Bartholomew's Notes

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Hat tip: One Million United)

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

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Once again, from WorldNetDaily:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Jewish Chronicle tells us that

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

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

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

However,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A second article has further attacks on The Shack:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fletcher also complains:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Daniel Estulin, whom I blogged in my previous post, has now given his press conference at the European Parliament, at the invitation of UKIP and its far-right European allies; WorldNetDaily has the details:

“The idea behind each and every Bilderberg meeting is to create what they themselves call the aristocracy of purpose between European and North American elites on the best way to manage the planet. In other words, the creation of a global network of giant cartels, more powerful than any nation on Earth, destined to control the necessities of life of the rest of humanity, obviously from their vantage point, for our own good and in our benefit – the great unwashed as they call us,” he said.

Sometimes, he said, this comes through the destruction of economies.

“They are destroying the world economy on purpose,” he explained. “This isn’t the first time either. This was done in the 14th century New Dark Age: 30 percent of the population wiped out.”

This, of course, is a reference to the Black Death, which was spread by fleas on rats – it was not done “on purpose”, although at the time Jews were widely blamed and massacred. What group does Estulin see behind the Black Death? He doesn’t say, but if he doesn’t mean Jews then why doesn’t he make that clear, since that’s the first thing anyone would think he’s hinting at? [UPDATE: In the interview posted below from Russia Today, he explains that the Bilderbergers descend from the “Venetian Black Nobility”; this appears to be an original crank notion of his own.]

According to the EU website, Estulin’s presentation was given as a press conference in “PHS building, Room 0A50”, although WND and Estulin try to give the impression that he was addressing the entire European Parliament (“He compared his address there to an invitation to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress, a rare honor for anyone outside the ranks of the government”). The website also makes clear that Nigel Farage was himself involved in Estulin’s invitation (he doesn’t feature in the poster advertising the event), although the Independent‘s Diary column suggests UKIP is now trying to minimise its involvement:

The blog Liberal Conspiracy joined the dots: secretive international groups, fascists, UKIP… Can the famously reasonable Farage really be consorting with these cranks? Well, yeah but no but. A call to Ukip spokesman Gawain Towler confirms Farage is still in bed with broken ribs following that plane crash, while [Godfrey] Bloom was at a meeting in London when the conference took place. “The hosting was a question of good manners to a group member… to ensure good relations internally in the EFD [Europe of Freedom and Democracy] group.” So Lega Nord are in the same European grouping as UKIP? “There are interesting coves in every group,” Towler says, “as the Tories know.”

(Ahem – actually, I joined most of the dots, as Sunny’s Liberal Conspiracy piece makes clear)

“PHS building, Room 0A50” is named after Anna Politkovskaya. Is it not particularly disgusting that a space named after a journalist who gave her life exposing corruption in Russia should be used to promote a man whose conspiracy-mongering is a parody of investigative journalism?

Conspiracy theorists do sometimes “de-anti-Semitize” old theories that were originally anti-Jewish; the same sources are used, but instead of exposing Jewish machinations they are used as evidence of supposed secret societies – Pat Robertson’s book The New World Order did this with writers such as Nesta Webster, while the authors of the Holy Blood and the Holy Grail saw the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as evidence of the “Priory of Sion”. The 1995 Christian Century essay “New World Order, Old World Anti-Semitism” by Ephraim Radner overviews the phenomenon.

UPDATE: Estulin has been interviewed on Russia Today. He panders to the paranoid end of Russian nationalism, declaring that the Bilderbergers are responsible for attacking the Russian economy, and he boasts that his talk has resulted in Italian media making “hundreds” of calls to Lega Norda for more information.

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Staying with WorldNetDaily and economic woes in Greece, we’re told that the meltdowm is evidence of the Bilderbergers’ influence in world affairs, and that this will be acknowledged in a discussion at the EU:

Daniel Estulin, author of the hot-selling book,  “The True Story of the Bilderberg Group,” has even been invited to present an unprecedented speech before the European Parliament in Brussels June 1 on the subject of the secretive cabal…

“Economists cannot explain it without acknowledging the shadow masters working to manipulate economies,” Estulin said. “There is a general awakening taking place in people and the national press. This is no longer the domain of conspiracy theorists. Especially in Europe, we’re seeing enough cracks to have hope that this dam will break and more and more people will demand to know what the Bilderberg Group has been doing.”

…”To these powerful people, national resources are theirs, not everyone’s,” Estulin told WND. “All these people want an empire. They don’t want the people of the world to develop, to prosper, to grow the population. They want us to work for them, where our children and our children’s children work for an elite group, the oligarchy.

“If people participate in the ideas shaping the world, if a nation is allowed to grow its own food, develop its own natural resources, be truly self-governing, it would end the Bilderbergers’ oligarchy,” Estulin said.

A second WND piece, from a few days ago, has further background to the EU invite:

He was invited to speak by Mario Borghezio, Italy’s most senior member of the parliament, considered one of the most powerful legislative bodies in the world.

He compared his address there to an invitation to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress, a rare honor for anyone outside the ranks of the government.

…His work will be part of a presentation titled “Bilderberg Group – Towards Creation of One World Company Ltd.,” which will include the work of Borghezio and British members Nigel Farage and Gerard Batten.

WND is promoting Estulin’s book (published in English by TrineDay, a Eugene-based conspiracy-theory publishing house founded in 2002 by a certain Kris Milligen), and the book’s thesis will be endorsed by Borghezio and his UKIP allies. A dissenting UKIP blogger named “Junius” has some fun with this:

In 1997, Rodney Atkinson published a book entitled ‘Europe’s Full Circle’. A large amount of the book was devoted to the Bilderberg Group. In 2000, the contents of this book were used by Farage as the basis for a series of attacks on Mr Atkinson after the author decided to stand for election as UKIP leader.

Atkinson was accused of being obsessed with conspiracy theories and was rather uncharitably branded a ‘wacko’.

We can only assume that Farage was hoping that UKIPPERS had forgotten about this!

While WND gushes over Borghezio as “Italy’s most senior member of the parliament”, to most people he’s known as a far-right rabble-rouser noted for distasteful publicity stunts for his Northern League party; Searchlight noted a few things about him in 2008 as part of an article on the anti-Islam pro-Köln movement:

He began his political career as a member of the fascist group Ordine Nuovo led by Pino Rauti, who is still under investigation for terrorist activities. He later joined the Northern League, which has been at the forefront of the xenophobic trend since its inception in the 1980s.

…Borghezio made his mark by setting fire to the tents of immigrants in Turin and later fought hard to convince people that immigrants were responsible for the spread of dangerous diseases such as TB.

A French-language news report about him can be seen on YouTube here. Borghezio is also a traditionalist Catholic; the Lega Nord’s unofficial “chaplain” is a former SSPX priest named Floriano Abrahamowicz; Seismic Shock noted last year that:

In late January 2009, British Catholic SSPX priest Richard Williamson [this guy – RB] made headlines due to comments in an interview on Swedish TV playing down the numbers of Holocaust victims (Williamson estimated the real count to be between 200,000-300,000) and denying that the Nazis employed gas chambers to kill Jews.

Some days later, in an interview with Italian newspaper Tribuna de Trevise, Abrahamowicz defended his fellow SSPX member, claiming that the gas chambers were only used by the Nazis for ‘disinfection’, and complaining about the importance given to the Holocaust. The SSPX promptly dismissmed Abrahamowicz, distancing themselves from Holocaust denial.

As for Estulin himself, like a lot of these characters he boasts of all kinds of links to “intelligence sources”, who tip him off on subjects such as 2007 US government plan to bump off Ron Paul. Last year he caused some offence to conspiracy theorists by describing Alex Jones’ followers as “crazies” on Press TV.

I blogged on Bilderberg conspiracy theories here.

UPDATE: See today.

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The latest from WorldNetDaily:

The headline is aimed at conservative Christians who bought into the “Revived Roman Empire” theory of apocalypticism in the 1970s and 1980s, which warned that European integration part of Satan’s plan to create a powerbase for the Anti-Christ. The theory was most famously promoted by Hal Lindsey, and although Lindsey has published many columns in WND, he appears to have been quietly dropped a year ago.

WND wants Christians to focus instead on the Islamic world as the locus of Satan’s ultimate designs, and the headline is just the latest in a long line of puffs for Joel Richardson, author of  The Islamic Antichrist: The Shocking Truth about the Real Nature of the Beast. Economic woes in Europe provide the hook for the latest outing; Richardson – who is personally congenial and has left a few comments on this blog – himself writes

As the world watches, the European Union seems to be teetering ever closer toward the brink of collapse with its massive debt crisis. Member nations are fighting to prop up the euro and maintain European unity through, you guessed it, a mega-billion dollar bailout. Meanwhile, Greece’s economic failure continues to metastasize across its borders. Numerous headlines across the globe are asking if the EU can survive… Could it be that what the Bible actually teaches is that the Roman Empire would revive, then collapse and then revive again? Not likely.

While such a scenario will surely invite mockery from the new atheists, what is important to remember is that if the EU does collapse, this does not represent a failure on the prophetic accuracy of the Bible, but simply of a particular school of interpretation. Atheists come and go, but the Word of the Lord stands forever, baby.

…Throughout the history of the church, many great Christian leaders have looked not to Europe, but to the Middle East for the emergence of an end-time empire. In fact, going back to the first few centuries of the church, the consistent testimony of the early believers is that the Antichrist, his empire and his religion would arise from out of the Middle East, and not Europe…

…What many Westerners, and perhaps Americans most of all, often fail to recognize is the fact that the Bible is a thoroughly Eastern book. It always has been. As shocking as this may be to some, the Bible was not written primarily for Americans.

When the prophets specify which nations surround Israel to attack her, the wording used in Hebrew is goyim caybib, which translated means “the surrounding nations.” These are Israel’s neighbors; they are not references to Belgium or Luxembourg or Rome.

The lead-in article adds:

Richardson believes the key error of many previous prophecy scholars involves the misinterpretation of a prediction by Daniel to Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel describes the rise and fall of empires of the future, leading to the end times. Western Christians have viewed one of those empires as Rome, when, claims Richardson, Rome never actually conquered Babylon and was thus disqualified as a possibility.

It had to be another empire that rose and fell and rose again that would lead to rule of this “man of sin,” described in the Bible. That empire, he says, is the Islamic Empire, which did conquer Babylon and, in fact, rules over it even today.

Of course, this is a farrago of nonsense that would be dismissed outright by any serious Biblical scholar – whether atheist, Christian, Jewish, or whatever. As I wrote the last time this came up, the Book of Daniel was written in second century BCE, and, like the other books of the Bible, it was written with a contemporary audience in mind; it does not contain secrets that make sense only thousands of years later. The various empires that concern the author end with that of his own time and location: the Hellenistic kingdoms of the post-Alexander period. The author is not interested in Rome, and shows no knowledge of any kind of “Islamic Empire” hundreds of years in the future (or of a Christian future, for that matter). Babylon as a city had already lost much of its historical significance by the time the book was composed, and by the Islamic period the town itself was largely a ruin.

Like other self-styled “prophecy experts” (as opposed to actual Biblical scholars), Richardson believes in an Islamic Anti-Christ because he’s reading into the text what he wants to be there. On the one hand, he tells us that “the Bible was not written primarily for Americans”, but what he gives us an interpretation which obviously emerges out of early twenty-first century America. Just a few years after invading Iraq, and with increasing tension with Iran, American Christians suddenly discover that their holy book teaches that their nation’s current conflicts are central to a supernatural struggle between God and Satan. Who would have thought it?

But there’s still work to be done; WND also tells us that

Richardson, a student of Islam and the Middle east, found few churches in America welcoming him as a guest speaker. He was not invited to address many prophecy conferences. He found himself as a “political incorrect” outsider in most evangelical circles.

That’s suprising; Richardson’s website features a number of churches where he has spoken, and his associate Walid Shoebat, who promotes the same theory, seems to have a steady trickle of church invitations.

One man who must be too intelligent to take any of this seriously is Robert Spencer. However, Spencer sees Richardson’s book as useful for his own anti-Islam purposes, and he has given an endorsement:

A fascinating and provovative work. Joel has broken fresh ground in the ongoing exploration of the relationship between Islam and the rest of the world. A must-read for priests and pastors, students and lay readers everywhere. Bravo!

Part of that blurb appears on the cover:

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Nadine Dorries MP’s recent claim that she removed her blog as the result of police advice received a passing mention in yesterday’s Independent, although there was nothing about how her explanation also included an outrageous attempt to smear the blogger Tim Ireland. Dorries’ outburst is just the latest attempt by some of Tim’s political opponents to neutralise his criticisms, research, and satire by suggesting that he should be dismissed as mentally unstable, and the fact that a group of cyber-bullies are consequently targeting him for real harassment has not given these opponents reason to pause.

Dorries’ behaviour won’t be appearing in Private Eye, either, as Tim now explains:

I ran into Ian Hislop in Westminster yesterday. He agreed with me about how unacceptable this situation was… right up until the point where I pointed out how his staff were involved and how much good a simple retraction would do. His response; “Conversation over. Not going to happen.”

Ian Hislop also stated quite clearly that he would not be covering any of Nadine Dorries’ extraordinary outbursts in his magazine.

As I’ve blogged previously, in 2009 a man named Glen Jenvey supposedly discovered evidence of a terrorist plot against British Jews, and this formed the basis for a front-page splash for the Sun. However, Tim discovered that the evidence  had been concocted by Jenvey himself, and the fiasco was noted in Private Eye – although Tim’s research was not credited.

The discovery also prompted Jenvey to leave anonymous comments across the internet accusing Tim of being a convicted paedophile. Somewhat alarmed, Tim sought to get in contact with  Patrick Mercer MP, who had previously  publicised some of Jenvey’s supposed discoveries concerning on-line extremism and who might therefore be able to help.

To try to get to Mercer, Tim approached Iain Dale, a well-connected Conservative blogger with whom Tim has had a number of disputes over the years. According to Tim, Dale agreed to contact Mercer on his behalf, but then failed to deliver. Tim also claims Dale misled him in the process. Tim then went to some efforts to get through to Dale how serious the situation was; Dale’s response was to publish a blog entry accusing Tim of being a stalker, which was picked up by various sympathetic blogs. Tim left a response on one, which was followed soon after by a comment from a certain Adam Macqueen addressed to another commentator:

Oh my god! You made eye contact with the nutter on the bus! You should never, ever do this. I found this out the hard way a few months back…

This is actually shockingly shabby, for reasons that Tim went on to note:

In one of those coincidences that continues to make life delightful, Adam MacQueen is the man responsible for Private Eye taking credit for the discovery of the connection between the ‘Richard Tims’ alias and Glen Jenvey [which revealed the concocted evidence].

It was Jenvey who finally lost it and started accusing me of paedophilia… i.e. because I took the risk on the story for which MacQueen took credit.

Tim then sent an email to Macqueen, who responded that he was justified in calling Tim a “nutter”

Because you obsessively trawl the internet responding to every single comment you dislike.

I complained about Private Eye‘s failure to credit Tim for his research at the time; to find that the journalist concerned would further stoop to such conduct was disheartening. PE‘s editor Ian Hislop is a bit snotty about blogs and the internet, but among bloggers there is great respect for the magazine’s ability to spotlight hypocrisy and corruption in an amusing manner, and for its aggressive stand against the absurdities of UK libel law. This, then, was something of a kick in the teeth.

Tim then wrote about this, with the result that Dale waved lawyers at him, complaining of “harrassment” and (inevitably) making a vague accusation of libel. Dale has also told his readers (while attempting to appear non-boastful about it) about a recent Private Eye lunch he attended:

It was good to see Adam Macqueen again. He worked for me briefly (don’t they all?!) at Politico’s many moons ago and is now one of the Eye’s main journalists. He is also writing a history of the magazine to mark its 50th anniversary, and blogs HERE. An all round good guy.

The lads all stick together, eh?

The full account can be read here.

(This blog entry is partially recycled from this one)

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UPDATE: Williams has left a comment by way of clarification as to why he made the Facebook posting:

it’s because she is a minor and although the prayers of many are needed and appreciated, it is not the entire world’s business about her health condition… Jamal’s intentions are pure and sincere. I have no[t] broadcast the news of her health circumstances because I am more concerned about the numerous outsiders who have little interest in Ms Bary as a person, and more an interest in generating hits to their blog, or using her as an opportunity to be seen in the public light. With all of our governmental problems, even federal law protects indivuals from having there medical records and circumstances known to the public. Given the past 9 months Ms. Bary has endured, I believe that as a 17 year old she is also entitled to that same level of privacy…

***

Now, following the situation outlined in my previous post, what are we to make of this?

Brian Williams, the pastor who helped Rifqa Bary escape Ohio to Florida, has just posted the following on Jamal Jivanjee’s Facebook page – twice (quote marks in original):

“Rifqa is doing fine, she has had much prayer, but she is healed, she has been prayed for and healed. Her love for Jesus is at an all time high. COntinue to pray for her though. Jesus lives! :)”

Curiously, Williams does not mention this remarkable recovery on his own Facebook page, or give any details.

Another poster then asks Williams why his announcement seems to differ from Jivanee’s; Jivanjee’s response is ambiguous:

The beautiful thing about many, many people praying, vs only a few people praying, has to do with joy. God uses the prayers of His people to accomplish His purposes. The purpose is Joy. Jesus said in John 16 that if we ask anything in His Name, the Father will grant it so that our joy may be made full. It is the will of God that the joy of many people be made full because this brings Him glory. The more that people pray, the more the joy. This is, in my opinion, the main reason why God is raising up so many people to pray for Rifqa. May the news of her situation, and the prayers of the saints be multiplied! God is good.

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The Rifqa Bary circus has taken an unexpectedly tragic twist, with an announcement on Facebook from Jamal Jivanjee, the neo-Pentecostal minister who is close to her in Ohio:

… Rifqa has been diagnosed with a very aggressive form of uterus cancer. The symptoms and health complications that are associated with this cancer materialized and are what led to its detection. Rifqa has already had 2 surgeries at this point, and she is getting ready to undergo a third surgery which will be occurring this Thursday, May 27’th

…I am writing this to you because this is not a time for silence regarding Rifqa’s life and situation. I am very thankful for many of you who have not ceased to pray and ask questions about her situation. Her situation is very serious, and she will need the help of many people in the weeks and months ahead…

Jivanjee has also given a further statements to the media. At OneNewsNow, he uses the critical illness as an excuse to villify the teenager’s parents further:

According to Jivanjee, Bary’s estranged Muslim parents were allowed to come into her hospital room.

“I don’t know if it was her attorney, her case worker, [but] somebody made the decision to bring her parents into the room to see her without her permission,” he says. “And that caused her a lot of emotional turmoil and stress, and she objected to that and they had to get them out of there.”

As has been widely reported, Bary believes that her parents want to kill for converting from Islam to Christianity (“In 150 generations in family, no one has known Jesus. I am the first; imagine the honor in killing me” – this is a garbled understanding of honour killings). At FOXNews, Jinanvee adds:

“She really wants people to pray for her… That was why the decision was made to get the news out there.”

Curious use of the passive voice there [UPDATE: see below].

Inevitably, fanning the flames is the disgusting Pamela Geller:

…Her lawyers kept her in the dark about her condition – cancer – for well over a week, while they conferred with her parents and their CAIR appointed lawyers about her treatment. While most cases like this result in a hysterectomy, she is only having the advanced malignancy removed. From what I understand, the survival rate in cases like these is 5%. Her surgery is Thursday. Pray.

Was she allowed to get a second opinion? No.

While she was lying ill, her lawyers brought her parents to her hospital bed. She was strapped in for treatment and became very agitated and upset, and they had to be removed. She has broken her silence, a silence mandated by her lawyers, that she could not talk to her friends such as Jamal Jivanjee and those of us who have been unwavering in our support for Rifqa Bary’s civil rights and religious liberty.

The parents’ wish to see their daughter is of course quite natural, but  it poses a problem for the likes of Geller, who have held up the parents as exemplars of the hateful and inverted relationship that Muslims supposedly have with their children.  Thus we are given a conspiracy theory: the parents and lawyers must be plotting to sabotage her treatment! Comments show her readers spurred on to further heights of insanity: might this be a ploy by Muslim doctors to “sexually mutilate” her? Is her cancer evidence of sex abuse? And so on. But where did Geller get her extra information from? If from Jivanee, why didn’t he reveal these details  himself? If not, then from whom?

It’s difficult to imagine what must be going through Bary’s head at the moment – she’s been told that her parents hate her and want her dead, yet they show up at her hospital expressing normal parental concern. Meanwhile, pastors like Jivanee and Lou Engle have been telling her that she has a special prophetic role to play in the world, and that God has given her supernatural powers of healing. According to Charisma:

Jivanjee said Bary believes God has a plan for her and that she will be healed. “But she felt like she needed people to be aware and praying for her,” he told Charisma.

We can’t know at this stage (and perhaps we never will know) why Bary is not having a hysterectomy, but if the choice is in her own hands might not statements such as that be affecting her judgement? In any circumstances, for a pastor to assert that a gravely-ill person will be healed when in fact their outcome is very uncertain is grossly irresponsible – abusive, even.

On Facebook, Jivanee is now being a bit more discreet. Responding to a reader’s query, he writes:

For now all I can tell you is that prayers are vital. There is much spiritual opposition.

UPDATE: Bary’s Florida lawyer is quoted by the UPI:

“The only reason she wants this to be known is she wants people to pray for her,” [John] Stemberger said.

Well, that’s certainly not Geller’s reason for her lurid posting on the subject.

Jivanjee himself has added on Facebook:

Rifqa made the decision to rally the troops for prayer regarding her situation. I know this was not an easy decision for her to make, but I know the benefits will far outweigh anything else in the long run.

UPDATE 1.5: According to Geller,

Lots of readers are forwarding me emails from Rifqa’s lawyers and shills for Stemberger, denying the facts of my reportage. I stand by my story.

Apparently Geller has been on bad terms with Stemberger since last month, when Stemberger posted the following to Facebook:

Folks I do not know how to say this more kindly but Jamal Javanjee and Pamela Geller are not trusted or accurate sources of information on Rifqa Bary and her case. They also do not represent Rifqa or her views and neither one of them are Rifqa Bary spokespersons. Rifqa is in the hands of some of the best legal counsel available.

UPDATE 2: Pastor Associate of Rifqa Bary Announces She has been “Healed” (with comments from Brian Williams)

UPDATE 3: At the anti-Islam New English Review, Jerry Gordon (“former Army Intelligence officer”) reveals that Jivanjee has been freely discussing intimate medical symptoms with him:

I spoke with Pastor Jamal Juvanjee, one of Miss Bary’s friends.  He indicated that the cancer had been detected within the past two weeks given symptoms including severe vaginal bleeding.

Gordon adds some distasteful and stupid commentary on this:

It is unclear as to what form of cancer Bary has contracted. Given that she came from a honor shame society there are several possibilities. Clearly those will have to be addressed in the context of possible investigation of childhood abuse.

Except that Bary does not come “from an honor shame society”, and not even Jivanjee has hinted at sex abuse.

(Hat tip: Right Wing Watch)

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