Bartholomew's Notes

Donal Blaney has some good news:

The hitherto anonymous individual who infringed my intellectual property rights and set up the fake @blaneyblarney account on Twitter has, on service of the injunction requiring him to stop and to reveal his identity, agreed to comply with the order.

…As I said on Thursday, the injunction has nothing to do with free speech. As a libertarian I have blogged on that topic here many, many times. The injunction was, instead, all about the protection of my intellectual property rights, relying on breach of copyright and passing off.

We may cough at some of the actual issues here: Blaney does not always champion “free speech”, and last year he sent Tim Ireland a legal threat on behalf of Paul Staines…after Tim mentioned Staines’ use of copyrighted images on his blog. But the principle is a good one – some people have reason to remain anonymous on-line, but those who do so in order to bully, harass, threaten, or deceive deserve to be called to account. There have been a couple of fake blogs in my name, and I recently received a fake email impersonating someone else, for reasons that remain unclear. Ironically, the legal precedent may be of use Tim Ireland, who has just in the past few weeks been the victim of a threatening campaign on Twitter.

As a legal first, Blaney’s injunction has been reported widely:

A testület úgy véli, hogy a blaneysblarney címen szerepl? profil jogtalanul bitorolja Donal Blaney személyiségét…???? ???????????? ????? ????? ?? ????? ??????? ?????? ?????? (Donal Blaney), ????????? ??????????? ????? Griffin Law, ??????? ? ?????? ?? ????? ?????? ???…???(Donal Blaney)??????????????????@blaneysblarney??????Twitter??

In 2007 Peter Hitchens’ name was used by a commentator on Paul Staines’ website, annoying the real Peter Hitchens. According to the New Statesman:

The scuffle had reached a climax with the real PH visiting the fake PH, who, in a state of panic, phoned [Staines] to say that “Peter Hitchens has just cycled up my drive”. He didn’t answer the door.

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From the Telegraph:

Christian evangelist Benny Hinn, from Texas, has been refused entry to Britain after falling foul of new rules drawn up to combat hate crimes and extremism.

…Among the “miracles” the Texan preacher performs is one in which he instructs participants to “let the bodies hit the floor”. Videos of the services show the devout falling down backwards, “slain in spirit”.

If you Google “Benny Hinn”, the number four result is a YouTube video called “Benny Hinn: Let the Bodies Hit the Floor”. However, this is actually a satirical compilation of Hinn clips, mashed together with a song called “Let the Bodies Hit the Floor” by a rock band called Drowning Pool. The phrase is not Hinn’s, and usually he has helpers to catch those he puts into a religious trance before they “hit the floor”.

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Tim Ireland has posted more details about our dealings with Dominic Wightman and with the Cheerleaders, a group of persons who have been sending Tim threatening messages and trying to cause trouble for his family by posting his private details to hostile websites.

I wrote a blog entry about the Cheerleaders back in February, as part of an investigation into Glen Jenvey and the “VIGIL Network“; this was after I had received the following comment (on 25 December 2008):

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

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

The commentator used the name “Lil’ Goat”, although the email address belonged to “Ludas Matyi” – that’s “Charlie the Goose-Boy” in a Hungarian folk-tale, and also the stage name of Charlie Flowers, the leader of a music band called “The Fighting Cocks” (interview here). “Lil’ Goat” is a reference to one of their songs, “The Little Goats’ Big Night Out.”

I did not give this much consideration, but the next month, when Tim revealed that the Sun had relied on a bogus posting by Glen Jenvey to create a front page splash about Islamic extremists, both Tim and I started to receive various comments and private messages from pseudonymous persons claiming to be “the Cheerleaders” or “the Hur al-Ayn”, containing boasts of having caused annoyance to Islamic extremists in various ways. These Cheerleaders overlap with the Fighting Cocks, as explained further below.

As well as messages, there was also some more creepy behaviour – a package for me was hand-delivered at a former workplace, and there was an attempt to join all my Facebook contacts. Tim also received some “I know where you live” type hints. However, there is no evidence that their efforts to disrupt Islamists were ever any more than trivial (such as winding up Asghar Bukhari). More recently, though, things have taken a more sinister turn. This came on 6 September, from “Charlie Wadia”:

Hello Richard, I’m authorised to tell you this- in nine days time, the Cheerleaders are going to war, and there will be bloodshed… we’re after [snip] and everyone around him, and when we find them, we’re going to kill them.

The named person is a notorious Islamist extremist who has served time in prison; even so, I was still obliged to spend time reporting this foolishness to the police. An associate of the Cheerleaders who calls himself Matthew Edwards emailed me a few days later to tell me that “Wadia is Matyi’s cousin”. And since then, we’ve seen the campaign against Tim Ireland, which includes comments such as “machete to your throat” on a now-suspended Twitter feed.

On the one hand, the Fighting Cocks claims to have some distance from the Cheerleaders. A message previously posted on a Facebook site read:

The Fighting Cocks would like to state that they have no links whatsoever with the Cheerleaders, and while they cannot condone their methods, they support their right to take direct action :)

However, “Matyi” has written to me from the Fighting Cocks email address, saying that:

I see you’ve been in correspondence with our little Valkyries; Shooter [Hadchiti], Fayruz and so on.

“And so on” includes names such as “Princess Calamity” and “Lady Terror”.

There are also some other similarities. The Fighting Cocks website features a link to the “Center on Terrorism and Irregular Warfare” (CTIW), which is part of the US Navy, and  a Cheerleaders Facebook site says: “This group is a live exercise by CTIW.” Also, I’ve had a Cheerleader comment on my blog supposedly from an “ncis.navy.mil” email address, and the Fighting Cocks’ website gives as part of its postal address “NCISRU Building 3” – a reference to a “Naval Criminal Investigative Service Resident Unit”. Perhaps the idea is to play on the paranoia and conspiracy-mongering of Islamic extremists; David T of Harry’s Place tells us that the group consists of “Situationists”. There are also some branding similarities, such as the use of images from manga, a similar logo sticker, and an interest in the novels of Tom Cain; like Cain’s protagonist Sam Carver, the Fighting Cocks boast that they “do bad things to bad people”, and both Cheerleaders and Fighting Cocks members follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

Tim emailed one member of the Fighting Cocks directly asking for information – this was a man named Dan Wilde, who goes by the stage name of “DJ Assassin”. Wilde did not respond, although the email shortly afterwards appeared on the Cheerleaders’ Facebook site, along with the message “IRELAND IS REALLY IN THE CRAP NOW!”, and Tim received Flowers’ promise to come around to his house for a fight. However, while it would seem that Wilde is unwilling to disassociate himself from the on-line harassment of Tim Ireland, he was also quick to step-up the privacy settings on his own Facebook account.

So why are they attacking Tim in this vicious way? Flowers will not explain, but the timing makes it obvious that the intention is to provide cover for Dominic Wightman, who formerly ran VIGIL (under the name “Dominic Whiteman”; VIGIL has now disbanded amidst recriminations over money). As I’ve blogged previously, Tim and I met Wightman in February in relation to the Jenvey investigation; Wightman told us that Jenvey was in cahoots with a third person, a university lecturer, and urged us to expose this connection. In order to chivvy us along, Wightman later claimed to have a discovered a document which he encouraged us to believe had been written by the lecturer and posted on-line by him. In fact, however, the document had been posted on-line by Wightman and, despite his denials, in all likelihood he had concocted it. Certainly, the lecturer did not write it and Wightman has not provided any other explanation. This is, of course, disastrous for someone who wishes to be taken seriously as a researcher who uncovers information about anything; Wightman’s counter-attack has been to claim political persecution, with Tim and I supposedly “lefties” who wish to “smear” him for being a “Tory”. Tim has has some high-profile bitter spats with a number of public figures on the UK Right, such as Iain Dale, Paul Staines, and Nadine Dorries MP, and so Wightman has calculated that if he positions himself as being just another name on Tim’s list of political opponents, Tim will not be taken seriously and, perhaps, he (Wightman) will win the support of these people. The Cheerleaders have gone along with this, suggesting that their threats against Tim are revenge for these public spats, which they seek to frame as “bulllying”.

In another example of providing cover for Wightman, Tim recently received a list of questions the day before Wightman published an attack piece against him; it was obvious that the questions came from the same source. Wightman originally said that Tim had written the questions himself, but when I showed that this was impossible, I received a message from a Cheerleader telling me that she had done it by hacking into Wightman’s computer and reading the attack piece prior to publication. Wightman declined my offer to provide a statement for the police about this and shrugged it off as unimportant. Draw your own conclusions from that. Wightman, however, continues to insist he has had little contact with the Cheerleaders.

But why do the Cheerleaders think their threats and harassment are justified? Wightman has attempted to rationalise his deception by claiming that his attempt to mislead us was actually a ploy to uncover links with radical Islamists; obviously, in order to investigate how far Jenvey’s bogus postings had gone we had to communicate with the forum moderator at Ummah.com. Wightman, while expressing his personal dislike of the site, accepted this, but has since declared that this amounted to some kind of secret conspiracy that he has exposed. This is even though Tim openly posted on Ummah asking for information and I mentioned in a blog entry having received information about IPs Jenvey had used. Perhaps Wightman’s rationalisation for his behaviour also gives the Cheerleaders a spurious sense of righteousness in a course of action that is in reality completely unworthy of adults – and does nothing to oppose Islamic extremism.

And, finally, why do they think they can make threats and harass with impunity? I don’t know the answer to that, although in 2006 Wightman was photographed posing outside New Scotland Yard with Patrick Mercer MP, then the Shadow Minister for Homeland Security, so perhaps they think that attacks on Tim will be indulged due to some secret influence. That would, of course, be very foolish, but it would be helpful if Mercer could do more than simply offer some prevarications followed by ineffectual regrets whenever it turns out that someone he has endorsed should not have been. Alternatively, it may just be the arrogance of fame – the band is apparently well-known in certain circles, and has been reviewed in the media over the years.

UPDATE: The Fighting Cocks Twitter feed warns Tim of violence if he comes to any of their gigs:

This, it seems to me, closes down the possibility that individual members of the group might not know about the campaign against Tim.

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“I’m coming round to your house in the week. Fight or no fight?”

As I blogged a few days ago, a group called “the Cheerleaders” (apparently connected to a music band called “the Fighting Cocks” – see my blog entry here) has been harrassing Tim Ireland by posting his home address in various places on-line, in the specific hope that “everyone [he’s] pissed off” will see it.  They have also made threats of violence – which they have later deleted – such as “machete to your throat”. Now Tim reveals that that their leader, who goes by the stage name of “Ludas Matyi”, has sent an email declaring his intention to come around to Tim’s house for a fight:

Fuck it, I’m coming round to your house in the week. Fight or no fight?

Why are they behaving in this way? It seems the “Cheerleaders” see themselves as vigilantes against Islamic extremists, and they began with pranks aimed against the likes of Asghar Bukhari (of whom I am not a fan). However, because Tim uncovered a bogus posting to a Muslim website designed to create an anti-Muslim scare story, and went on to show that Dominic Wightman (a former associate of Patrick Mercer MP) had lied to Tim and me to try and manipulate us into writing about someone against whom he has a grudge, that apparently means that Tim should be targeted by association. Tim now writes:

Today, I am seriously discussing with my wife not the ifs/buts, but the whens/wheres of moving her and the kids to a safe/unknown location.

Judging by their track record and past trolling technique, I have little doubt that this will lead to jeers from the ‘Cheerleaders’, who will then go on to assure one and all that I’m hysterical and they’re harmless, but even if I’m going to take them at their word on that, I also have to take into account:

a) The many people these ‘Cheereladers’ have sent/broadcast my home address to

b) The lies these ‘Cheerleaders’ have been putting about publicly and privately…

c) The 50+ false claims that I am a convicted paedophile that Glen Jenvey (the author) is unable to remove and Google (the host) refuses to delete

We live in a country where paediatricians are the targets of mobs of illiterate tabloid readers, so I don’t think I’m wrong to be this worried…

I know that Tim can be a polarizing figure when it comes to politics, but this is a situation which should concern everyone. If you believe in freedom of speech, this kind of thuggery and harassment must be opposed – whoever is on the receiving end of it.

Meanwhile, I also get a mention on the “Cheerleaders'” Facebook page, where there is a posting which links to a silly attack blog:

http://bartholomewsnotesonreligion.wordpress.com/2009/09/26/hi-i-am-richard-bartholomew/?preview=true

mad props to Dominic Wightman the Tory guy just stitched up another blog site :)

The attack blog is harmless enough, and it compares me to Reverend Farthing, the campy vicar from the sitcom Dad’s Army. Says Wightman in an email to me:

Since fools are my theme, let satire be my song. Glad to see you haven’t lost your sense of humour, Reverend. Regards to the shivering verger.

Tim, meanwhile, is mocked at another blog as someone who supposedly wishes to be a Tory. The idea, of course, is that Wightman wants to present our dispute as some kind of trivial spat based on political differences, rather than the more serious matter of lies. Funnily enough, this is the second attack blog set up in my name  – a certain James Osposol did one a while back, although Wightman has assured me that it had nothing to do with him.

Wightman continues to insist that he has very little contact with the “Cheerleaders”, although the link to the pseudo-site curiously appeared very quickly after the blog was published. The “Cheerleaders” also posted on-line an attack piece by Wightman against Tim, several hours before it appeared on Wightman’s Westminster Journal website. Perhaps Wightman can explain further?

UPDATE: Dominic Wightman has now published an article on his Westminster Journal website, where he insists he has very little contact with the Cheerleaders and does not approve of the threats being made against Tim, while also suggesting that Tim may be behind them himself, or if not has at least “met his comeuppance”. Inevitably, he also argues that because he’s opposed to Islamic extremists, therefore his critics must be “invertebrate supporters and glorifiers (at least silent appeasers) of 7/7, 911, Bali and Madrid”. As ever, it’s an eloquent yet vacuous and overheated diatribe which can only embarrass further those who vouched for him or who have relied on his research.

His piece also alludes to the Cheerleaders supposedly putting “viruses and worms” onto his computer. This is reference to a series of menacing and insulting questions which Tim received a couple of days before Wightman’s attack piece appeared. However, the questions were obviously based on Wightman’s article. Wightman at first told me that Tim had himself written them, and accused me of knowing this; when I did a blog post that showed that would only be possible if Tim had psychic powers, I then received a message from a Cheerleader telling me that in fact they had hacked into Wightman’s computer and done the questions themselves, for no apparent reason. I reported this to Wightman, offering to make a police statement, but he shrugged it off as unimportant.

Certainly, the Cheerleaders know more about the list of questions than is in the public domain: one detail which Tim did not include when he published the list was that a Costa Rican phone number was appended to them. Wightman’s attack piece was written in the form of an interview in which he supposedly recounted Tim’s failings to a Venezuelan lawyer named Olivia James, and the Cheerleader told me that she had meant to fabricate a Venezuelan phone number, but had made a mistake. However, Wightman has now taken to publishing audios on YouTube, under an account based on the name Olivia James; and, strangely, her location given is Costa Rica. What can it all mean?

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Claim: Bible makes hidden references to Allah and Arabs. God sent author a sign through his car license plate.

Joel Richardson recommends readers to look at website advertising a book by a certian Jeffrey A Manty (or “Jeff Manty”). Here it is:

Welcome to Prophecy Code II, the revised and expanded Edition, recently endorsed by Joel Richardson, author of the current Amazon.com Best Seller THE ISLAMIC ANTICHRIST and ANTICHRIST: ISLAM’S AWAITED MESSIAH.

Joel says this about Prophecy Code II, “At this vital time, when the Lord is speaking to His Church regarding the Islamic predominance of the Last Days, Jeffrey Manty has been listening. Prophecy Code II is a stirring and valuable contribution to the Church’s emerging understanding concerning the dark and glorious days that lie ahead.“

Prophecy Code II by means of the Hebrew translations Alah, Arab, and the Greek Holocaust has reset the prophecy bar to new revealing heights by exposing Lucifer’s true identity as the god of Islam and the beast of the Last Days. This cutting edge book looks deeper into the Hebrew translation of the English verb ascend that made Prophecy Code’s first edition a success.

…You will learn that the key to understanding the Last Days can be found in the verb ascend used to describe Lucifer’s sin in Isaiah 14, the same verb that enabled Jesus Christ to sit at the Fathers right hand. This “key” opens the door to the identity of Antichrist and his kingdom.

In fact, EX-MUSLIM TERRORIST Walid Shoebat who co-authored a recent book called GOD’S WAR ON TERROR with Joel Richardson had a look of profound astonishment after Manty enlightened him in person to the Hebrew translation of this verb that reveals the BEAST’s identity.

…In the chapter he calls “God’s Time Clock,” Manty bolsters this theory with more cutting edge insights by breaking the coded prophecy of the number 2,300 found in Daniel 8:14, a prophecy that has stumped eschatologist for centuries. His methodology is unique and his conclusion groundbreaking. He proves that the two time lines, one consisting of 2,520 years and the other of 2,300 years, are running parallel to each other surprisingly ending on the same year.

It’s funny to see Walid Shoebat endorse this: elsewhere, Shoebat has declared that the number “666” in the Book of Revelation was actually the word “In the Name of Allah”, written in Arabic by the book’s author and misinterpreted as a number in Greek. He explicitly said that “666” could not be a coded number because that would be “Gematria”, a form of “witchcraft” which God opposes. Yet now he has apparently endorsed a coded number in another book of the Bible!

Manty believes that he has been specially chosen by God to reveal his message – among the signs God sent him is that his car license plate includes the number 918, and when he visited a mosque he saw verse 9:18 of the Koran hanging on a wall:

The Mosque of Allah shall be visited… by such as believe in Allah and the Last Days…. It is they who are expected to be on true guidance.

Also, at the same event at the mosque he met Keith Ellison:

I also unknowingly shook the hand of an elected official who just so happens to be the first Muslim congressman.

Well, who can argue with any of that? 

Some excerpts from the book appear on his website; he cross-references all kinds of Biblical verses in a way that is difficult to follow, but the big point seems to be that the Hebrew verb for “ascend” is “alah”, and this is the sin of Lucifer (according to Isaiah, he wanted to “ascend” to the heavens); therefore Lucifer is Allah. One summary of Manty’s theory which another author provides tells us that:

The Jewish Menorah has four sets of double branches, four on the left and four on the right of a central tree. In this theory each set of branches from left to right on the Menorah represents a 2520 year cycle for Israel. I find that there is significant evidence that the 2520 year cycle has prophetic applications in regard to Israel. The following four timelines in this theory span the date of significant events in ancient Israel to significant events in a four stage restoration of modern Israel. The four 2520 year cycle periods start from the outer pair of branches of the Menorah and progress to the inner most pair that ends when Israel accepts her Messiah at His second coming. All time cycles use the lunar year of 360 days (common in prophetic biblical dating).

Using Daniel, Manty thus parallels the fall of Judah 587 BCE to the First Zionist Gongress in 1897; the decree of Cyrus in 536 BCE with the establishment of modern Israel in 1948; the foundation of the Second temple in 517BCE with the Six-Day War in 1967; and the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem in 444BCE with the return of Jesus in…2039. This belongs to a long tradition of Dispensationalist pseudo-scholarship on the Bible, and he repeatedly commends the work of E.W. Bullinger, a nineteenth-century Anglican clergyman whose eccentric opinions became known as “Bullingerism”.

Further details appear in a comment the author left at a blog:

I can prove that the coming Mahdi will declare himself Allah at the abomination of desolation.

In 2 Thessalonians it says that “the man of lawlessness will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God and worshiped”.

In other words, he will declare himself God, but what god? And of what religion?

In Daniel 2 we have the prophecy of king Nebuchadnezzer’s vision called the “Great image”. This image consisted of five future kingdoms that would rule over Israel, beginning with Nebuchadnezzer’s Babylon.

The fifth and last kingdom, would be a kingdom that would rule in the last days, the Bible says that this kingdom would be one of both mire and metal or “iron mixed with clay”, the key word being mixed.

I believe it’s not a coincidence that this verb mixed occurs only three times throughout the bible and all three occurrence are found in Daniel 2: 40-43.

So by knowing the Aramaic and Hebrew meaning of this verb, we can understanding what form of governments the iron and clay depict, and we can know the identity of this last days religion.

What is the translation of this verb mixed? It is the word “Arab.”

Now here’s the kicker! We know that any religion outside of Christianity is a religion built by Lucifer in the spirit of antichrist. Right?

Now in Isaiah 14: 13-14 (a prophecy about Lucifer’s fall) it says:

‘You (Lucifer) said in your heart’ “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God… I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”

The Hebrew word for “ascend”, as in “I will ascend to heaven… I will make myself like the Most High”. Is the word Allah.

Certainly, the Aramaic for “mixed” can be translitered as “‘arab”, although probably sounding a bit more like “harav” than our word “Arab” (see here). However, the verb can’t be “translated” as “Arab”, and once again – a common characteristic of these crackpot exegeses – it makes absolutely no sense in the context of the wider text. It’s nonsense, but American Christian fundamentalists like the idea that those they are in conflict with are predicted in the Bible.

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Apparently there are not enough organisations of right-wing pundits dedicated to revealing the awful truth about Islam and Muslims in America; step forward “Stop Islamization of America”:

WASHINGTON – Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) will hold an organizational launch and press conference with speakers and panel discussion on September 25th, to coincide with Islam on Capitol Hill Day and the 220th anniversary of the passage of the Bill of Rights.

SIOA is an educational and human rights organization with two foundational principles: Love and Compassion.

SIOA’s mission is to educate the American people about the political doctrine of Islam, its history, Sharia (Islamic Law), and Jihad. SIOA believes that Sharia Law is incompatible with our Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Seven experts are scheduled to speak on the subjects of Islam, terrorism and civic responsibility.

Rabbi Jon Hausman – Conservative political moderator
Rebecca Bynum – Publisher, Senior Managing Editor – New English Review
Dave Gaubatz – Veteran counter-terrorism investigator, author
Catherine Martin – Veteran grass roots activist, Northern Virginia
John Cosgrove – Counter-terrorism consultant
Martin Mawyer – Founder, Christian Action Network
Jerry Gordon – Senior Editor – New English Review

Attendees will be asked to speak with their Congressmen about Sharia Law, two acts before Congress (the Free Speech Protection Act and the Act to Protect First Responders Fighting Terrorism) and the effort to help protect those who leave Islam from reprisals.

The founder is a slightly mysterious “DL Adams”, but some of the other names are familiar; it looks to me that these outfits simply shuffle the pack of usual characters and get some publicity by announcing a launch. Dave Gaubatz is responsible for a risibly-conceived “Mapping Shari’a in America” project, which I discussed here; Mawyer was best-known for virulent anti-gay rhetoric in the 1990s before he jumped on the anti-Islam bandwagon, and just recently – as I blogged here – he was in the UK interviewing balaclava-clad English Defence League activists. Hausman is a Rabbi in the Conservative tradition, and Geert Wilders has addressed his synagogue; according to a profile in the New English Review, on the day Wilders came,

That afternoon, Rabbi Jon Hausman spiritual leader of Ahavath Torah, was feted, called a ‘hero’ and given an ovation at a Republican Jewish Coalition New England Chapter luncheon. Many anti-Jihad activists were in the audience, among them, Charles Jacobs, founder of the David Project, Andrew Bostom, author of The Legacy of Jihad and The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism, and Professor Dennis Hale of Boston College.

Martin, meanwhile, is with Brigitte Gabriel’s “ACT for America”. Bynam, writing in the New English Review, has an authoritarian perspective, believing that Islam should be banned as “seditious” and that American Muslims who are convicted of criminal activity “that is prompted by or connected specifically to beliefs that are part of their mental makeup and cannot be shed as long as they are loyal to Islam” should be deported. Like the group I noted yesterday, she also commends the views of a certain Bill Warner,   who purports to be an expert on “Political Islam” (he has a PhD). Bynum also dabbles in theology.

Cosgrove is with Jesse Petrilla’s “United America Committee” (which in turn is linked to the “United British Alliance”), and he was one of yesterday’s protestors in Washington; according to Fox:

…John Cosgrove, who identified himself as a counterterrorism consultant, called on “American males” to “stand shoulder to shoulder” in the battle to save America from the imposition of Sharia on American law. Sharia is a body of Islamic law used, with varying degrees of severity and harshness toward women, in many Muslim societies. At one point, Cosgrove brandished a book called The Quranic Concept of War to demonstrate the supposedly aggressive and confrontational nature of ancient and modern Islam.

Noting the arguments of some that Thomas Jefferson possessed a copy of the Koran, Cosgrove conceded this was true and added: “He had it so that he could know his enemy, so he could confront them, know them, kill them, and vanquish the Islamic pirates, the scourge of the seas and spreading tyranny abroad. After reading the Koran, founding the Marines and expanding the Navy to go kill them, I think he laid the Koran down thinking perhaps he was done. Sadly, it was not the case.”

Cosgrove has probably got this from Christian Right pseudo-historian David Barton – in fact, Jefferson acquired his Koran in 1765, twenty years before he confronted the pirates (1). It’s a small point, but symptomatic of a sloppy and opportunistic attitude. What exactly his qualifications are for being a “counter-terrorism consultant” remain obscure.

Back in February, a number of these persons came to together to promote a documentary by Mawyer. Jeffrey Imm of the wonderfully-named “Anti-Jihad League of America” [UPDATE: who rejects the right-wing views of the likes of Mawyer, see below] explained in Family Security Matters that:

The Washington D.C. audience was invited to attend the premiere screening by the Christian Action Network through e-mails, promotion of the event by anti-jihad web sites and organizations, and local radio promotion by Washington D.C. area’s WAVA-FM radio host Don Kroah. Local activist groups also promoted the anti-jihad event, with attendance by DC area activist leaders Catherine Martin (ACT!For America – Northern Virginia & DC Metro Chapter), John Cosgrove (United American Committee, Virginia Chapter), and Jeffrey Imm (Anti-Jihad League of America), among others.

I sometimes get irritated comments from people (particularly a certain “June” of late) who think my blog entries on this kind of thing mean that I must be wishing to minimise or ignore the threat of Islamic extremism. That’s not actually the case, and for a every right-wing demagogue who wants to whip up anti-Islamic feeling, it should be remembered there are Muslim extremists who are perhaps even more effective in causing people to fear the religion (and I have written about those, too). But as with the 1950s “Red Scare” (and other situations), the existence of a real security threat does not mean that one should uncritically embrace anyone who comes along with some posturing rhetoric and self-proclaimed expertise offering easy answers.

UPDATE: Jeffrey Imm writes to clarify:

You have referenced an out-of-context excerpt from an article that I wrote in February 2009 to suggest that I support the SIOA.  I do not, and I have specifically written as to how we do not support the SIOA at:
http://www.realcourage.org/2009/09/we-are-not-afraid/

I would like to clarify your posting where you make reference to an article that I posted for the long-since defunct “Anti-Jihad League of America” in February 2009.  Your excerpt, taken out of context, will inaccurately make individuals to believe that I share Mr. Mawyer’s organization’s views on issues other than Jihad.  For you and your readers, I would like to provide the context on this that is not in your article.

First, I did not know of Mr. Mawyer’s 1990s “anti-gay” views that you mention in your article when I was invited to their documentary covering what has been widely reported as a report on Islamic supremacist groups in the U.S. that seek both separatist and violent agendas.  I addressed this strictly from an anti-jihad perspective – that is not an anti-Islam view, nor is it a bigoted or right-wing attack on Muslims.  It was and remains a challenge to Islamic supremacists, just as Americans once challenged (and need to continue to challenge) white supremacism.  Therefore, it seemed reasonable at the time for me to attend, and given the attendance from the local area to report on this.  Shortly thereafter, I disbanded the “Anti-Jihad League of America” as a group because the goal to find a cross-section of those in the Counterterrorism community and the public was not working, as the Counterterrorism community has long since given up in challenging the ideology of Islamic supremacism.  Moreover, while I once shared my articles with “Family Security Matters,” if you look you will see that I am no longer a contributor to “Family Security Matters” as well.

In fact, the reference that you make to the February article is not a valid web link.  However, in the interests of open communication, I wanted to set the record straight on this.

In March 2009, I created a new human rights group called “Responsible for Equality And Liberty,” (R.E.A.L.) which you can find atrealcourage.org.  In fact, defense of homosexual human rights is a key part of our focus, and will remain so.  Our focus at Responsible for Equality And Liberty remains the basic defense of universal human rights, which requires us to challenge those groups that would deny such human rights.  If you can provide more information on Mr. Mawyer’s 1990s “anti-gay” positions,  I would appreciate it.  Your assumption that everyone is aware of every individual’s positions from a decade ago is not realistic.  Speaking for myself and R.E.A.L., we will challenge anti-homosexual groups in defense of their human rights as we have publicly written and have spoken out against similar groups such as the Traditional Values Coalition.

This is documented at:
http://www.realcourage.org/2009/05/keep-hope-alive/
http://www.unitedstatesaction.com/blog/imm-articles/138.html#4.3

R.E.A.L. has a specific focus on defying those who spread hate and violence against homosexuals as documented at:
http://www.realcourage.org/category/war-on-gay-humanity/

In retrospect, it was a mistake to not have researched Mr. Mawyer’s CAN group views on homosexuality before writing my article about their documentary on Jamaat Al-Fuqra-led facilities that seek to spread Islamic supremacism and documented violence in the United States.  I apologize for that mistake and will be certain not to repeat it.  

However, as you no doubt are aware, it is impossible to research every individual thoroughly enough, which is why you were unaware of my positions when you provided an except of my article.

I wanted to write you to clarify this to you and to set the record straight on this issue.  Regarding the SIOA, our group has solidly come out AGAINST what they are doing and we have publicly stated this at:
http://www.realcourage.org/2009/09/we-are-not-afraid/

As we have written publicly, we do not agree with the SIOA, what they believe, and what they stand for.  Our challenge to Islamic supremacism is not an attack on “Islam” or on “Muslims,” in fact we believe that those who will most benefit from our human rights defiance are other Muslims who are oppressed by Islamic supremacists.

By the way, the assumption that many who are concerned about Islamic supremacism are “right-wing” is incorrect.  The human rights threat of Islamic supremacism remains a threat to people of all political persuasions, all religions, all genders, and all ethnic backgrounds.

Since you have taken this small excerpt out of an article to give an impression about what my positions are, I would appreciate if you would update this with the additional information to tell the rest of the story.Jeffrey Imm
Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)
http://www.realcourage.org 

Thank you very much.

****

(1) See Douglas A. Hicks, With God on All Sides: Leadership in a Devout and Diverse America, Oxford University Press, pp. 111-112. This blog has further details:

We do not know for certain why he purchased it…The only substantial scholarly treatment of this specific topic that I’m aware of is Kevin Hayes’ 2004 article in Early American Literature, “How Thomas Jefferson Read the Qur’an.”  Hayes suggests that Jefferson’s primary motivation in purchasing the Qur’an was his interest in it as a legal text.  This seems highly plausible to me.  What does not seem plausible is that, 21 years before he encountered a representative of an Islamic country in a professional capacity, he 1) decided that he considered Muslims his “enemy” and 2) conceived of a need to study their main religious text so as to be better equipped for conflict with them.

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Some footage from the “Islam on Capitol Hill” prayer rally, which in fact turned out to be a rather low-key affair, aside from some abuse from a Christian Right group:

The call went out last week:

Well friends and fellow believers, the Muslims are coming to the Capitol on Friday, September 25 to stake a claim of conquest over our nation. We must not miss this opportunity to:

1- Bring the Glorious Gospel to thousands of Muslims
2- Delegitimize this event, which is a facade and ploy to portray Islam as peaceful when it is actually bent on a bloody global conquest
3- Offer a prophetic rebuke to this false event, and the false prophet and religion that they have come to promote
4- Show them that Americans and especially Christians will not stand for this
5- Embolden other believers and hopefully millions of Americans to rise up against this threat to our nation and our freedoms before it is too late

And so we intend to be with them from early on in the Morning until the late afternoon. Pray we acquire our sound permits so that we can preach the Gospel to thousands at a time. We will have signs and will be wearing shirts that proclaim the truth.

More Christian right hysteria over the rally here.

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Tim Ireland’s latest blog entry deals with Patrick Mercer’s contradictory statements concerning whether or not he worked with Glen Jenvey, who has admitted to concocting a bogus Muslim-themed scare story as tabloid fodder. As Hugh Muir noted in yesterday’s Guardian:

…Last week we raised the question of Patrick Mercer, who chairs the parliamentary counterterrorism subcommittee, and had endorsed Jenvey as a man “who needs to be listened to”. The MP strongly condemned Jenvey’s deception, which occurred in January. “My office certainly received information from him but never worked with him,” he said. And that’s fine with us. But not with Mr Ireland’s site, Bloggerheads, for now it publishes an email sent by a Mercer aide to the People newspaper. “I have been in touch with Mr Jenvey about a number of things, but most of all the following, which in my view would combine well to make a very good Sunday story,” it says. All quite collegiate then, but it comes down to the definition of “working” together, say sources close to the MP. Mercer himself had no further dealings with Jenvey, though his officials occasionally received information from him. Sometimes it checked out. Sometimes not. Two months after doubts were raised about Jenvey’s dodgy activities, the link between the fabricator and Mercer’s aides had yet to be broken. A shadowy world, this counterterrorism.

Tim uncovered the Jenvey’s fabrication back in January, and I’ve been helping with some follow-up and background work (which is why I get a mention in Muir’s article, too). However, while our efforts have been vindicated, Tim has also had to endure a great deal of hassle as a result, which is still ongoing. Jenvey’s original reaction was to plant bogus postings on websites about Thailand accusing Tim of being a paedophile; he has since apologised for this as part of his confession. More recently, Tim was the subject of an attack piece by an former associate of Jenvey named Dominic Wightman (also known as “Dominic Whiteman”; photographed posing with Mercer outside New Scotland Yard here), who had tried to manipulate Tim and me into writing about another person, against whom he has a grudge (I’ve blogged this previously).

But there’s worse; Tim now tells us that

…the attacks have now escalated to a stage where (oh, you’ll love this) my home address has been repeatedly published online by an unknown number of anonymous attackers, and deliberately broadcast to supporters of Alisher Usmanov, Paul Staines, Iain Dale and now Nadine Dorries.

These are all public figures with whom Tim has had well-known disputes. However, it should be noted that Tim is careful and responsible with personal information about other people; and that his enemies also include other characters who might be capable of actual harm. The attackers are too cowardly to put their own real names next to their postings of Tim’s address; it seems, however, they have read Wightman’s claim that Tim is in league with Islamic extremists (Wightman’s rationale for lying to us) and they figure that this provides a justification for the cheap thrills and pathetic sense of empowerment that their harrassment doubtless gives them. They are also using the claim that Tim is an “electronic stalker”; Tim is tenacious and thorough in tracking down examples of on-line deception and dodgy practices, and he is persistent in asking reasonable questions of those who owe him – or the public – answers, and his opponents have spun this into a “stalker” label. Indeed, Mercer has apparently seized on this to deflect criticism, and Tim complains, justifiably, that

So they’re telling their supporters/readers that I’m some mad stalker while knowing that some real bastards using genuine forms of harassment are on my case.

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A planned Muslim prayer rally at Capitol Hill tomorrow has provoked a fit of the vapours from the Charismatic end of the Christian Right, with calls for “spiritual warfare” from as far away as Nigeria. Charisma reports:

Tonight [Lou] Engle will join Shirley Dobson, chair of the National Day of Prayer Task Force, and Family Research Council President Tony Perkins in praying for the U.S. during a national teleconference beginning at 7:30 p.m. Eastern. In a statement posted on his ministry Web site, Engle also called on Christians to fast and pray Friday…Window International Network distributed a prayer guide related to the Islam on Capitol Hill rally, and Intercessors for America created radio spots with a prayer that there would be only peaceful protests Friday…

Nigeria-based prayer leader Mosy Madugba called on Christians to fast and pray beginning at midnight Friday and pray until the rally ends at 7 p.m. Madugba-leader of the Ministers Prayer Network in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and the Florida-based Global Prayer Network-said the rally is part of an ongoing spiritual war.

“If they succeed, they will acquire greater boldness to press for stronger and greater Islamic influence in USA,” he said. “What they are trying to do is test the waters. For every ground Islam gains, the church loses some.”

…Oklahoma pastor Reza Safa, a former Muslim who now broadcasts the gospel into the Middle East through his Nejat TV, said 50,000 Muslims bowing before Allah is “a slap in the face of Christianity.”

 “You can’t say America is a Christian nation and have Muslims, who deny Jesus is the Son of God, on the lawn of the White House,” he said this week from Jerusalem.

The “Window International Network” – run from Colorado by a certain Beverley Pegues – has got particularly carried away, exhorting us to

Ask the LORD to dispatch His warring angels to oversee, contain, and defeat any spirits of destruction, terror or violence that seek to use this meeting of Muslims as an opportunity to wreak havoc. Pray that every demonic attack against the United States is revealed. Pray the Bible. Mark 4:22. Pray for every terrorist plot to be revealed, and those planning evil to be caught and quickly brought to justice.

And:

Pray for the false gods of Allah and Muhammad, along with the demonic spirits of manipulation, religion, control, hatred, rejection, abandonment, and witchcraft to be bound and cast down in the Mighty Name of Jesus. Loose Godly unity, peace, and love.

Pray for the Athan (Islamic call to prayer) and all other Islamic prayers to be rendered ineffective and powerless, and for God’s impenetrable hedge of protection to be placed around leaders and governmental agencies of the United States of America. Pray that these leaders will not be affected in any way or influenced by witchcraft prayers and the schemes of evil principalities and powers. Pray the LORD’s Will and Purpose for the US will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

There’s also conspiracy mongering:

Muslim groups have begun a 20 year plan to make America an Islamic country by the year 2020…Pray America will never become an Islamic country, but one that is dedicated to the Lord Jesus Christ in service and in deed. Pray for an immediate end to any of the “Islam 20 Year Plan” that is in process or that is already taking place in America.

The website links to an anti-Islam website, where there is a repost of an article by Anis Shorrosh on the subject of “How Islam will Defeat America”:

The following is my analysis of Islamic invasion of America, the agenda of Islamists and visible methods to take over America by the year 2020!  Will Americans continue to sleep through this invasion as they did when we were attacked on 9/11?

Shorrosh (who has a slightly strange-looking website here [UPDATE: and who was arrested last year for attempted arson]) has a feverish vision that Muslims are involved in an all-encompassing plot which includes the following strategies:

Terminate America’s freedom of speech by replacing it with hate crime bills state-wide and nation-wide….Wage a war of words using black leaders like Louis Farrakhan, Rev. Jesse Jackson and other visible religious personalities to promote Islam as the original African-American’s religion while Christianity is for the whites!…Take control of as much of Hollywood, the press, TV, radio and the internet…Encourage Muslims to penetrate the White House… Train Muslims as medical doctors to dominate the medical field, research and pharmaceutical companies…. Massive immigration (100,000 annually since 1961)… Muslim men must marry American women and Islamize them…Applaud Muslims as loyal citizens of the US by spotlighting their voting record as the highest percentage of all minority and ethic groups in America.

Lou Engle, meanwhile, sees the rally as a moment of “convergence”:

First of all, our President has recently proclaimed, honored, encouraged the Muslim holy days of prayer and fasting called Ramadan. He was very silent on the National Day of Prayer, but very vocal on the support of Ramadan. Interestingly, at the same time, a major Christian leader of the Emergent Church called for forty days of fasting and prayer in the same Ramadan period with the goal that the Church will better understand our Muslim friends…At the same time, on the 25th of September, Muslims are calling for a Muslim Day of Prayer in Washington DC… This is the exact word of one of the Sheikhs who is leading this historic gathering: “Muslims should march on the White House. We are going to the White House so that Islam will be victorious, Allah willing, and the White House will become into a Muslim house.”…However, I believe in this moment of divine providence that God has raised up on the stage of history, a little “Esther” that if we pray and fast for her, she could be a major voice to expose the dark under-belly of Islam and radiate a bright hope for a day of salvation for Muslims in America…

(That would be, of course, Rifqa Bary)

This convergence, I believe, is urgently summoning us in the midst of the rising tide of Islamic influence in America to recognize that our God is above every god and that if we return to Him with all of our hearts and call upon Him with fasting and prayer, then God could use what the enemy meant for evil to bring about a great day of salvation for Muslims in America, of which Rifqa is but a major sign.

Last year, Engle led a “team of prayer leaders” in Washington D.C. in battle against the demonic forces which were working to help Barack Obama to get elected; perhap’s they’ll have better luck this time.

Returning to the Charisma article, apocalyptic paperback author Joel C. Rosenberg (first blogged by me here)  tells us that

“My prayer is that people go out and just start handing out copies of the New Testament in Arabic to those who are there,” he said. “To share the gospel. That they show love and mercy to those who are there who are Muslims. That they don’t get into arguments. You’re not going to persuade Muslims by arguing with them. … The Lord has to open their eyes to understand that He’s calling them to Him.”

As I  noted recently, nobody was particularly bothered when the exact same spot was used last summer to puff a Unification Church front group.

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Paul Ray has a new video for his branch of the English Defence League (his current association with the main EDL is unclear) advertising an anti-Muslim protest for Manchester next month (see my blog entry here). The video focuses on religion, comparing Rowan Williams to King Saul and promising a new “David generation”. In particular, the video bemoans the conversion of churches into mosques; this was also an issue raised by one of the balaclava-wearing EDL leaders interviewed by Martin Mawyer last month – it was claimed then that churches were being forcibly converted by Muslim councillors.

The reality, of course, is that there are a lot of redundant church buildings, and these end up being used for a variety of purposes. The Victorians built too many large churches (many of which were never filled), there has been a massive decline in churchgoing in the UK in recent years, and transport has made it easier for Anglicans to attend churches outside their parish and for non-conformists to abandon their chapels in favour for larger “mega-churches” on the edge of towns – a process that parallels what’s happened with small shops and supermarkets. Despite his Crusader fetishism and his admiration for Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali (perhaps he could explain to the bishop his views on the word “Paki”?), there is no evidence that Ray goes to church, and he has a confused understanding of the Bible, for instance believing that “turning the other cheek” was the action of the Pharisee in the parable of the Good Samaritan.

The disposal of church buildings to other faiths has been a subject of debate in the Church of England; in 1995 a report was prepared for the General Synod on the subject.

Incidentally, Ray’s video – which rails against “the Arabs” (6:42) – also slips in a reference to the racialist American Renaissance website (7:53).

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