitee. That activity was led by Wong Christofer Cahyadi.

Twenty participants who wore Christian symbols made step into they yard of al- Barkah Bekasi great mosque. They made a line on the direction of mosque and formed ” The crown of pope and cross” formation.

…Chinese person at the front line brought purple crown of pope. it placed on tray that decorated with purple velvet cloth. Second person stood behind held up his stick on. next, someone dressed in the style of roman army, cross  white colored imitation sword. Combination between stick and sword at the yard of the great mosque formed cross formation. It emerged many critics from moslem on Bekasi.

A photo shows a Christian poster of man holding a crown and sceptre; this is probably what is meant by the “crown of pope”, although more likely it was some sort of symbol of the authority of God (see below).

Further:

At first, the carnival parade was run so well, on the first line was preceded by light blue uniformed marching band. at the back part was found David star, a Hebrew logo. Then, it is  followed with elementary students who brought Christians banners, such as Elshadai, Adonai, Yehova Rapha, Yehova shalom, Yehova nissi, Yehova shammah, etc. There was also large white flag david star.

…Meanwhile, two of them did not come along to form a cross formation, they distributed souvenir such as key, ring and crown cross rubber ban inscribed “Joel Generation”.

That last detail is suggestive of an American influence, where some neo-Pentecostals talk militaristically of the “Joel Generation” or “Joel’s Army”, a supposed movement of youth that will bring religious revival. Catholic leaders appear wary and keen to keep the peace; Catholic Culture reports:

“The Church’s line is this: not to react on her own to the provocation by radicals, but to always seek ecumenical fellowship and full harmony and cooperation of other religious leaders, starting with Muslims,” adds Father Ignazio Ismartono, SJ, an official of the Indonesian bishops’ conference. “At the root of the matter it seems to me that there is a problem that affects the relationship between Islamic groups and Protestant Christian groups, within their spheres of action and influence … Every religious community not propagate their faith so fanatically. This approach only leads to a reaction of fanaticism in other communities. It’s a vicious circle that we must emerge from.”

Here are the anti-Christian placrards and posters which have appeared in Bekasi

I last blogged on Islamic fundamentalism in Indonesia here.

(As ever, I doubt that anyone cares what I think, but just so that I’m not accused of anything: I can understand Ismartono’s wish to keep the peace in a dangerous situation, but people should of course be free to “propagate their faith” as “fanatically” as they wish, so long as they don’t make threats. And even if there really is a “Christianization” going on, Muslim leaders should ponder how to make their own religion more attractive, rather than make threats)

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As I blogged a few months ago, in August last year Helen Ukpabio was “consecrated” as an Apostle by Bishop N E Moses; Moses used the opportunity to denounce those who had criticised her teaching on the existence of child witches, as he ranted about “Witches attacking! Wizards attacking! “Atheists attacking!” He also praised members of Ukpabio’s church for disrupting a conference on the problem of children stigmatised as witches.

The “consecration” was well-attended by Ukpabio’s supporters and by her associates in the film business. A number of religious leaders gave their backing to the event, and  a handbill for the consecration service carries some names and photos (although mostly illegible, the names can be discerned when cross-referenced with another advert). They are:

Prelate Isaiah Isong [founder of Christ Believers Assembly]

Bishop Jonas Katung [of Maranatha Covenant Church, Jos]

Bishop [Leonard] Kawas [of World Harvest Ministries Inc]

Bishop Elkanah Hanson [of El Shaddai Ministries, Port Harcourt]

Bishop Victor Uzosike [General Overseer of Kingdom Life Gospel Church (Destiny Chapel), the church arm of Gospel Outreach Ministries]

Bishop Mike Laju [of Mike Laju Ministries and The MOG Ministries]

Also mentioned is “Rev Dr Daniel Bassey”

The consecration was preceded by a week-long event called “Empowerment for Greater Service” at Ukpabio’s church, with a similar line-up that includes two more people:

Bishop Godwin Okafor

Comdr. Ezekiel Duke

There were also fellow-pastors from her “Liberty Gospel” church; as I noted in February, a newspaper report mentioned

Eyo Nkute, Louis Oku, Excellence Sambo, and Alobi Ofuka – superintendents of the church in Port Harcourt, Lagos, Abuja, and Enugu, respectively.

On her website, Ukpabio states that:

Unlike other ministries where witches and wizards are beaten or stoned to death, Liberty is the only Ministry that shows mercy to witches. No matter the degree and level of the witchcraft, deliverance is certain through Helen Ukpabio’s ministration. In dealing with witchcraft possessed persons, the deliverance is conducted in a very easy and mild way that one may wonder if at all it will work. Of course it works so perfectly. The process of delivering witches is mild that she doesn’t even lay her hands on them yet all will be delivered. She can minister to one thousand witches at the same time and all will be delivered at the same time. This is a mystery.

…It is only in Helen’s Ministry that witches have been stopped, delivered and cleared to worship God without projecting any longer to any demonic realm or circles. If you are a witch, smile, get in contact with the woman of God for your deliverance – free of charge.

This is her defence against the claim that she harms children. But of course, it’s not as simple as that: Ukpabio has used her influence to cause trouble for a hostel protecting stigmatised children, and children are suffering because of the very idea that a child can cause misfortune by “projecting” a “demonic realm”. Ukpabio’s method of deliverance may milder than forms found elsewhere, but not everyone who sees her films or reads her books will be able to come to her church in person – and even a “mild” deliverance for “witchcraft possession” is based on something which is simply not true. The suffering of children on account of witch-stigmatisation will come to an end only when it becomes impossible to take the idea of “child-witches” seriously. It doesn’t require “atheism” or “humanism” to see that the teaching is harmful and absurd, just a bit of reason – a human capacity available to humanists, Christians, and followers of other religions. Why is it that Ukpabio encounters “one thousand witches at the same time” at her church, when hundreds of thousands of other churches around the world have no such experience? Or anything even approaching it?

Christian leaders in Nigeria (and beyond) could play a significant positive role in ending witch-stigmatisation. There’s nothing in the Bible which says that misfortune or illness can be caused by children “projecting a demonic realm”, and it is their duty to make that clear.

Those who endorse Ukpabio are part of the problem. And those who perhaps privately have reservations, but are reluctant to create a public controversy, need to consider whether they really deserve to be in a leadership position.

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From Human Events:

SHOCKING: Kagan’s Princeton Thesis Cited German Socialist Who Endorsed Nazis

A complete non-story follows, prompted by some passing comments in Elena Kagan’s undergraduate thesis derived from Werner Sombart. In the introduction to her thesis, Kagan observed that

Ever since Werner Sombart first posed the question in 1905, countless historians have tried to explain why there is no socialism in America.

Indeed; his translated book Why is there No Socialism in the United States? has spurred ongoing academic discussion. Kagan’s thesis famously was on American socialism, so naturally she referred to it – but she recognised that it was the first word on the subject, not the last:

In the first two decades of the twentieth century the American socialist movement, whose very existence Sombart refused to consider, grew if not by leaps and bounds at least by inches…

…historians have often called attention to various characteristics of American society that have militated against widespread acceptance of radical movements. These societal traits – an ethnically divided worked class, a relatively fluid class structure, an economy which allowed at least some workers to enjoy what Sombart termed ‘reefs of roast beef and apple pie,’ – prevented the early twentieth century socialists from attracting an immediate mass following. Such conditions did not, however, completely checkmate American socialism.

Anyone who has had even a casual encounter with the social sciences will understand why Sombart is being cited here: his book set the ball rolling for a particular research agenda, and much of the later discussion will have engaged with his book – not as an “authority” to be slavishly followed, but as a resource to be drawn from, adapted, critiqued, or even exploded. Had Kagan not cited Sombart, her examiners might have questioned how well she knew the field – it would be like writing on Protestantism’s relation to the development of capitalism without showing knowledge of Weber or Tawney.

However, Sombart  became increasingly reactionary, and by the time of his death in 1941 he was a Nazi. He also went on to write critically about the “Jewish spirit” of rationalism, which he saw as in conflict with German “creativity”. Human Events doesn’t go so far as to say that because Kagan cited his book on American socialism she must therefore sympathise with any of this, but that’s obviously what’s inferred – they just know it would look too stupid to state outright.

The disgusting Pamela Geller, though, has no such qualms; she has reposted the article, with an added mock-up of Kagan dressed in a Nazi uniform (provided by “BigFurHat”, responsible for Geller’s various graphics; see my blog entry here), and her own deranged commentary:

How broken are we that we would consider an admirer of an architect of German national socialism, Nazism, to sit in one of the most powerful judicial chairs in the world? The Obama freak show continues and we are his victims…

What’s worse here? Is it the insult to our intelligence? Is it the McCarthyist anti-intellectualism, by which a person is denounced through the most tenuous association? Or is it, as is so common these days, the complete trivialisation of Nazism?

Surely such debased rhetoric must be an embarrassment to John Bolton, who wrote a foreword for Geller’s recent book?

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Sometime during May, an attack website was created to defend “Apostle” Helen Ukpabio following a critical article about her child-witch teachins in the New York Times. The website suggested that the author of the NY Times article was part of a conspiracy which involves Gary Foxcroft, Leo Igwe, Olusegun Fakoya, and myself (this is somewhat flattering to me, as I’ve done far less than the others). Supposedly we are all part of an anti-religious “Darkwins [sic] philosophy”. The blog author uses a pseudonym, although she or he purports to have some background information about how the NY Times interview came to take place. The author has also done a bit of research, digging up that I used to work in Japan, and the site originally carried a number of personal photographs belonging to the journalist (now removed).

The website contains the kind of bluster and abuse that we’ve seen before, but what’s more surprising is that it also contains extremely crude sexual comments about the wife the New York Times journalist – which suggests that the author is prepared to stoop far lower than one might expect from a supposed Christian, and has a particularly disturbed mind. If I were Ukpabio, I’d want to repudiate such embarassing “support” as quickly as possible, since it only brings discredit to her and to the evangelists who have endorsed her.

I checked out Whois to find out the registration details:

Registrant ID: DI_7346064
Registrant Name: Gabriel O. Egba
Registrant Organization: Gaboeski Integrated Services

Egba is also the registrant for Ukpabio’s Liberty Foundation Gospel Ministries, and for a number of other churches in Nigeria (in some cases through a subsiduary called “GabOeski Consults”). The Gaboeski website used to carry a notice that it has “built and Hosted website for many Churches, Businesses, Clubs, Organizations, Companies and individuals”. The company itself, though, does not have any particular religious identity.

Of course, none of this means that Gaboeski supports Ukpabio’s teachings or the content of the attack blog, and so I emailed Egba to ask him if his registration for the attack website was simply a professional assignment or whether he had any other connections with Ukpabio. I also made him aware of the controversy around her teachings about “child witches”. The email bounced back, and so I used a webform on the Gaboeski website. I also contacted him via Facebook. I received no reply, although the attack website went down for a couple of days and, somewhat curiously, Egba has now partially changed his name on his Facebook profile.

UPDATE: As a result of the above, a new post has been added to the attack site, directed specifically at me… and containing unpublished details about the message that I sent to Egba via Facebook. This shows that Egba is fully aware of the site’s contents, and that he decided to pass on my message to the site’s author.

UPDATE 2: A Facebook profile in Ukpabio’s name has the following:

UPDATE 3: A death threat arrives via Facebook, from a certain “Mary John“:

…DEATH AWAITS YOU,I KNOW U DON’T REALLY KNOW WHAT U ARE INTO,YOU ARE IN FOR DOOM AND DIST RUCTION,UNLESS U REPENT TODAY AND APOLOGIZE TO HER… USE YOUR TONGUE AND COUNT YOUR TEETH.THIS IS A PIECE OF ADVICE TO YOU

By strange coincidence, “Mary John” is also a Facebook friend of Egba…

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Religioscope carries an interview with Basil Kobakhidze, a Georgian ex-priest who is known for his criticisms of religious extremism and alleged abuses within the Georgian Orthodox church (I wrote a blog entry on him here). Among other topics, he discusses a church plan to restore the monarchy:

L’an dernier, le patriarche a néanmoins directement essayé d’organiser un scénario de transition politique. Il est allé chercher le dernier descendant de la famille princière des Bagration. Ce jeune homme, le prince David Bagration, a toujours vécu en Espagne et ne parle pas un mot de géorgien. L’Eglise l’a marié en grande pompe à une descendante d’une autre branche des Bagration, de manière à symboliser l’union de la Géorgie. Le nouveau couple princier devait avoir un enfant, qui aurait dû être élevé par le patriarche, pour en faire le futur souverain chrétien de la Géorgie.

Patriarch Ilia II called for a constitutional monarchy in a sermon in 2007; opposition politicians expressed support, and another church figure enthused over the prospect in mystical terms:

…Archpriest Tariel Sakinchilashvili, has stated that the Patriarch will name and bless the Georgian monarch in the very near future.

‘He appeared on earth thirty years ago, when our Patriarch was enthroned’, said Fr Tariel. ‘I am convinced that Georgia will discover the name of its monarch this year. At first many will be amazed, public opinion may be divided, but in the course of about three years everything will take shape’.

…’The Lord’s Anointed is among us now, he became thirty when the Patriarch announced that the rebirth of the monarchy was vital. Obviously, he is a representative of the Bagration royal family and an Orthodox Christian’.

This was an obvious reference to Prince David; although raised in Spain, he moved to Georgia a few years ago, and he is reportedly an altar server for the Patriarch. His family’s website notes that:

The Royal House of Bagrationi has contributed greatly to the history of the Georgian Orthodox Church. The kings of this Royal House were very much concerned with strengthening the Georgian Church, and were constantly working toward this objective.

He is also Grand Master of a couple of chivalric orders: the Order of the Eagle of Georgia and the Seamless Tunic of Our Lord Jesus Christ and of the Order of the Holy Queen Tamar (I wrote a blog entry on the curious “chivalric” sub-culture here).

The marriage (which Ilia blessed but was absent from for medical reasons) was meant to end a dispute over the succession, but it has foundered and there is so far no heir to be raised to be a “Christian king” (the family website contains no mention of Prince David’s wedding or his Bagration-Gruzinsky in-laws). Kobakhidze repeats a claim that the marriage has been sabotaged by the Georgian government, although no evidence is given.

It is the case, though, that the Georgian authorities were wary of the marriage; Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili claimed that it was a “Russian project” and that the bride had been “forced” to divorce her previous husband to facilitate the union. This was despite the fact that Prince David had joined Georgian soldiers on the front line in 2008 and had denounced “the true face of Russia”.

Also supporting the restoration of the monarchy is the militant Orthodox activist Malkhaz Gulashvili, whom I blogged here. However, his appeal to President Saakashvili was an absurdly unattractive pitch; he opined that  “Saakashvili can become a Georgian Franco” if he were to restore the monarchy.

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More mangled pseudo-scholarship from Joel Richardson, who at WorldNetDaily asks a Great Religious Question to Which the Answer is No:

Does the Bible predict destruction of Saudi Arabia?

Middle-Eastern media outlets are reporting that Israel may be about to launch a major attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Last week, Israel Today reported that Saudi Arabia had given Israel permission to use its airspace for an attack, and now the Iranian Fars News Agency has reported that a squad of Israeli jets has even landed at a military airstrip in Saudi Arabia. Could this development have any significance with regard to biblical prophecy? I believe it could.

And the reason is – because the weird symbolism of the Book of Revelation allows just about any interpretation to be imposed upon it:

As the story unfolds, we are introduced to the seven-headed beast, a being which represents the seven world empires of history that have sought to destroy Israel. In that the beast is seen to be a reflection of Satan the dragon, it is also believed that these gentile empires have been Satan’s primary vehicles or strongholds in the earth. The first world empire that made efforts to destroy the Hebrew people, of course, was Egypt. Egypt was followed by Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. This brings the number of empires to six. There is one more. Each one of these empires share the commonalities of having possessed the same destructive anti-Semitic spirit. Each sought, but failed, to exterminate the Jewish people.

…Identifying “Mystery Babylon” is actually far simpler than it might seem. The prototype of the ultimate last-days Babylon, of course, was simply Babylon, the spiritual and economic capital of the Empire of Babylonia. Later in the first century, however, the Apostle Peter, writing from Rome, the capital of the Roman Empire, referred to Rome as “Babylon” (1 Peter 5:13). In this, we see that the early church understood “Babylon” to be a concept that migrated. Babylon is a symbolic codeword that refers to the capital of the reigning beast empire. In the first century, the persecuting beast empire was the Roman Empire. But today, the anti-Semitic beast empire of the earth is the Islamic Empire.

Where to begin? Yes, the early church regarded Babylon as Rome – but that was because of Roman persecution of Christians, not because of how the Roman Empire treated “the Hebrew people”. The author of Revelation’s villain is Nero, not Vespasian or Titus. The seven-headed beast thus simply represents Rome, which, as everyone knows, is famous for having seven hills. That’s the simplest solution to the problem of the “seven heads”: there’s no need to go ransacking ancient history looking for other empires that have attacked Israel, much less speculate about some future empire which isn’t even hinted at in the text of Revelation.

And Richardson’s “six world empires” that “made efforts to destroy the Hebrew people” is botched, anyway. Obviously, his schema is derived from the vision in Daniel 2 in the Hebrew Bible, but it’s not a close reading: Daniel’s vision is concerned with Asian empires from Babylon through to the Hellenistic period – Egypt does not figure, and Daniel’s empires are listed because they were successive world powers, not because of their antipathy to Israel. Richardson’s list is just his own speculation – and why would Persia be included as part of “Mystery Babylon”, when the Bible regards Cyrus as a Messiah who restored the Jews following the Babylonian capivity?

And if attempts to “extermine the Jewish people” are the author of Revelation’s primary concern, and he really did have a supernatural power to foresee the future (rather than writing for his own time and context, as with comparable Apocalyptic texts), surely he would have referenced the Third Reich?

As for Saudi Arabia, Richardson notes that it exports “radical Islamic pro-jihad” literature, while simultaneously being reviled across the Muslim world as corrupt. Thus,

As the spiritual and economic capital of the reigning anti-Semitic beast empire of our day, Saudi Arabia/Mecca may be identified as the Great Prostitute of Revelation 17 and 18… As I have traveled the nation, after teaching on this subject, I’ve yet to meet anyone who has rejected the idea outright.

Maybe he should meet a wider range of people…

Apparently, Saudi Arabia is likely to be destroyed because “the Saudis are collaborating with the Jewish nation, the enemy of all enemies, to launch an attack on Iran”. This is despite the fact that supporting Israel is supposed to be a good thing. Such is the convoluted thinking of Christian Zionism, in which bizarre speculations about geo-politics and global war seem to have completely displaced the historic concerns of Christianity.

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The National Review Online has an editorial on the case of Mosab Hassan Yousef:

Mosab Hassan Yousef must have encountered nearly everything on his unlikely journey. But surely he never ran across anything as stupid as the American immigration bureaucracy.

As has been widely reported,  Yousef is threatened with deportation due to his past links to Hamas – even though he was spying for Israel:

…The department bases its argument on Yousef’s autobiography, Son of Hamas. In it, he reports that when Shin Bet agents showed him pictures of Hamas members who were suspected of involvement in a March 2001 bombing, he told the agents that he’d driven some of the members to safehouses. Of course, this is the kind of thing that spies do routinely — assist the enemy when asked, especially in small ways, so as not to blow their cover. Common sense indicates that our material-support rules don’t apply to support that’s provided — at the behest of a U.S. ally — within a broader attempt to bring down a terrorist organization.

If Yousef returns to the West Bank, he risks execution. Obviously, DHS doesn’t believe he’s a threat, or it would detain him; in fact, the FBI has advised DHS that Yousef is not a threat. He has converted to Christianity and has become vocal critic of Islam.

This is a reasonable assessment of what’s probably going on – various other commentators, though, are suggesting that the deportation threat is coming directly from “the Obama administration” as part of a pro-Muslim conspiracy.

But (as I asked previously) why would he be returned to “the West Bank” even if he is deported? Surely he would simply arrive at Tel Aviv? There’s something of an elephant in the room here  – and there’s a piece of evidence from the Israeli right that would perhaps assist Yousef’s case for remaining in the USA. The Jerusalem Post reported the following in April:

Thousands of Palestinian collaborators who have moved to Israel in search of protection live here without basic human rights, financial assistance or adequate social benefits, according to a first-of-its kind report on the living conditions of those who have risked their lives for the Jewish state.

Published last month by the Legal Forum for Eretz Israel, the report highlights the plight of more than 6000 individuals and their families who are either not officially recognized, or only partially recognized, as being collaborators with Israel, and who are basically left to fend for themselves after being deemed traitors by the Palestinian authorities.

“There are literally thousands of threatened people who have been living in Israel for more than ten years with a special [temporary] permit but who are not allowed to work and do not receive health benefits,” said [Michael] Teplow [var. Michael Tupelow], explaining that many are employed on the black market for very low pay and under terrible conditions. “These people go through serious mental anguish every three months when their permit has to be renewed. They never know if they might be suddenly arrested [by the Israeli authorities] and returned across the border.”

Perhaps this isn’t surprising – while Yousef was motivated by humanitarian concerns, many other Palestinian collaborators were coerced by Israel; the BBC noted last month that

Some do it for money, some are compromised sexually, others may do it for the promise of medical treatment unavailable in the Palestinian territories.

It is unlikely that Israel is going to care about such Palestinians’ long-term interests. However, this context does not feature in any of the discussion about Yousef’s case. It appears that Israel’s support for him has not gone further than a letter of recommendation, although his Shin Bet handler has broken the rules to speak on his behalf.  If Yousef faces a “death sentence” if deported, it’s because Israel either cannot or will not look after its collaborators – but this doesn’t seem to be a subject that anyone wants to talk about in any detail. Is the USA to take in all collaborators under threat, or just those who convert to Christianity and link up with conservative “anti-jihad” pundits?

Meanwhile, among those supporting Yousef is Walid Shoebat, who promotes the conspiracy-theory version of the situation on OneNewsNow:

Like Yousef, Walid Shoebat is a former Muslim who converted to Christianity and became an outspoken critic of Islam. He says authorities are trying to find something in Yousef’s book that would allow them to accuse him of terrorism.

…”We have an administration that basically wants to fight against repentant terrorists while they want to release the real terrorists in Gitmo [Guantanamo Bay, Cuba],” he notes. “I think the reason is because Mosab Hasan Yousef speaks against Islam openly. He talks about the Koran and Islam as being evil. They don’t like this kind of thing, and they want to extradite him.”

Although Shoebat is keen to endorse Yousef,  Yousef would be wise to keep some distance: Shoebat’s own story is far less impressive – and is coming under renewed scrutiny with the recent humilitation of Ergun Caner. Caner is being demoted by Liberty University after discrepencies in his story of being an ex-jihadist came to light; the Religious News Service reports that:

Other terrorists-turned-Christians have invited scrutiny as well, including U.S. citizens Walid Shoebat, author of Why We Want To Kill You, and Kamal Saleem, who has worked for Focus on the Family, and recently wrote The Blood of Lambs. Like Caner’s book, their books purport to be insider explorations of radical Islam.

…Skeptics point out Shoebat and Saleem claim to have carried out their terrorist activities in the 1960s and 1970s, long before modern Islamic radicalism emerged in the 1980s. They also question why, if their terror claims are true, they’ve been able to retain their U.S. citizenship.

In Shoebat’s case, he’s a birth American on his mother’s side, but he and Saleem do seem to have rather an easy time of it when compared with Yousef’s current difficulties.

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(Updated and amended)

Searchlight‘s Hope Not Hate website carries an article about EDL leader “Tommy Robinson” – and reveals his real name:

Searchlight can exclusively reveal that the leader of the English Defence League is a former British National Party member… Self-proclaimed EDL leader Tommy Robinson is really Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, from Bedford.

…The revelation that Robinson had been a member of the BNP explains why so many of the initial EDL activists also attended BNP meetings in the Luton/Bedford area.

…It also explains the real reason why Robinson felt the need to hide his face.

“Tommy Robinson” has now confirmed his identity as Yaxley-Lennon on Facebook.

So why has this come out now?

The exposure of his identity follows a split in the EDL that is mostly being fought over the internet.

Paul Ray, self-styled spiritual guru of the EDL, has posted a series of messages on his Lionheart blog, in which he and his friend Nick Greger announce their intention to take control of the EDL. Ray was the original mover in creating the EDL, although he quickly fell out with the other leaders and moved abroad to Malta. Ray has focused his efforts on making Crusader-themed anti-Muslim promotional videos.

I’ve blogged this saga on numerous occasions; indeed, the Searchlight article includes some material lifted from me (particularly here, and annoyingly without credit). The article adds:

…It is thought that Ray and Greger were responsible for the appearance of a video on YouTube that unveiled Robinson as Stephen Yaxley along with a series of photographs, following outlandish claims by Ray that the EDL led by Robinson threatened to kidnap and harm members of Ray’s family.

This is not quite the full story: on 14 June a video appeared entitled “EDL leader Tommy Robinson Unmasked” (H/T Contemporary Anarchist), posted by “EDLmediauk” (who does not have any other uploads), and this appears to be the video to which Searchlight refers. However, although this video showed photos of Yaxley-Lennon, it didn’t give his name. His name does appear, though, in a mysterious video that was uploaded on 11 October 2009 by a certain”mrmuppet100” and entitled “English Defence League”; the same photos were displayed over audio of “Tommy Robinson’s” voice, and a comment was  added underneath the upload:

hey its steven yaxley………….

I originally thought that Ray took himself far too seriously to have chosen such a pseudonym as “mrmuppet100“, but the new video uses imagery from the Muppet Show to make fun of Yaxley-Lennon and other EDL leaders – that was probably also the sense in which “mrmuppet” meant to use the name. The new video also has some stylistic similarities with Ray’s videos, and it also derides Chris Renton – whom Ray particularly dislikes – and Joel Titus, the EDL youth leader whom I’ve blogged about previously. The photos of Yaxley-Lennon in the new video appear to have been taken directly from the October video, since the face of another person is edited out in the same way.

UPDATE: 1 Million United writes:

…’Robinson’ has not been seen since the story broke.

The EDL are keeping all talk of his subsequent disappearance off of their forum and official websites. Of course, the real clue is this; ‘Tommy Robinson’ deleted his Facebook account very shortly after the story broke and his cover was blown. He is no longer even listed on the admins list of the official EDL Facebook group.

1 Million United also has a screenshot of a statement on the EDL Media Facebook page:

We are aware of the article in the recent edition of Searchlight and also the article published in the Hope Not Hate website. We are not ignoring the article and are in the process of looking into its comments with regard to various issues.

We will update you later and in the meantime please just treat the article with the contempt it deserves.

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Pastor Carl Gallups, who last year brought us “Jesus saw Satan as Baraq Ubamah“, is back with a new video; as before, over to WorldNetDaily:

Is oil catastrophe fulfillment of Genesis prophecy?

“April the 19th, Israel celebrates its independence in 2010,” Gallups says in narration on the video. “On April the 19th, Fox News reports that the U.S. will no longer automatically support Israel in the United Nations. The next day, on April the 20th, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explodes. Coincidence? Or the hand and judgment of God?”

…In the Book of Genesis, God told him, “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse … .”

Here’s the Fox News report:

The Obama administration is reportedly signaling another major shift in policy towards one of its staunchest allies, Israel, and this shift could change the way it votes at the Security Council. The change would mean an end to the US’ use of its veto power in the United Nations Security Council when certain anti-Israel resolutions are introduced for a vote.?

Reports surfaced a couple of weeks ago, that a senior US diplomat met with Qatar’s foreign minister in Paris. They discussed the possibility that the US was giving serious consideration to not using its veto if a vote on Israeli settlements was to come up. It has been the policy of successive administrations to veto virtually all anti-Israel resolutions at the Security Council.?

While the Israeli spokesperson at the United Nations would not comment on the reports, US officials at the UN told Fox News that there is no such initiative before the Security Council and they are not “pursuing or encouraging such action”, but some critics believe they are playing a game of smoke and mirrors.?

So, the US has perhaps been “considering” this for a while; reports “surfaced a couple of weeks ago”, but the story only reached the attention of the omniscient creator of the universe after it had appeared on Fox. And God’s response to the development – which actually reflects long-term US opposition to settlement-expansion – is to blight the Gulf of Mexico around the same time as Israel’s Independence Day.

Gallups – who also promotes birther conspiracy theories – is pastor of the wonderfully Landoveresque Hickory Hammock Baptist Church in Milton, Florida. He also has a radio show, which has interviewed Alan Keyes, Joe Kovacs, Orly Taitz, and Mario Appuzzo.

But is he for real? A few days ago he posted a strange interview on his church’s website:

“The videos that I have produced concerning the question ‘Is Barack Obama the antichrist?’ are first and foremost, ‘novelty’ pieces and ‘political satire.’ How so many people who claim to be so ‘enlightened’ could have missed that is beyond me. The same type of stuff was done with Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Saddam Hussein and Hitler,” Gallups said.

…When asked what the most surprising reaction to his videos was, Pastor Gallups responded, “Well, you expect some of the leftist media or the rabid Obama supporters to miss the satire or the novelty element. That certainly has happened. There have been hit pieces scattered all over the net calling me all kinds of ugly names. Again, that was to be expected.”

…Gallups said, “Amazingly, I think Rachael Maddow, an outspoken leftist and Obama supporter ‘got it’ more than anyone else who reported on the videos. She noted within her report that it clearly ‘had to be’ satire. She got it, and biblical ‘scholars’ didn’t. Funny, huh?”

So how much of his other Biblical teaching is just “satire”? Does his congregation take it as such? Does WorldNetDaily know this? This is weird – he is a Biblical fundamentalist, and at the time his “Satan as Baraq Ubamah” piece was presented as being in earnest. Indeed, he even revised his video after an initial round of debunking. It seems to me that he’s simply thrown in the towel on that one, and he’s attempting to save face by announcing it was just a joke all along and that therefore those who called him out have been shown up (He’s not alone in this: I had a similar response from Joel Richardson when I debunked his claim that the stage setting for Obama’s 2008 primary acceptance speech was based on the pagan Pergamum Altar, which the Book of Revelation calls “the Throne of Satan”).

And as for “ppsimmons”, under whose name the videos are posted and who supposedly conducted the interview:

Ppsimmons, himself, and his staff produce other vids. Ppsimmons chooses, thus far, to remain anonymous. He feels that it adds to the “allure” of his site.

UPDATE: Right Wing Watch notes:

Yesterday, Cindy and Mike Jacobs of Generals International hosted a special webcast with Chuck Pierce on their website that focused primarily on explaining how the BP oil spill in the Gulf is due to President Obama’s poor treatment of Israel. 

Jacobs explained that years ago Bob Jones prophesied that following the death of Oral Roberts, the Gulf Coast would be hit with an oil spill and two hurricanes.  Apparently that prophecy is now coming true and it is because God is angry with Obama’s attitude toward Israel.

And from Rick Scarborough:

Our government, since the current administration has taken over, has been more courteous and kind to our enemies in the Middle East than they have to our allies. They way they’ve treated Israel has been shameful and I think a lot of the tragedy we’re facing right now could be attributed to that, if in fact you believe there is a God in Heaven, and you believe that the Bible is true, and you believe that God keeps his promises and also holds forth the judgment the he promises to those that transgress his law.

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A new pundit on WorldNetDaily reveals the shocking truth about Obama’s Muslim “fealty” – step forward one Pieder Beeli:

Often we can tell the truth about what someone believes by performing an inferential or forensic analysis. We analyze what is implied rather than what is explicitly stated…

Of course, “performing an inferential or forensic analysis” is just a pompous and vacuous way of asserting special analytical acumen – and to me, it “infers” that Beeli in fact is lacking in just this attribute (cf Ellis Washington). And indeed, this proves to be the case: he picks a few comments by Obama he doesn’t like the sound of (probably brought to his attention by conservative websites), and ranks these in terms of pluses and minuses in relation to Christianity and Islam. He laughably calls this “forensic linguistics”:

When speaking of the origins of Islam, why does Obama use the word “revealed”? In his Cairo speech, Obama said, “I have known Islam on three continents before coming to the region where it was first revealed [emphasis added].” One does not expect a Christian to suggest that God revealed Islam to Muhammad for the simple reason that if God did such, then Christianity is wrong… Why would not Obama instead choose to say, “when Islam was invented” or “fabricated” – or at least use the more equipoise “when Islam began…”?

…Similarly, when referring to the foundational book of Islam, why does Obama regularly and forcefully append the word “holy”?

…Concerning the foundational texts of Islam and Christianity, then, forensic linguistics tell us that the score is Islam +1, Christianity -1 (that’s minus 1).

…Obama shows a deference to align public policy with Islam. However, he shows a strong refusal to align public policy with Christian principles. When the context is Christianity, Obama warns against “sectarianism” and supports “secularism” (really, atheism).

Beeli also sees the hand of Obama behind Mosab Hassan Yousef’s immigration problems, even though it’s unlikely that the case has even crossed his desk:

While all historic schools of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence affirm the death penalty for apostasy, Obama has not allowed this fact to entertain hesitancy in sending Mosab to certain death.

He concludes:

While Obama may not be a Muslim, his fealty toward Islam and multiculturalism far exceed his fealty toward Christianity… our cumulative Obama score is Islam +4, Christianity -3.

Beeli has a PhD in physics from Notre Dame, and he also battles the theory of evolution; he is a signatory to the self-proclaimed “Growing list of eminent Scientists who are sceptical about the Claims of Darwinism“. This blog notes a contribution to the student newspaper

In the middle of the Observer are the editorial pages, called “Viewpoint.” The most interesting letter to the editor is from Pieder Beeli, a graduate student in physics. On the topic of biological evolution, he takes umbrage with the neo-Darwinian “fish to man theory that is dogmatically taught” at Notre Dame.

Beeli challenges the professors in the anthropology department to respond with proof of one instance where “an organism gains beneficial genetic information… from random mutational events” as it “develops to a state of greater complexity.” In his last paragraph, Beeli goads them a bit: “After 136 years of Darwinism, they certainly should be able to produce one example.”

(The blogger later triumphantly notes that “While I eat, I page through The Observer, looking to see if a prof from the anthropology department answered Pieder Beeli’s challenge. Nothing.”).

In 2000, Beeli corresponded with David Markowitz of the physics department at the University of Connecticut. Markowitz wrote that:

I received an email from a reader named Pieder Beeli bearing on questions of science, religion and evidence. He wrote in part, “May I suggest that you read Warrant and Proper Function by Alvin Plantinga. I especially had the chapter Is Naturalism Rational? in mind after finishing your editorial. There are multiple usages of the word “science.” One of the senses in which you used it is more appropriately called “naturalism.” Of course science is bigger than naturalism and should be able to bear on it. E.g. “Is naturalism rational?” etc…” So I dutifully bought the book by Plantinga, who is a philosopher at Notre Dame. Reading it is a punishment for a crime I did not commit.

Pieder also recommends books in other areas; he is a fan of Gold: The Once and Future Money by Nathan Lewis, and he complains that

Ironically a single unwitting Jew, Bernake, is committing terrorism on the US comparable to all the rest of the 1.2 B Muslims combined.

Ticking another of the usual boxes seen with his sort of character, he also here references the Roman Empire:

The “dark ages” and the fall of the Roman Empire was largely due to monetary policy.

But Pieder isn’t just a keyboard warrior; we read from March that he had an encounter with Rifqa Bary, the teenage ex-Muslim:

17-year-old Rifqa Bary stood outside courtroom 63 at the Franklin County Courthouse. The frail girl wore a lavender sweater and a huge smile while she greeted supporters. One of those was Pieder Beeli, who drove his wife and five children over from Dayton to meet the teen for the first time.

“She needs to be protected by some adults who will stand up and defend the American notion of equality under God,” Beeli said.

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