Bartholomew's Notes

Ho ho – from Conwebwatch:

Even many Republican strategists had written off GOP Sen. Elizabeth Dole’s campaign for dead, but a new anti-atheist ad campaign has dealt an eleventh-hour blow to her Democrat foe, Kay Hagan. And the outcome of their tightening North Carolina race could determine whether Republicans can hold onto the power to filibuster a Democrat-majority agenda in the Senate.

— WorldNetDaily, Nov. 3 article

One race that doesn’t look particularly close is that for the US Senate in the state.  Kay Hagan has opened up a seven point lead over incumbent Elizabeth Dole, 51-44.

“Kay Hagan’s gained four points on her lead in the last week,” said [Dean] Debnam.  “Clearly the Godless Americans ad backfired.”

— Public Policy Polling, Nov. 3 release

Background to the controversy here.

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Always nice to get a bit of feedback:

I have just taken pains to read your confusion which u conly try to put togetherto deceive the world…you are the number 1 liar in the world… I have no time to waste on cyber murderers like you but i hand you over to god who will judge…GOD BLESS YOU…

And here:

You are wicked, crooked, crafty, poisonous, and dangerous to women in general…If not what connection does it have with your subject matter but just to show your in-depth hatred for God’s vessel, you connected it so as to disgrace her and make your money and gain cheap popularity.

Plus:

This is to inform you that you know you cannot defend what you are insinuating. Your interest is in the money you make out of NGO and your cliques…

And now:

You are trying to delve into what you do not know, so that you will recieve unnecessary applause…

Now, you see Richard, only SMALL and FOOLISH minds spend enormous amount of their time talking about what they don’t know about others. But Richie dear, why don’t you grow up? I’d like to talk to you when you do. Ordinarily, I don’t spend prescious time talking with unreasonable minds. Please, on a serious note, GROW UP!

The authors are defenders of Helen Ukpabio, a Nigerian evangelist known for promoting the idea that children can be witches – two of the comments apparently come from members of her faimily. The writers are all upset with my blog entry on Ukpabio from December last year, in which I suggested that Ukpabio’s activities have helped to whip up a hysteria, with unhappy consequences. They assure me:

She preaches the word of God and ministers to people wihout even touching them because they are always too many. Adult’s witches, male and females come to her confessing that they are witches and wizards. Begging her, to please deliver them. Parents bring their self confessed witchcraft children begging her to deliver them. The counselling sessions are free a thing you can never see in UK or Europe. Deliverance is completely free without even collecting offering during such deliverance sessions…Many children have been abandoned in the church, without her knowing the parents she takes them up trains them and makes the church to care for them without attracting the press. She has a child rescue foundation which she does under the church to help restore wandering children who come to her back to their parents.

and:

I have personally come in contact with a child witch in my extended family who publicly made confessions on her witchcraft involvements and why the mother was getting sick to death and equally explained how the mother could be set free. When the conditions she gave were met, the mother was rescued. I was not told. I was there!

You are trying to delve into what you do not know, so that you will recieve unnecessary applause. Even when I know that children can be witches, I have never heard that Helen ever labelled a child ‘witch’. I have, on the other hand, heard of several children who were labelled witches by their own parents, and Helen reprimanded the parents for labelling the children witches just because they were stubborn at home. This is in fact, a very little I can tell you about Helen as a publisher. I’ll advice you read our KINGS VIEW WORLD CHANGERS magazine that carried the heading, WHO IS THIS HELEN UKPABIO?

They also connect me with an activist opposed to all this, a certain Kelli Stowe. I’d never heard of her before, although I now see she runs a heartfelt blog, called Children of Nigeria. Stowe put a petition on Care 2 opposing Ukpabio’s “Liberty Foundation”; Ukpabio’s supporters responded with a “STOP KELLI STOWE FROM TRAMPLING ON THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF AN ENTIRE NATION (NIGERIA), LIBERTY FOUNDATION” counter-petition. Stowe responded to that with a counter-counter-petition.

(Picture from Children of Nigeria)

UPDATE: The Lagos Daily Independent carries an interview with Ukpabio, in which she denounces the work of Sam Ikpe-Itauma, who runs an NGO that looks after children accused of being witches. In a semi-coherent rant, Ukpabio calls on the government to ban such “fake NGOs”, which she claims are under the control of “Europeans” who are “coming to feed on Africa”. She also tells us that those who have made complaints about her to the state govenor of Akwa Ibom are “stupid”, because

…their people shoot Nigerian children on the street, in the shop, in the supermarket, in schools. There is no week that they don’t shoot blacks. The black people that don’t have money to make a case are never heard.

She also explains the nature of witchcraft:

In my own ministry I don’t label people witches, witches look for me. They come because they want to be delivered, adult, very old, young, married, lecturers, even doctors…

A witch is anybody that can practice any of these acts voodoo, sorcery and magic. It is broad. But in Africa you can practice it without knowing that it is a craft because it is a spirit. When this spirit enters a human spirit, the spirit reacts at night. It is not the human being that willingly wants it, but you see yourself doing that, and people come and say please ma, I attended witchcraft meeting. Now, these are not babies…God anointed me specifically because of the works of witchcraft, how the craft penetrated the church and were killing pastors.

UPDATE: More today.

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A few nights ago British television broadcast Jesus Politics: the Bible and the Ballot, a documentary by Ilan Ziv about religious activists in the current US election campaign. Ziv – who left Israel for America after the Yom Kippur War and who has a rather jaundiced view of religion’s political significance – spoke to a range of people, including a minister in Iowa who thinks that Obama is “a Cyrus for such time as this”, and a woman who claims to have facilitated the ill-fated endorsement of John McCain by John Hagee. As Ziv drives around America, he meets up with Randall Balmer in various diners along the way to discuss historical context.

Evangelical McCain volunteer Pam Colantuono explains the Hagee link:

I was instrumental in bringing the clergy together, and we had ninety-six pastors, clergy, ministry leaders that came to hear Pastor Hagee regarding Christians United for Israel and through that Pastor Hagee personally endorsed Senator McCain.

Colantourno also explains that “the Spirit” led her to emphasise a pro-life message, and she makes an incredibly lurid claim about

…the aborted babies whose body parts were being sold on the black market. On the black market of pornography. Or in the underground of pornography.

(Colantourno, the film fails to note, is the wife of Tom Colantuono, US attorney for New Hampshire. The film misspells her as “Pam Colantouno”)

Ziv also talks to Charles Giunta, of North East Ohio Values Voters, who explains that

There are only two nations that are founded on religious principles, ans that’s Israel and the United States.

Giunta goes on to expound on “End Times” prophecies.

Ziv also films a small meeting of some Mike Huckabee activists in Florida, which begins with prayers by Art Ally. Ally prays for God to forgive “our shameful behaviour”, by which he doesn’t mean anything he himself may have done, but rather the attitudes of other Americans. The prayer includes the observation that there was a time when “you couldn’t even run for office unless you were a Christian”. Art’s wife Bonnie Ally concurs, noting that in this election there is “a Muslim and a Mormon” running (this was when Mitt Romney was still in the picture), and yet Christians haven’t spoken out that “that’s not what God says”.

There are some other interesting stops: in Kentucky we meet members of the “Red River Meeting House Association“, who dress in early nineteenth-century clothes and re-enact the Red River Revival, which launched the Second Great Awakening. Pastor Frank Jarboe (misspelled as “Frank Jarobe”) discussed how religion was used against Thomas Jefferson in the election contest with John Adams, but members of the group say they are more interested in changing America through revival than through having someone achieve political office. Towards the end of the documentary Ziv talks to some Muslims living in Tulsa; one of these, Arief Hill, complains that he signed up for the “Norman Rockwell” view of a benign America, only to find a reality that falls short. Meanwhile, various Black church leaders explain the attraction of Obama in terms of the fruition of the Civil Rights era, but Ziv finds himself “uncomfortable” with the rhetoric of Rev Helen Seenster, who sees Obama as “a Cyrus” and as “a divine appointment”.

Balmer offers a historical interpretation for all this: he argues that Kennedy’s 1960 call for voters to regard his faith as merely incidental created a “paradigm on Church-State” which collapsed with the corruption of Richard Nixon. Jimmy Carter’s emphasis on the “language of morality”, by contrast, brought religion back into electoral politics, opening the way for the Christian Right. Balmer also unsurprisingly locates the rise of Obama to the faith-based leadership structure and “prophetic” rhetoric of the Civil Rights era. However, he also complains that the social concerns of nineteenth-century evangelicalism are not reflected in the current Christian Right.

Despite the emphasis on America, there are also a couple of diversions to Israel: Ziv meets Rabbi Yoel Bin-Nan (var. “Yoel Bin-Nun”) of the West Bank settlement of Gush Ezyon, where an elementary school has received $100,000 from Hagee. There’s also a scene at Megiddo, where a party of American evangelicals stand amidst the ancient ruins and look out across the plain, while a guide explains that this will be the location of the Final Battle.

A somewhat unenthusiatic review by Lauren Wissot, including a critique of Balmer’s perspective, can be seen here.

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From the UK Jewish Chronicle:

A campaign group has launched a boycott with a difference this week – calling on British shoppers to stop buying goods produced in the West Bank and Gaza.

Boycott of Palestinian Goods and Services (BPGS) is also asking traders to stop importing olive oil, figs, dates, soap and flowers from Palestinian sources.

Campaign director Muhsir Mutawakil, who claims in a press release that he converted to Judaism in 1994, said Hamas’s control of Gaza had resulted in “religious and gender apartheid” for 120,000 Palestinian Christians and more than two million women.

Rafah-born Mr Mutawakil, who claims he has held “successful” talks with British firms, said: “There is a growing realisation that fostering business dealings and exchanges in the travel, professional, educational and medical sectors with these apartheid-based regimes is counter-productive. Commitments made for 2009 are being renegotiated or dropped.”…

Muhsir Mutawakil has no other internet presence apart from this one report, and a translation into Hebrew here. The “Boycott of Palestinian Goods and Services” is similarly obscure. What we have is one self-proclaimed “campaign director” who has apparently sent a fax or email to the JC with the words “Press Release” at the top, and the paper has decided to turn it into a story. Mutawakil isn’t the first to get easy publicity in the JC this way.

So who is he? There is one clue to his identity: I was recently forwarded an email from a certain “Batsheva Waley-Mutawakil”, who has a particular animus against pro-Palestinian Jews. “Waley-Mutawakil” also leaves comments on articles and blogs, in which “she” complains that these Jews “defame” Israel and should not be allowed to publicise their views. Here’s an extract from the email:

I am a British Jewess married to a Palestinian Arab convert to Judaism. We have 6 children. I am 36 years old. I have a doctorate in international law and am currently a consultant to Her Majesty’s Government.

…your obsession with finding fault with my beloved homeland Israel causes me sadness. Your unwillingness to become obsessed with your own country’s rape and occupation of Iraq in tandem with the USA raises suspicions in my mind. Scottish regiments of the Highland Fusiliers and Black Watch in Basra, Iraq have been raping young Shi’ite Arab women, torturing their male relatives, uprooting olive trees and demolishing homes and mosques. The Royal Family is implicated in this barbaric occupation which constitutes a war crime under international law.

…You are not permitted to savage Israel, the democratic mini-state in the Middle East surrounded by 21 huge apartheid-based Arab nations, simply to cater to your ‘friends’ who are consumed with Judeophobia…

We’ve seen this rhetoric before, including the accusations of rape against British troops serving in the Middle East. Mutawakil is obviously the same person as the “Rev Charles Edgbaston”, whom I blogged on here. Edgbaston, it may be recalled, claims to run a self-proclaimed “ecclesiastical court” in Canada, and he sends letters to pro-Palestinian Jewish activists threatening them with a campaign of harrassment unless they send him money (the person who forwarded me the email above also received an Edgbaston letter). Edgbaston also uses a variety of aliases, and he has left sock-puppet comments on my blog.

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Boing Boing has some fascinating footage of a shrine in Tokyo dedicated to the kappa, a race of dangerous supernatural beings said to live in rivers. The shrine claims to have a mummified hand of one.

I snapped this picture of a kappa statue when I was in Tokyo; it was at the Kanamara Shrine, a fertility temple in the district of Kawasaki:

The most famous kappa is doubtless “Sandy”, the English name for the Japanese interpretation of “Sha Wujing”, who appears in the Chinese novel Journey to the West. He was memorably depicted as a kappa in the 1970s Japanese TV series Monkey.

More kappa pics at this website on Japanese Buddhism.

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A new email newsletter from James Hutchens and his “Jerusalem Connection” Christian Zionist outfit directs me to “A Prophetic Warning” from Pastor Steve Foss. Foss (a protégé of Morris Cerullo) apparently received a message from God in 2000 that George Bush would just about scrape home for his first term, and that there would be an economic crash at the end of his second term. Now that it’s all come true Foss has chosen to tell the world what God revealed to him, including what’s in store next:

God spoke to me that after George W. Bush, America would elect its most ungodly president ever.

That is, unless Christians intercede in some unspecified way – like, for example, voting against a particular candidate:

…I had a vision earlier this year. I saw Barack Obama in this vision. He was speaking to a large crowd and being broadcast on television. He was speaking incredible words of unity, peace, and bringing all sides together; the words were elegant, the words were comforting, and the words were inspiring.

But while he was speaking I saw all a powerful spirit of violence coming out of his spirit feeding into the spirits of those that were hearing him. That spirit of violence was directed at anybody who opposed what he was saying. Those who heard his words and received it had the spirit of violence being implanted inside of them. It was a rage like I have not seen before.

It was the rage that would be unleashed against those who oppose and stand in the way of Barack Obama’s agenda. We are already seeing the beginnings of this spirit manifested here in America. The vicious attacks against Sarah Palin have been unlike anything we have ever seen before. The sheer hate for this woman from people who knew nothing about her, and who claim to stand up and protect the little people, and women, has been shocking.

The demon-possessed hordes also have it in for Joe the Plumber:

These people who are under the influence of this demon spirit of rage desire to completely destroy this man because he dared to question Barack Obama.

This is just the latest evidence that Obama is using occult powers against his foes – as I blogged the other day, American missionaries in Kenya recently revealed that Obama’s grandmother has been killing chickens with the result that John McCain now looks “confused and like and idiot”.

Foss is not alone in his call for a fightback- neo-Pentecostal leader Dutch Sheets recently called for spiritual warfare to win the election:

In 2000 we actually lost the popular vote and won the election-talk about grace! Please pray for this grace to be released again…

(Perhaps “God’s grace” explains those dodgy voting machines in West Virginia?)

…In August of this year I predicted that September would mark a shift in momentum for these elections. This happened with the appointment of Sarah Palin as the Vice Presidential nominee (who is a true Esther in our generation), but when the economy began its meltdown and the media ramped up their unprecedented attacks on Palin, that momentum wasn’t sustained.

Please understand what I am saying: if we engage in this battle and do what I am asking-in mass-we will win; if we do not, we will lose. I, for one, don’t intend to allow the latter. I am in Washington , D.C. now (October 20-22) with Lou Engle and a team of prayer leaders from around the nation to war for this election. Join us! Lose some sleep, miss some meals-pray! Pray like never before for these elections. And as you do, involve yourself not only in petitioning prayer but also in spiritual warfare. Use your God- given authority over the plans and strategies of satan’s kingdom. Bind all witchcraft that is working to control the outcome, including occultic powers that are suppressing truth. Release Christ’s Kingdom rule in every way the Holy Spirit leads you.

“Occultic powers that are suppressing truth”: maybe “Chief Editor Korir” could try that one rather than blaming Fox News.

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A hilarious quote from Ibrahim Shekarau, governor of Kano state in Nigeria:

“Other religious heroes and reformers that came before me were equally mocked and ridiculed, so this is not a new phenomenon.”

Shekarau was praising his own efforts in establishing Shariah law in Kano, and he offered unlimited resources to his religious police force, known as the “Hisbah”:

“Anything you need, inform me. We can spend any amount on the activities of the Hisbah. We would not mind spending the whole treasury to ensure the success of Shariah in the state”.

I blogged on the Hisbah back in 2006 – it has been accused of persecuting Shiite muslims, and it put a good deal of effort into preventing women from riding on taxi mopeds.

Shekarau was largely responsible for fanning an anti-polio vaccine conspiracy in 2004 which (to the dismay of Nigerian Muslim scientists who declared the vaccine to be safe) scuppered efforts to eradicate the disease.

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Wonkette takes a baffled look at a bit of spiritual warfare in Wall Street:

Apparently the idea came from neo-Pentecostal leader Cindy Jacobs. As she explains:

During a January worship service, the Lord spoke to me, “Cindy, the strongman over America doesn’t live in Washington D.C.—the strongman lives in New York City! Call together my people to pray for the economy.”

The Lord said: “October 29 was Black Tuesday, the day the stock market crashed, and Satan wants to do it again!”—the economy will crash without effective, fervent intercession.

Shaken to the core at this word from the Lord, I knew that I must call the people of God to converge in New York City the week of October 29 for an emergency prayer rally to cry out against economic collapse in the midst of shaking.

During the week of October 29, some of the finest apostolic prayer leaders from across the country will come together for several days of on-site prayer strikes at key locations throughout New York City, including Wall Street, the New York Stock Exchange, Mercantile Exchange, Federal Reserve, and the United Nations.

I haven’t been able to find any reference to the January divine tipstering older than anything published a few weeks ago, although back in February she wrote vaguely of “the possibility of a serious economic recession or something more hopeless around 2009 or 2010”.

Jacobs believes that the USA is being punished by God for its “stance towards Israel” and for approving gay marriage, and that the stock exchange fall of 777 points on 29 September (the Jewish New Year) was of spiritual significance. But she has a recovery plan:

“We are going to intercede at the site of the statue of the bull on Wall Street to ask God to begin a shift from the bull and bear markets to what we feel will be the ‘Lion’s Market,’ or God’s control over the economic systems,” she said.  “While we do not have the full revelation of all this will entail, we do know that without intercession, economies will crumble.”

Jacobs is close to C. Peter Wagner, and this kind of symbolic “spiritual warfare” is central to the practice of his “Apostolic Reformation” strand of neo-Pentecostalism; for example, members of the movement have in the past climbed Mount Everest in order to battle the “Queen of Heaven”. This is also Sarah Palin’s religious background; perhaps we can look forward to Jacobs as Treasury Secretary should Palin win in 2012 (as Palin is now planning for).

Of course, praying in front of a golden-coloured statue of a bull has some unfortunate connotations, which mockers and scoffers have not been slow to have fun with. Rev. BigDumbChimp has the most acid comment on the photo: “Ten Commandments Fail”, although a commentator at Boing Boing cautions, correctly, that it’s really the “equivalent of a vegetarian caught red-handed eating a veggie burger that looks a little bit like a hamburger .

(Hat tip: Pharyngula)

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“The role of Russia has grown noticeably … This will certainly positively affect the influence of the Islamic factor on world politics”

UN to discuss Saudi interfaith plan

The Arab News reports on the recent “Russia-Islamic World Strategic Vision Group” meeting in Jeddah:

Russia renewed its commitment to stronger ties with the Muslim world, vowing respect for religious values and a stronger voice for Islamic nations on the global stage at a forum with Muslim leaders here yesterday.

Russia was represented mainly by Mintimer Shaimiyev, the President of Tatarstan:

“One can say that Russia has clearly defined its strategic path in the Muslim East. It has become a natural partner of the Muslim world…During the years of Perestroika, Russia’s positions in the Islamic world considerably weakened. Now the role of Russia has grown noticeably … This will certainly positively affect the influence of the Islamic factor on world politics.”

The buzzwords of the conference appear to be “multipolar world” and “dialogue”. All sounds very nice, but what does that mean? Din Syamsuddin, General Chairman of Muhammadiyah and Indonesia’s representative, gives us an idea, as reported by ANTARA:

Din Syamsuddin…said that the world deterioration was inseparable from secular system which neglected and negated religious values. The deterioration could happen just because of application of liberalism, liberal democracy and culture.

The worst condition is due to the fact that the super power expand the wing of its hegemony to other countries to adopt its liberal systems in the world.

Therefore, according to Din, such a new world movement functioning as an alternative to the deteriorating tendency was required. Otherwise, the world civilization would transform into the worst condition.

Din called for a “middle way”, which would be neither radical nor liberal.

Also present was the ubiquitous Russian Orthdox spokesman, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin:

According to him, the most important thing is that “we share a lot in common in our views on the family and society, as well as the place of religion and good morals in their lives.”

The other strong challenge is an attempt to induce believers, including by means of some models of “interreligious dialogue”, to refuse their identity and traditions, introduce liberal reforms into their beliefs, “privatize” religion and recognize the monopoly of secular values in the social sphere, Fr. Vsevolod said.

“Recently, both Orthodox and Moslems, are being taught and tutored too often: abandon your “superstitions”, recognize the supremacy of the secular right and secular values, and you will be a promoted student of the Western society,” Fr. Vsevolod said.

Also:

Fr. Vsevolod called for mutual support of inter-religious peacemaking initiatives, in particular, the Russian proposal to organize a consultative interreligious council under the auspices of UN, and the initiative of Saudi Arabia’s King to develop the interreligious dialogue, as well as measures to prevent hurting believers’ feelings proposed by the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

Shaimiyev also brought a message from President Medvedev:

“….I am also convinced that the implementation of the Russia-proposed idea of forming a consultative council of religions under the UN aegis will help strengthen the moral principles of world politics, facilitate deeper interconfessional communication and, in a broader context, promote the dialogue of civilizations…The illusion of the unipolar world is becoming a thing of the past in front of our eyes. This strategic forum can contribute significantly to the search for ways to make the situation in the world healthier and to attain a new level of global partnership. I am convinced that Russia’s active interaction with the Islamic world will help build a fairer system of international relations, where the factor of force will finally stop playing the role of a universal instrument to settle all emerging problems.”

It doesn’t require much brains to translate what’s really going on here: “unipolar world” means the USA and the West; “multipolar world” and “dialogue of civilizations” means a Russian-Saudi alliance against it; “measures to prevent hurting believers’ feelings” means a law against blasphemy; “views on the family and society” means opposition to gay rights (and probably women’s rights too).

The conference also announced a special session at the UN:

The United Nations has decided to hold a special session of the General Assembly at the level of world leaders in New York on Nov. 12-13 to discuss the interfaith dialogue initiative taken by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah. This was announced yesterday by Faisal bin Muammar, secretary-general of King Abdul Aziz National Dialogue Center while addressing the Russia-Islamic World Strategic Vision Group at the Jeddah Conference Palace.

…Muammar said cultural and interfaith dialogues were essential in order to promote world peace. “King Abdullah has rejected the idea of a clash of civilizations and urged intellectuals to adopt the principle of dialogue and mutual understanding. He has agreed to establish an international center for cultural dialogue and cooperation in Poland,” he said.

Muammar emphasized the need to promote the values of love, tolerance, moderation, and fight extremism, prejudice and hatred that often lead to conflicts and terrorism. “All religions teach noble values and emphasize love and peace. They insist their followers be trustworthy, tolerant, kind and chaste. All these values shape the behavior of their followers, bringing goodness and peace to other members of society,” he said.

Of course, “love, tolerance and moderation” have long been synonymous with the Wahabi regime in Saudi…

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Forbes has thought better of a recent foray into Islamic eschatology, and it has pulled an article by Amir Taheri that began with the sentence:

Is Barack Obama the “promised warrior” coming to help the Hidden Imam of Shiite Muslims conquer the world?

However, while this opening has obviously been calculated to provoke another “Obama is a Muslim fanatic” scare, Taheri in fact purports to be reporting on a view from Iran:

The question has made the rounds in Iran since last month, when a pro-government Web site published a Hadith (or tradition) from a Shiite text of the 17th century. The tradition comes from Bahar al-Anvar (meaning Oceans of Light) by Mullah Majlisi, a magnum opus in 132 volumes and the basis of modern Shiite Islam.

According to the tradition, Imam Ali Ibn Abi-Talib (the prophet’s cousin and son-in-law) prophesied that at the End of Times and just before the return of the Mahdi, the Ultimate Saviour, a “tall black man will assume the reins of government in the West.” Commanding “the strongest army on earth,” the new ruler in the West will carry “a clear sign” from the third imam, whose name was Hussein Ibn Ali. The tradition concludes: “Shiites should have no doubt that he is with us.”

This is followed by a critique of Obama’s Iran policy.

Alas, Taheri does not give us any reference for the quote, either to the Iranian website or to the relevant passage from the original text, which is better-known as the Bahir al-Anwar. I’ve looked all over the net for a clue, but there is nothing (at least in English) on-line, including available via Google Books. Apparently only one volume of the text has been translated into English (vol. 51), and although it deals in eschatological issues around the Mahdi there is no passage that fits the above. The volume can be seen here.

It may be of relevance to note that Taheri was responsible for a 2006 story about a plan by Iran to force Jews to wear yellow insignia; the story turned out to be untrue. Other doubts about his veracity have also been aired. He has one fan, though, in Joel Richardson, who tells us he is a “trustworthy writer”. You know, like Walid Shoebat.

UPDATE: Richardson has now rejected Taheri’s article, and he provides a link to a short article by Timothy Furnish:

According to my contacts in Iran, including Professor Abolfazl Nurmuhammadpour at the Bright Future Institute–dedicated to teaching the world about the coming of the Mahdi, and the organization which sponsored the Mahdism Conference which I attended this past August in Tehran and Qom–and other ranking clerics at the Dar al-Hadith in Qom, this hadith is NOT authentic.

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