Bartholomew's Notes

A new essay by Douglas Murray (published on Ruth Gledhill’s blog) contra shariah law features input from Gina Khan, a British Muslim who is known for her vocal support for women’s rights and a secular society. Murray notes that:

Khan had been forced to move out of the Muslim area she lived in because of intimidation and threats.

No-one can deny Khan’s fortitude, and it is clear she has suffered for speaking out.

However, given her experience it is not therefore very strange that she should be listed as an “officer” on the Facebook page of “the Cheerleaders”? This is a mostly pseudonymous group (connected with a music band called the Fighting Cocks) which has itself used “intimidation and threats” against Tim Ireland after Tim discovered that a supposed expert on extremism named Dominic Wightman had lied to us (although Wightman has expressed disapproval of these attacks). Messages from the Cheerleaders early last autumn included the promise that Tim would be “put back in his box”, that he would be made to “go back to Australia”, and that there was “a machete” at his throat. They also posted his home address widely, even though this was only months after Glen Jenvey had made bogus postings on-line accusing Tim of being a paedophile.

After a bit of a lull, the attacks have now begun again; Tim tells us that they

have begun posing as me, claiming I’m a bank manager of a small regional branch, and sending my home address to Nigerian scammers.

Of course, Khan is a semi-public figure who doubtless receives all kinds of invitations. Also, people often join Facebook pages and groups without fully investigating all the details about them, and the “Cheerleaders” purport to be foremost about opposing Islamic extremism. There is no reason to suppose she knew anything about these attacks when they occured.

However, Tim also sent her an email asking her to clarify her involvement with the group and explaining the threats he had received – Khan declined to reply. Further, Wightman previously told us that Khan is a personal on-line acquaintance of Charlie Flowers, front man of the Fighting Cocks:

From: Richard Walker [Dominic Wightman]
To: Tim Ireland
Cc: Richard Bartholomew
Date: Wed, May 27, 2009 at 5:22 PM
Subject Re: Update

Ludas Matyi aka Charlie Flowers. Chief Cheerleader (likely the only one there is as far as I know). I met him the month before after I had been put in touch by him online with Gina Khan…

Wightman previously interviewed Khan for his Westminster Journal. He goes on to tell us in his email that unknown persons connected to the Ummah.com website had once thrown a brick through her window; Tim and I have had dealings with this website’s moderator in our efforts to track down fake extremist postings made by Glen Jenvey, and Wightman and the “Cheerleaders” have both suggested this means we are ourselves in league with Muslim extremists (Wightman also used this as a justification for lying to us, although his motive was in fact to get us to write about another person, against whom he has a grudge).

I’m sure that Khan disapproves of threats, harassment, and identity theft, whosoever is the victim. I’m also sure that she has a busy schedule which means that she cannot pay full attention to all the messages she receives, or follow closely all the activities of the groups and bodies with which she is associatied. But being linked with the “Cheerleaders” is inconsistent with the values she makes so such effort to defend in her public activism.

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BBC Newsnight has a piece about human sacrifice in Uganda by witchdoctors – a mere three years after I noted Ugandan media reports on the subject. The BBC’s journalist, Tim Whewell, spends time with a certain Polino Angelo, a reformed witch-doctor who now persuades other witch-doctors to destroy their shrines. But the report raises some questions:

One witch-doctor led us to his secret shrine and said he had clients who regularly captured children and brought their blood and body parts to be consumed by spirits.

…“They capture other people’s children. They bring the heart and the blood directly here to take to the spirits… They bring them in small tins and they place these objects under the tree from which the voices of the spirits are coming,” he said.

…We saw a beaker of blood and what appeared to be a large, raw liver in the shrine before it was destroyed, although it was not possible to determine whether they were human remains.

…He told us he was paid 500,000 Ugandan shillings (£160 or $260) for a consultation, but that most of that money was handed over to his “boss” in a nationwide network of witch-doctors.

…Head of the Anti-Human Sacrifice and Trafficking Task Force, assistant commissioner Moses Binoga of the Ugandan police, said he knew of the boss referred to – involved in one of five or six witch-doctor protection rackets operating in the country.

…Mr Angela told us he had first been initiated as a witch-doctor at a ceremony in neighbouring Kenya, where a boy of about 13 was sacrificed.

…Asked if he was afraid he might now be prosecuted as a result of confessing to killing 70 people, he said:

“I have been to all the churches… and they know me as a warrior in the drive to end witchcraft that involves human sacrifice, so I think that alone should indemnify me and have me exonerated.”

Something’s not right here – why didn’t Whewell suggest that a possible human liver ought to be handed over to the police as evidence of murder, rather than burnt? Why wasn’t Binoga interested in calling the witchdoctor in for questioning? Who is the supposed “boss” behind it all? And – most obviously – how can someone who has confessed to 70 murders be let off the hook simply because he now goes around churches? On that last point, Uganda’s preposterous Minister for Ethics,  James Nsaba Buturo (previously blogged by me here), provides a non-explanation:

“To punish retrospectively would cause a problem… if we can persuade Ugandans to change, that is much better than going back into the past”

I find myself concurring with Jason Pitzl-Waters:

the… portrait painted by the BBC, with help from Mr. Angela, raises many of my old “Satanic Panic” red flags. How often did we see former “Satanists” who claimed to have participated in murders and kidnappings, yet never bothered turning themselves into the police for one reason or another. There are other flags, a “nationwide network” of witch-doctors, with a “boss” who takes a cut of all the money, for example. To reiterate, I do think children are being harmed, and I think some of those harming children may in fact be witch doctors, but I’m deeply skeptical of some of the claims being raised here. They sound a little too perfect and well-organized to be fully true.

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WorldNetDaily reports on how Christians are persecuted in North Korea, noting:

“Christians are the target of fierce government action, and once caught, are not regarded as human,” said a veteran observer of North Korea who cannot be identified for security purposes. “Last year we had evidence that some were used as guinea pigs to test chemical and biological weapons.”

WorldNetDaily reports on how Christians are persecuted in the USA, noting:

The overt homosexual participation in Obama’s presidential inaugural events by ‘Bishop’ Vickie Eugene Robinson, the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, D.C., and a homosexual marching band.

The first example comes from Open Doors; the second from a list compiled by the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission. For those who don’t mind a bit of bad language, CADC’s list is discussed on the blog Is It Luck (via Ed Brayton).

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From the NY Daily News:

A Brooklyn principal has reprimanded a sixth-grade teacher for selling students a book that tells how to “recognize those serving Satan and bring them to Jesus.”

Steven Arizmendi sold “He Came to Set the Captives Free” to four of his students at Junior High School 220 in Sunset Park for $5 apiece. The science teacher also loaned copies of the evangelical novel to eight students.

He Came to Set the Captives Free was written by Rebecca Brown, who is also the author of Prepare for War; her books were perhaps the most baroque concoctions to emerge from the bogus “Satanic Panic” Christian paperback genre of the 1970s and 1980s that led to so much misery and paranoia.

He Came to Set the Captives Free is the pseudo-biography of a mentally-disturbed woman named Elaine, whom Brown latched onto when she was working as a doctor. Here’s an extract from a summary:

For seventeen years, Elaine served her master, Satan, with total commitment. Then she met Dr. Rebecca Brown, who served her master, Jesus Christ, with equal commitment. Elaine, one of the top witches in the U.S. clashed with Dr. Brown, who stood against her alone. In the titanic life-and-death struggle that followed, Dr. Brown nearly lost her life. Elaine, finding a power and love greater than anything Satan could give her, left Satan and totally committed her life to Jesus Christ.

This group which secretly calls itself The Brotherhood, is made of up people who are directly controlled by, and worship, Satan. It is a rapidly growing and very dangerous cult. It has two major centers in the U.S. – the West coast, mostly in the Los Angeles-San Francisco area, and another in the mid-western U.S. where Doctor Brown lives.

…They all go by code names at their meetings so that, should they meet each other on the street, often as not they would not know each other’s name. They are rigidly disciplined by Satan and his demons. They practice human sacrifice several times a year and animal sacrifice on a monthly basis. The human sacrifices are most often babies–born our of wedlock to various cult members, cared for by the doctors and nurses within the cult so that the mother is never seen in a hospital…

But it’s not just Satanists: demons and angels abound, as well as Satan himself, “in human form”, and the book is also anti-Catholic. Elaine tells us that:

I have been to Mecca, Israel, Egypt, also the Vatican in Rome to meet with the Pope. All my trips were for the purpose of coordinating Satan’s programs with satanists in other lands, as well as meeting with various government officials to discuss aid to their countries in the form of money. A few did not know that I was a satanist, but thought I was associated with a powerful wealthy organization of some kind. People asking for money don’t ask too many questions. The Pope knew very well who I was. We worked closely both with the Catholics (especially the Jesuits) and the high-ranking Masons.

It was during this time that I met many of the well known Rock music stars. They all signed contracts with Satan in return for fame and fortune.

Brown has all kinds of bizarre advice about how to resist demonic attacks – for instance, in Prepare for War we learn that vegetarianism is a Satanic plot, because meat protein offers protection. Her lurid tales were comprehensively debunked in an article entitled “Drugs, Demons and Delusions: The ‘Amazing’ Saga of Rebecca Brown”, by G. Richard Fisher, Paul R. Blizard and M. Kurt Goedelman, which can be read here; a further essay of interest can be seen here.

Brown’s works were originally published by Jack Chick (who provided illustrations), but He Came to Set the Captives Free is now published by Whitaker House. Brown has a ministry, called “Harvest Warriors”, and apparently she visits various church groups; I noted in 2004 that Brown has one champion in Mark Dawes, a journalist with the Jamaica Gleaner. He wrote a gushing profile ahead of a visit by Brown to the island:

Some have dismissed the writings of Dr. Brown, claiming she fabricated some of the stories and there are a few Web sites that denounce her as a fraud. But then if one is exposing the ugliness of Satan shouldn’t one expect to be labelled in order to be disregarded?

Rebecca Brown’s writings are Biblical, and to the extent it assaults a conservative Christian mind set, it is radical. She says, for example, that werewolves and vampires do exist.

She cites scripture verses such as Leviticus 26:6,22 to make the point that wild beasts belong to the Lord and evil beasts (of which vampires and werewolves are numbered), belong to Satan. Similarly she cites other references to evil beasts in Ezekiel 8:9-10, Titus 1:12:13a, Jude 7-11.

A werewolf, she says, is a particular kind of demon that inhabits a person who enters into “a God-forbidden relationship with demons.”

Her work is also very popular in Ghana and Nigeria, as has been noted by Paul Gifford (see African Christianity: Its Public Role).

(Hat tip: Ed Brayton)

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From the Christian Science Monitor, June 2003:

The bearded worshiper moved slowly round the shrine in his bare feet, uttering Muslim prayers and pausing every few steps to bend his head and kiss the golden cloth that covered the holy tomb.

The dome above him, though, bore the painted floral traces of a very un-Islamic past. And the script running around the walls also bore no relation to the flowing Arabic calligraphy that decorates most mosques in the Middle East.

It was in Hebrew. The body lying in the tomb that this devout Muslim was venerating is that of the prophet Ezekiel. And until just 50 years ago, the building sheltering it – first recorded by a 12th century Jewish pilgrim – was a synagogue.

…It is hard to see how the Jews might ever reclaim their synagogue today, however the new Iraq may turn out. But one can hope that all Iraqis, divided as they are into many ethnic and religious groups, will come to share the straightforward wisdom of Haji Hadi Mitaeb, a resident of Kifl for the past 88 years.

“I am an old man, I cannot read and I cannot write,” he replied when I asked what he would think if the Jews returned to his town. “But a good man is a good man.”

The Jerusalem Post, May 2009:

The Iraqi government has launched a project to renovate the interior of the prophet Ezekiel’s shrine in the small town of Kifl, south of Baghdad, and the country’s Ministry for Tourism and Antiquities says it hopes to eventually repair and renovate other Jewish sites across the country.

“The ministry is concerned with all Iraqi heritage, whether it is Christian or Jewish or from any other religion,” ministry spokesman Abdelzahra al-Talaqani told AFP. “The present plans do not include the synagogues in Baghdad, Basra, Mosul, Fallujah and other places because of lack of funding, but I think they will be included in future plans.”

…It had been protected by Saddam Hussein as a holy site.

Shelomo Alfassa, December 2009:

The Iraqi news agency Ur news has revived fears that under pressure from Islamic political parties, the original Hebrew inscriptions and ornamentation on the walls around the tomb of Ezekiel are being (or have been) removed, this under the pretext of restoring the site. According to sources, the Antiquities and Heritage Authority in Iraq has been pressured by Islamists to historically cleanse all evidence of a Jewish connection to Iraq…

For Arabic readers, the Ur report can be seen here. Some caution is required: this report (via Google translation) and a piece in Arutz Sheva rely on unnamed “sources” and second-hand accounts for the story, and even Alfassa calls it a “rumour”. The “Islamic political parties” are unnamed, and there is no word from the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. Clearly, though, this is an issue which deserves further scrutiny.

The origin of the building is somewhat mysterious; a twelfth-century report by the traveller Benjamin of Tudela contains obviously legendary elements:

On the banks of the Euphrates stands the synagogue is fronted by sixty towers, the room between every two of which is also occupied by a synagogue; in the court of the largest stands the ark, and behind it is the sepulchre of Ezekiel, the son of Busi, the Cohen. This monument is covered by a large cupola, and the building is very handsome; it was erected by Jeconiah, king of Judah, and the 35,000 Jews who went along with him, when Evil Merodach released him from the prison, which was situated between the river Chaboras and another river. The name of Jeconiah, and of all those who came with him, are inscribed on the wall, the king’s name first, that of Ezekiel last.

This place is considered holy unto the present day, and is one of those to which people resort from remote countries in order to pray, particularly at the season of the new year and atonement day. Great rejoicings take place there about this time which are attended even by the Prince of the Capitivity and the presidents of the Colleges of Baghdad. The assembly is so large that their temporary abodes cover twenty miles of open ground, and attracts many Arabian merchants, who keep a market or fair.

On the day of atonement, the proper lesson of the day is read from a very large manuscript Pentateuch of Ezekiel’s own handwriting.

A lamp burns night and day on the sepulchre of the prophet, and has always been kept burning since the day that he lighted it himself; and the oil and wicks are renewed as often as necessary. A large house belonging to the sanctuary contains a very numerous collection of books, some of them as ancient as the second, some even coeval with the first temple, it being customary that who ever dies childless bequeths his books to the sanctuary. Even in time of war neither Jew nor Mohammedan ventures to despoil and profanate the sepulchre of Ezekiel.

For Muslims, the tomb belongs to Dhul-Kifl, a prophet who is identified with Ezekiel but who also seems to have a separate identity. An essay by David Cassuto observes that the tomb “resembles the Islamic tombs in mosques”. Writing as a complete amateur, I wonder if the lamp supposedly burning since it was lit by Ezekiel (long gone today) is suggestive that the building was constructed on a site used by Zoroastrians.

A minaret from the remains of an old mosque can be seen next to the synagogue, and this led to a Muslim claim on the site in the nineteenth century. The Christian Science Monitor tells us that:

The Turkish sultan – who ruled the region at the time – first dispatched a team of officials from Baghdad, then a commission from Istanbul to get to the truth of the matter. Sitting in the shade of the antique tower (which today leans alarmingly), both sets of investigators compiled reports stating, contrary to the mayor’s claims, that they had seen no sign whatsoever of a minaret.

Two contemporary chroniclers, one Jewish and one Muslim, suggested that this extraordinary oversight owed more than a little to the generosity with which the Jewish community of Kifl received the officials, and to the gifts with which they were sent on their way.

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The Uganda New Vision reports on the establishment of the “Catholic Apostolic National Church in Uganda”, which allows priests to marry and which has therefore attracted:

A Catholic sect that allows its priests to marry has registered and opened a branch in Uganda, with its headquarters in Jinja.

The Catholic Apostolic National Church, which does not allow women to become priests, has attracted a few Roman Catholic priests.

Its African archbishop, Mbewa Anzanga, a former Zambian Roman Catholic priest, has appointed Leonard Lubega the first bishop-elect for Uganda.

Lubega, a PhD graduate in Biblical Counselling from a US university, has already received an apostolic mandate for his election as Uganda’s first bishop.  Lubega, who is also a lecturer at Kampala International University, was formerly a Charismatic Catholic Church priest.

Mbewa is due in the country in January to ordain over 10 priests and officially launch the new church in Uganda.

The Catholic Apostolic National Church and the Catholic Charismatic Church are both independent of the Roman Catholic Church, although they have historic connections to Roman Catholicism; the Catholic Apostolic National Church goes back to a Brazilian bishop excommunicated by Pope Pius XII in 1945, while the Catholic Charismatic Church was formed by a Canadian priest who received episcopal ordination from Old Catholic Bishops in 1968 (1). Curiously, quotes attributed to Lubega in the article about the Catholic Apostolic National Church perfectly match statements from the church’s website.

However, there is an important extra element which the New Vision ignores but the AP notes:

Mbewe has said he was inspired by the former Zambian archbishop, Emmanuel Milingo, who was married in 2001 to a South Korean woman by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church.

Milingo was excommunicated in 2006 after installing four married men as bishops in the United States. Two weeks ago, the Vatican defrocked Milingo entirely, stripping him of his priestly functions so any future ordinations by him would be invalid.

Milingo did not just ordain married men in defiance of church teaching: he has also expressed the view that Rev Sun Myung Moon is the Messiah, and he appears to have embraced Unificationist theology. Further, as I blogged in 2007, Mbewe’s Catholic Apostolic National Church of Zambia was launched at the local “Peace Embassy”, which is run by Moon’s Universal Peace Federation; the UPF claims to promote inter-religious dialogue, but in this instance was clearly facilitating a schism for the benefit of Moon’s power games in Africa. Milingo has also been active recruiting married priests in Kenya.

The Roman Catholic Church in Uganda, meanwhile, has responded with a predictable call for temporal authorities to suppress its new rival:

Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Kampala, called on the government not to allow such renegade religious groups to operate, saying they might cause confusion among Ugandans.

”I call upon government to avoid registering such new churches,” he said. ”They can bring about religious conflicts.”

Vice-President Gilbert Bukenya is apparently “investigating”.

In 2004 the 84-year-old former president of Uganda, Godfrey Binaisa, married a Japanese woman 28 years his junior in a Unificationist mass wedding in Seoul; the subsequent civil ceremony in Kampala was addressed by President Museveni, who made a hilariously tactless speech:

He said the only time Africans came close to Japanese was during the World War II when the British recruited two battalions of Africans to fight in Burma.

(1) This is definitely Lubega’s former denomination, despite the report calling it the “Charismatic Catholic Church” – see his listing here.

(Hat tip: Cult News Network)

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Many of the posts on this blog over the past year have concerned self-styled “anti-Jihadi” experts and activists in the UK; the trend was set in January, when Tim Ireland uncovered evidence which showed that a front-page story in the Sun about a terrorist plot against British Jews being discussed on a Muslim discussion board had been concocted by a supposed expert named Glen Jenvey. I helped Tim with some follow-up work, which has spiralled out in several directions.

So, this is a particularly fitting end-of-year post, as we turn to a report just published on the Guardian website:

A self-styled terrorism expert who was behind a fabricated Sun front-page story about Lord Sugar and other Jewish figures being on an Islamic extremist hitlist has been arrested on suspicion of inciting religious hatred against Jews.

…Speaking to MediaGuardian.co.uk, Jenvey said that the police raid had left him out of work as he could not do any research without his computer.

He said: “I am a freelance journalist of a sort as I supply research material to other journalists. So if I am treated like this, that means other journalists can also be targeted for incitement to religious hatred if they get a story wrong like that.”

…Jenvey said planting the posts on Ummah.com were part of an undercover sting, which was prematurely reported by South West News.

He said: “With these posts I wanted to see what sort of extremists would be attracted to it, and what sort of threats they would make against Jews. My intention was to wait for a week.”

There is something in Jenvey’s explanation, but it is only a small part of the story. Of course he had hoped that his postings to Ummah.com would encourage Muslims to make extremist statements – but only one reader chose to take the bait (a certain “Saladin1970“), and that was in a way that was no more significant than someone mouthing off. It is very clear from the (now-deleted) Sun article that Jenvey was parading his own posts, made as “Abu Islam”, as the main evidence of the terrorist plot he had supposedly “exposed”. Given Jenvey’s political views, it seems that his aim was mischievous – he may have written something which allegedly incited hatred against Jews, but his intention was that the public should see this as the words of a Muslim. One bit of follow-up that I did concerned “Zaidi234”, who had written posts in Jenvey’s distinctive dyslexic style to a Pravda discussion board asking Muslims to protest against a book about Islamic extremists; “Zaidi234″‘s postings were clearly not made as a “sting”, but to whip up a controversy in order to generate publicity (although in the end the book, by an associate of Jenvey named Jeremy Reynalds and entitled War of the Web, was never actually published). And how could South West News have “prematurely reported” on the bogus terror plot when Jenvey was the only source for the information?

Further, his subsequent behaviour was bizarre. First, he sought revenge on Tim by making anonymous postings to various sites accusing him of being a paedophile. Second, he threw around other accusations, telling Jeremy Reynalds that the Guardian had written about him as part of a grand conspiracy for the benefit of terrorists, and leaving numerous comments on Paul Ray’s blog (1). Finally, he announced his conversion to militant Islam, joining the extremists around Anjem Choudhary and making crude anti-Jewish statements. During this period, he explained that his postings to Ummah had indeed been made in order to make Jews feel afraid. After three months of this, he then announced that his conversion had been a feign all along so that he could study extremist Muslims undercover. In short, he did nothing that would indicate that he was a serious journalist who had made an unfortunate mistake, and everything to indicate that he was simply lashing out after exposure.

Tim has had to endure a lot of hassle since January: as well as Jenvey’s anonymous paedo-smears, we both came into conact with a former associate of Jenvey named Dominic Wightman, who attempted to use the situation to manipulate us into writing about another person, against whom he has grudge. As part of this scheme, Wightman tried to hoist on us a fake interview between Jenvey and Reynalds that contained personal information about Tim and caused some alarm. This was followed by a campaign of harassment from other associates of Wightman who call themselves “the Cheerleaders“, although Wightman insists he has had nothing to do with this. The “Cheerleaders” posted Tim’s home address on-line in various places and made threats of violence; they overlap with a music band called “The Fighting Cocks”, run by a man named Charlie Flowers, who threatened Tim with a fist-fight. Wightman and the Cheerleaders have also accused Tim and me of working with Islamic extremists because we corresponded with the adminstrator of Ummah.com in order to get IP information about sites and posts where Jenvey may have made other bogus postings. Clearly, they are all very keen that this is a subject which should not be fully investigated. There certainly is still more to find: Unity at Ministry of Truth uncovered a second story of interest in October.

Jenvey’s arrest also has some political fall-out. It’s more embarrassment for Patrick Mercer MP, who endorsed Jenvey and whose office passed materials from Jenvey both to newspapers and to the Home Secretary.

(1) Paul Ray, of course, is the blogger known as “Lionheart”, who formed the English Defence League earlier this year but who appears to be semi-detached from the organisation now, following a dispute with other members. Just after the Sun story was published, Ray and Jenvey were due to appear on an American radio show together, but on the night Ray explained that Jenvey could not appear due to threats. Ray later defended Jenvey against the accusation that he had created bogus postings, but he did not make any further comment on the subject once it was clear it was a lost cause. Curiously, however, while Ray enthusiastically denounces all kinds of people as “traitors”, he had nothing to say about Jenvey’s supposed conversion to Islam.

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Back at the end of January, the Lynchburg News & Advance reported on Liberty University’s Randall Price, who declared that he was preparing to go to Turkey in order to find Noah’s Ark:

This summer Price, 57, plans to continue on a journey to prove just that as he joins an expedition to Mount Ararat. His team believes that it is there, in Eastern Turkey, where Noah’s Ark remains preserved underneath layers of rubble and ice.

“There’s a whole trail of history pointing to it (Mt. Ararat),” Price said. “But in our age, people tend to think it is more of a story like ‘Jack and the Bean Stalk.’ Our aim is to show that the Bible is good history.”

Price teamed up with Richard Bright, who has “visited Turkey more than 30 times over the past 25 years in search of the vessel”; Bright in turn has previously been accompanied by the astronaut James Irwin, who is now Pastor and President of the High Flight Foundation. The article ends with a promise from Bright:

“Keep your ear to the road, so to speak, this summer,” he said. “Because there will be discovery. The only thing that’s holding us back is to finance the machinery that we need.”

Robert Cargill wrote a scathing assessment of Price’s plan and his motivations in a blog post at the time.

Nearly a year later, the News & Advance now published a follow-up. Those of us who regularly track these kinds of crackpot stories will not be totally surprised to learn that the promised “discovery” is not quite apparent yet, although we are assured that a breakthrough is just around (yet another) corner:

“We did penetrate about 18 feet down into the glacier, and we have some evidence that we’re in the right place,” Price said, adding satellite data puts them about 30 feet from their goal.

Price said he’s aware that whatever rests under the glacier might not be the jackpot he has been looking for.

“While we’d like to think it’s Noah’s Ark, we’re not sure what it is, but it’s in the right place,” he said.

Price’s newsletter has further information about Price’s 18-foot Ark-hole:

water began to ooze up from below. This may be an indication that we are in the vicinity of the anomaly as a darker mass under the ice would absorb heat and melt the ice around it. This could also be evidence of a thermal vent, as the mountain is volcanic and partially active.

So, thermal vent? Or evidence of the structure which once contained living specimens of all the animals in the world, and from which the only human family to survive a global flood emerged around 2000 BCE? There’s only one way to find out:

We are quite certain that if the authorities cooperate and funding is secure that we will make a discovery in these areas… If you wish to make a tax-deductible donation toward the work, please make your gift to World of the Bible Ministries and earmark it for Noah’s Ark Search LLC. We have a pledge for a matching gift of up to $75,000, so we encourage your end of the year donation as it will be doubled at this time!

Maybe Price should have a word with those unnamed Oklahoma government officials who have supposedly been so helpful to Jim Barfield’s hunt for the Copper Scroll treasure.

Price is a prolific author of apocalyptic Christian Zionist tomes and DVDs, with titles such as The Coming Last Days Temple and How the MidEast Conflict is Preparing the World for the End Time. However, he also has a PhD in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Texas, and he has been involved in professional excavations with Israeli archaeologists at the Qumran site.

(Hat tip: Pharyngula)

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Belatedly, via Paul Stott’s blog I see that the latest issue of Lobster is available as a free pdf download. Among the goodies is a piece by Solomon Hughes that casts a sceptical eye over Prospect magazine – in particular, Prospect‘s use of material derived from Hassan Butt, the supposed “reformed jihadi” who turned out to be a fantasist. The piece includes quotes given to Hughes by Prospect editor David Goodhart:

Journalist Shiv Malik interviewed Hassan Butt for a long Prospect piece on the 7/7 bombing and editor Goodhart said that, ‘I did once hear that the services regard the Shiv Malik piece on 7/7 as essential reading inside the “security state”‘ and added: ‘a Pentagon official once said the same.’

Goodhart went on to say: ‘if Hassan Butt has now been “exposed” as a liar and fantasist we were certainly not the only ones taken in – there was a big Newsnight interview – and big pieces in several nationals.’

British journalists and security professionals taken in by a dodgy source on Islamic extremism? Surely not…

Of course, Butt is not the only person to have made a career out of being a supposed former extremist – across the water there is Walid Shoebat, who regularly thrills church groups with tales of Muslim terrorist bloodlust mixed in with his bizarre re-interpretation of the Book of Revelation.

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Back in September, the BBC reported on destruction caused by wild elephants in the Kandhamal district of Orissa, India:

Hundreds of villagers have been forced to take shelter in camps in the Indian state of Orissa after repeated attacks by a herd of elephants.

…Conservationists say this is because the natural habitats of the elephants are shrinking. They blame this on human encroachment, which means animals have to travel further for food.  It is, however, unclear why this herd of elephants migrated from the Lakheri sanctuary in a neighbouring district.

One man has an answer, though: step forward Rev Lal Rodinga Colney of Restoration India Mission, who declared the devastation to be a vengeful “miracle” against Hindus for anti-Christian rioting and killing that took place last year:

It is surprising that these will elephants are leaving the Christian houses and untouched. They are targeting mostly the houses belonging the persecutors. So people name them Christian elephants.

Also as the anti-Christians were suddenly appearing within 7-8 P.M. and destroying the Christian houses last year August 2008. Exactly like that these elephants are suddenly appearing within the same time and destroying the houses.

…Now 4 people have been killed by elephants and they are still in the district of Kandhamal.

Colney’s miracle tale was posted online by a former missionary named Luke Kuepfer, who adds further details:

Were these elephants summoned by God? One would wonder, as it was in the month of August a year ago around 7-8PM that Christians in this same area began to run for their lives while their homes were being destroyed by anti-Christian rioters. Exactly one year later, at the same time of the day, the persecutors are now running for their lives, from nothing less than a herd of wild elephants! These elephants first attacked a rock crusher machine owned by a key leader of the persecution movement. They then went on to destroy his house and farms. Gaining momentum, they rampaged through other non-Christian homes demolishing gardens and singling out the homes of persecutors, leaving Christian homes untouched. People ran to the police station to report the disastrous news. In one case, a police jeep that attempted to drive away the herd was attacked and the occupants barely escaped. Truly, God is the avenger of the helpless.

Colney wrote in a recent email to Luke, “God’s miracle is going on in Kandhamal now. People’s hearts are changing towards our God. Please pray… now is the time to harvest.”

The story has spread across various Christian websites, including that of the Catholic Diocese of Colombo in Sri Lanka; some sites express a sanguinary glee at the “retribution“, while others suggest that would be unwise. No-one, however, apparently feels the need to ask how exactly Colney came by his very specific information.

A few days ago, the Press Trust of India  provided an update to the main story:

With the death of a pregnant woman, Sanira Digal (28) and her 5-year-old daughter Ashalata in elephant attack yesterday at Pasoripada village in Brudukia GP under Balliguda Forest Division, the death toll due to elephant menace has gone up to 13, [official sources] said.

Presumably Colney and Kuepfer will praise the Lord for this continuance of “God’s miracle”.

The Kalinga Times reported in 2006 that

As the forest cover continues to dwindle in Orissa, the Naveen Patnaik Government has failed to contain the human-elephant conflict in the State.

…According to a written reply given by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in the State Assembly… 39 persons were killed by elephants across the State during 2000-01, 59 in 2001-02, 43 in 2002-03, 37 in 2003-04, 64 in 2004-05, 42 in 2005-06 and 44 in 2006-07.

(Hat tip: Bulldada Newsblog)

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