Bartholomew's Notes

The latest Private Eye magazine (p. 14) carries a fascinating profile of Michael Misick, premier of Turks and Caicos, to the south of the Bahamas. Misick has been bogged down with corruption allegations, and he recently faced a rape accusation which was only cleared up when a second woman appeared and explained that it had been a consensual three-in-a-swimming pool sex romp.

Misick attempted to distract attention from his various scandals with some shameless religious humbug, as noted in Caribbean News Net:

He said that the nation is in need of prayer and healing and has declared Sunday, September 7, to be a National Day of Prayer and Fasting and he asked all clergymen and women and all persons to participate.

Oppostion figures were sceptical; Floyd Seymour told the media that

Reference has been made about the Premier’s apology for his private deeds and his call for a National Day of Prayer and Fasting. While such an event is good, Seymour said, Christians should not be insulted with “such a ploy by the leader of our country.”

Seymour, however, called on the people to go to church on September 7 and “pray for deliverance of this country from the grip and greed and wrong centered leadership. The clergy and our churches are not toys and should not be jerked around from one year to next for political gain.”

Meanwhile, Seymour’s deputy Oswald Skippings decided to outdo Misick on the religious rhetoric front:

…A good place to begin is to remind you that you have categorically declared in parliament your separation of church and state. You then proceeded to sternly rebuke the clergy of this country when they were humbly trying to advise you on the gambling bill and, in essence, bluntly instructed them to back off when you told them outright to run the church and allow you to run the government.

Honourary Doctor Premier, you must realise that when you divided or separated God from government, you were busting the doors wide open for your demons to enter without restrictions. Now your demons have come home to haunt you. You have consistently conducted a public religious masquerade, repeatedly shed crocodile tears completely sanctioned by imported highly paid evangelists and local bishops and pastors at prayer breakfasts, made public confessions and, last but not least, passed around stuffed envelopes to pastors. I have never seen such spiritual shenanigans anywhere in the world…Let me advise you that prayer and fasting by the saints in this country is what has so far prevented this nation from total disaster by your hands…

Mr Premier, do you remember the altar call and the testimony service on the parade grounds during the last election campaign, playing with God? Didn’t your advisors tell you what is blasphemy and sacrilege? Do you remember the sacred worship songs where Christ’s name was replaced with yours during the campaign and you just soaked it all up?…You see, you can deceive the electorate and manipulate them for your own evil motives, but you can’t do that to God…When King Belshazzar, king of Babylon refused to stop, the writing appeared on the wall…

So how did the National Day of Prayer and Fasting go? As the Eye points out, 7 September turned out to be the day when Hurricane Ike arrived…

Filed under: Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

A silly WND headline, complete with ejaculatory cry of dismay:

What? Israel to help Muslims carve Quranic verses on Temple Mount
Islamic writings all over holiest site for Judaism –WND

However, as the inevitable hack Aaron Klein has to admit in the body of his article, this actually means that Israel is allowing the restoration of already-existing Islamic calligraphy on the site:

There are more than 4,000 Quranic quotations written in Arabic calligraphy and carved into various Islamic buildings throughout the Temple Mount, including inside and outside the Al Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock.

Six hundred of the carved verses are in poor condition, according to the Waqf, the Mount’s Muslim custodians.

This kind of restoration work is unremarkable and goes on at all kinds of monuments around the world. Presumably Klein objects to it here because he shares the hope of Jewish and Christian fundamentalists that the ancient buildings – which date back more than a thousand years – will be destroyed. Needless to say, such an attitude in relation to any other ancient structure, particulary one of such historic and architectral significance, would be derided as ignorant and barbaric. And given that Klein is rightfully angry at the way the current Muslim guardians of the Temple Mount have damaged archaeological remains of the ancient Jewish presence at the site, we can also call him a hypocrite.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

For a while now, Debbie Schlussel has been engaged in a feud with Walid Shoebat: she accuses Shoebat of having plagiarized her work, and of responding to her complaints with a “Fuck you, bitch”. Now Schlussel accuses Shoebat of sending her annoying emails under a fake name:

Mr. Shoebat took it upon himself–despite my praise of him on this site–to engage in a pattern of behavior that spanned plagiarism and obscene verbal abuse to the non-stop barrage of harassing messages he sent me over the last two days under a fake name, “Sandra Medina.”…Shoebat made the mistake of e-mailing me using an e-mail he and his son had used to e-mail me before with their real names…And after I asked Shoebat not to e-mail me again, he did anyway–three times, so far–including a fake letter to himself, his equally unhinged chief of staff [Keith Davies], and his friend–who else but another phony?–Sean Hannity.

The emails were sent from the address “aga_tangola@yahoo.com”; Schlussel claims it was used in emails sent to her and to Rachel Neuwirth from Walid’s son (Theodore Shoebat) in 2006.

Schlussel also goes into further detail about how the feud began:

In response to [Imad] Hamad’s claims [against Shoebat], Shoebat put out a press release, which plagiarized–word for word–my column on Hamad. I contacted Shoebat’s PR person, Maria Sliwa (interestingly, she’s also plagiarist Aaron Klein’s publicist and helped him rip me off), asking why my work was ripped off. Sliwa told me that Walid Shoebat insisted my name be removed because he didn’t want to be associated with “the Zionists.”…Shoebat told me a million different stories. First, he told me he was a fan of my work and that he’s upset that Ms. Sliwa took my name out of the press release and ripped off my work–that it was her decision. Then, he admitted he lied about that and that he, himself, made the decision to steal my work because “I don’t want to be associated with the Right”…Later in the day, Shoebat called me back and told me, “You know, I called a lawyer. And you can’t sue me [DS: I never said I would], so I don’t have to give you credit for your work. I can take it and use it however I want. Fuck You, Bitch!”

This is, of course, all grist to the controversy over Shoebat’s self-proclaimed past as an Islamist-inspired Palestinian terrorist; the Jerusalem Post, among others, has raised some concerns about his tale. Shoebat is certainly an unreliable narrator: I’ve noted a change in his conversion story from orginally becoming a Christian after reading an apocalyptic paperback by Grant Jeffrey to becoming a Christian after reading a Bible at the behest of his wife, and his proclaimed “message of love” is actually a message of anti-Muslim hate (particularly as expressed in his son’s homemade videos, as I blogged here). There are also a couple of other odd discrepancies: his wife is Roman Catholic, yet Shoebat used to be associated with Simon Altaf’s fundamentalist anti-Catholic and anti-evangelical website; he claims to have consulted ancient manuscripts of the Bible when developing his theory that “666” is actually Arabic for “In the name of Allah”, when it’s obvious that he has not. He has also claimed to be living under an assumed name while also saying that he has come from the “Shu’aybat” (or “Shuyabat”) family. Minor issues, perhaps, but “the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones”.

Meanwhile, Shoebat has recently enjoyed extra publicity through the free distribution in American newspapers of the film Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West, in which he appears as a supposed expert. And the Shoebat bangwagon will soon be coming to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in an event at Augustana College sponsored by “Campus Crusade, LifeLight, Priority Associates, SEA, Life 96.5 and the Sioux Falls HopeLine”.

As a footnote, it should be remembered that Schlussel is not adverse to a bit of internet-based harrassment herself.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

From Sarah Posner’s FundamentaList:

Bruce Wilson is the blogger who discovered the tape of John Hagee’s sermon about the Holocaust being part of God’s will — which led to McCain’s rejection of Hagee’s endorsement. Now Wilson has written a post about the “weird theology” at Palin’s Assemblies of God church. Wilson’s piece, which attempts to tie Palin to numerous strands of Pentecostalism and charismatic evangelicalism, some of them controversial, appears to be an effort at tit-for-tat for the right’s demonizing of Obama over his relationship with Jeremiah Wright.

But a religion professor and expert on Pentecostalism tells me that if Wilson had turned that piece in as a paper, she would have given it an F. Anthea Butler, professor of religion at the University of Rochester, said that the piece “mixed up a whole bunch of stuff” and that Wilson “doesn’t know enough about any of it” to accurately discuss how influential various guest speakers at her churches may have been on Palin’s viewpoint. “You can see every heretic known to man speak in every Pentecostal church,” said Butler, but that doesn’t mean the average person in the pews buys the theology. “[Wilson is] conflating a couple of things to make them sound dangerous,” said Butler. “I think he’s confused.”

However, neither Butler nor Posner deign to tell us how exactly Wilson is “confused”. I would have avoided the polemical term “weird”, and the article linked by Posner does in places move somewhat awkwardly between discussing Sarah Palin and her churches and providing a wider introduction to the “Third Wave” of neo-Pentecostalism. There is, though, also a lot of interesting information that goes much deeper than the baffled exoticising of standard Pentecostal practices that was seen in the mainstream media when the Palin VP announcement was made (as complained about by Michael Gershon). And like a lot of other investigative blog pieces, Bruce’s piece is a work-in-progress which gives pointers for others to follow up; this is a general distinction between on-line blog journalism and on-paper research, including – Butler take note – academic papers. Jeff Sharlet understands this, commenting on another article by Bruce:

There’s a lot more work to be done here, but Bruce has gotten a great start…Reporters meanwhile, need to ask questions about these possible connections; editors need to think about longer features on the Latter Rain and Third Wave movements. I should add that Bruce mentions my work on Ted Haggard and New Life church, included in my recent book, The Family. One of the mistakes I made, though, was in taking too seriously Haggard’s disavowal of Latter Rain leader C. Peter Wagner, with whom Haggard built the World Prayer Center (also discussed at some length in The Family). As Bruce is beginning to piece together, Wagner’s theological influence reaches much further than those who praise his books.

The reference to Jeremiah Wright in Posner’s piece is also off-base. Bruce (like me) is interested in the role of the Christian right in American politics. That means investigating Palin’s church associations, and what others may have written about Wright and Obama is neither here nor there. Besides, although it would certainly be wrong to “demonize” Palin in the way that Obama was attacked from some quarters, it should also be remembered that Wright indeed has some alarming views (I wish I’d picked up on some of these when I wrote about Obama and Wright back in 2004!), and it was reasonable that Obama should have had to clarify the extent to which he identifies with them – and to disavow some if he wanted to be taken seriously. American politicians are learning that associating with certain churches and seeking endorsements from particular pastors can carry risks and costs as well as electoral benefits. Democratic strategists might think it’s better not to make anything of Palin’s religiosity lest it offend swing voters or re-ignite the Wright controversy, but that’s their problem, not ours.

I found this paragraph in Bruce’s piece to be particularly significant:

…Mike Rose, senior pastor of Juneau Christian Center has a long relationship with Rodney Howard-Browne, credited with being the instigator of the outbreak of ‘Holy Laughter’ around the world, including the Toronto Airport Revival. Thomas Muthee visited Wasilla Assembly of God and gave 10 consecutive sermons at the church, from October 11-16 2005. As both Palin and Wasilla AoG Head Pastor Ed Kalnins have attested, Thomas Muthee ‘prayed over’ Sarah Palin and entreated God to “make a way” prior to Palin’s successful bid for the Alaska governorship. Muthee made a return visit to the Wasilla Assembly of God in late 2008. Thomas Muthee’s Word of Faith Church is featured in the “Transformations” video which details an account on how Muthee drove “the spirit of witchcraft” out of Kiambu, Kenya, liberating the town from its territorial demonic possession and enabling a miraculous societal transformation. The “Transformations” video set is used as an argument for social improvement through spiritual instead of human means, and as the best method for fighting corruption, crime, drugs and even environmental degradation.

This suggests that Palin is hardly “the average person in the pew”. She’s enjoyed a religious anointing from Muthee; why should we not think that she “buys the theology”?

(I blogged Palin’s churches here)

Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

From North Carolina news-site ENCToday:

Sen. Elizabeth Dole will ride a McCain for President bus into New Bern on Monday for the Craven-Pamlico Christian Coalition’s 15th annual God and Country Banquet.

Dole and state Sen. Robert Pittenger, Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, are the main speakers for the event, which is expected to have more than 500 people attending.

Details about the Craven-Pamlico Christian Coalition are scarce, although its chair, Rev Walter Leake, pines for the return of “blue laws”. At the 2006 banquet, five state Supreme Court justices paid their respects, as well as a Superior Court Judge who gushed that Leake was “a saint”.

At this year’s event, speakers include

…Stan Goodenough, a Christian Zionist from Jerusalem, and Bishop Saint Okorafor of Nigeria.

Goodenough will be familar to anyone who reads OneNewsNow; his blog is here, and includes postings on subjects such as “The myth of the moderate Muslim“:

To drive off the fog and help you keep a clear mind, I suggest that whenever you hear a Muslim described as “moderate” remind yourself that he/she is a bad Muslim and, consequently, less of a threat to you.

When you hear the term “radical Muslim,” replace that adjective with the word “good,” and be warned that he/she poses a very grave threat indeed.

The key, of course, is that for Goodenough a devout religious believer is a fundamentalist religious believer. Goodenough distances himself from specifically “apocalyptic” Christian Zionism, although for some reason he has deleted his strange entry on “More thoughts on Israel and the End Times” (it can be seen on Wayback).

Okorafor, meanwhile, runs a number of churches in Nigeria, which he calls “Bible Life Centers”, and he enjoys support from the Edward Christian Church in North Carolina (1).

(1) See Howard Foltz, Healthy Churches in a Sick World,  Xulon Press, 2002, p. 196.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

A couple of interesting free speech cases concerning the Guardian newspaper. Hold the Front Page noted a couple of days ago:

Amid the UN Committee on Human Rights’ recent criticism of our claimant-friendly libel laws, it is reassuring to see judges taking a robust line against dubious claims…Tesco brought libel and malicious falsehood claims against The Guardian and its editor over reports about alleged (but strenuously denied) corporation tax avoidance.

The Guardian accepted inaccuracies in its original report, although its apology seems a bit tongue-in-cheek:

‘The original Guardian articles did not correctly explain the effect of Tesco’s tax schemes. It was wrong to state that they were designed to avoid corporation tax. It would have been correct to refer to avoiding SDLT [Stamp Duty Land Tax].

‘As a result, the figure of “up to £1bn” – calculated as the amount which could have been saved on the disposal of £5bn of property – is wrong. The loss to the exchequer is likely to be nearer the region of £90m-£100m,’ the paper said.

Despite making an “Offer of Amends” regarding the libel claim, Tesco pressed on with the “malicious falsehood” claim. Mr Justice Eady (who has a mixed record on free-speech friendly judgements), though, was not impressed; as Hold the Front Page reports, he

…imposed a ‘stay’ on the malicious falsehood claim as it had no “substantive or legitimate purpose”.

He said the court must focus on the “real issues between the parties…There is no right to plead a cause of action just because it exists.

“The court is there to do justice…Litigation is no longer intended to be regarded as a game for lawyers; it is a means provided by the state of achieving justice for the parties.”

It looks as though those planning to bring dubious suits in the future may receive short shrift, both as regards libel actions and as regards other claims made strategically either in lieu of or alongside libel accusations.

And today, the Guardian reports that another libel case against it has been dropped:

Matthias Rath, the vitamin campaigner accused of endangering thousands of lives in South Africa by promoting his pills while denouncing conventional medicines as toxic and dangerous, has dropped a year-long libel action against the Guardian and been ordered to pay costs.

Rath sued over three Guardian articles that condemned his promotional activities among Aids sufferers in South African townships.

Rath sought to have part of one of the articles excluded from the court’s consideration; he apparently backed down when the court refused to accept this. Costs awarded to the Guardian amount to £220,000, and I’ll be interested to see whether Rath pays up or pleads bankruptcy; it seems to me grotesque an innocent defendant can end up out-of-pocket thanks to a plaintiff being unable to make good all the needless expense he or she has caused.

Meanwhile, Simon Singh is still facing a libel threat aimed at him personally for pieces published in the Guardian concerning the British Chiropractic Association.

And Tesco is still, so far as I know, pursuing aggressive libel suits against journalists in Thailand.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Personality cult in Russia? Surely not…

Muslim artist Robert Gabitov from St. Petersburg painted a portrait-“icon” of Russian president Dmitry Medvedev…The president has a falcon on his shoulder and a tree of life is growing behind him. The author thinks these symbols stress “holiness of the Russian President.”

(The Ukrainians aren’t adverse to the same kind of thing)

Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a comment »

Media Matters logs some particularly clownish ramblings from Walid Shoebat, whose never-ending gravy-train has now brought him to The G. Gordon Liddy Show:

 [SHOEBAT:] “No one is called Hussein unless he is Muslim. So it is very clear that Barack Hussein Obama is definitely a Muslim…He is not called to be killed by the Muslims. Why do they support him? I haven’t heard a really serious testimony of his Christian conversion. A Muslim who converts to Christianity, the first thing he does is denounces Islam. Has Barack Hussein Obama denounced Islam as a false religion?…If he had converted to Christianity, he would change his name Hussein to something else. He would change his name Barack to something else.

The best discussion I have seen of why Obama “is not called to be killed by the Muslims” can be seen here.

Also:

[SHOEBAT:] Well, when I went to a government school — you know, it wasn’t a madrassa. He was not in a madrassa school, but it was a government school. And in those schools, from fifth grade, we learned what is called Islamic eschatology, that the day of judgment will not come to pass until the tribes of Islam destroy the tribes of Israel, the Jewish people.

LIDDY: Well, would he have achieved — been exposed to those things at the age of 10, in a government school over there in Indonesia?

SHOEBAT: Yes. It would be the same thing, it would be exactly the same kind of an education system.

This has simply been pulled out of Shoebat’s backside – he has no knowledge or experience of primary education in late 1960s Indonesia. And the rest of Shoebat’s discourse is simply talking-points culled from Jermone Corsi: Obama’s supposed links to Raila Odinga, the evils of “liberation theology” and so on. There is no sign here of someone with any kind of special insight or knowledge, and every sign of a media-savvy chancer enjoying the status of “expert” simply because he is willing to pander to the prejudices of the ignorant (his preposterous forays into Biblical scholarship are of the same kind).

Shoebat also gives us a bit of extra personal background I hadn’t seen before:

And my mother’s side, her grandfather was friends with Winston Churchill…

Hating Muslims is now the Shoebat family business: I’ve blogged before on Walid’s son Theodore Shoebat, who makes anti-Muslim (and anti-science) hate videos. I noticed recently that Shoebat Junior is also a contributor to Mosquewatch, where his colleagues include none other than the absurd Pastor J. Grant Swank.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 12 Comments »

From Haaretz:

Russian-born businessman Arcadi Gaydamak is expected to give up on his plans to run for mayor of Jerusalem after former Shas chairman Aryeh Deri announced on Tuesday he is running for the same post.

Even though Gaydamak has not made a final decision, his advisers say Deri’s candidacy would seriously harm Gaydamak’s chances in both the ultra-Orthodox and non-religious communities.

Gaydamak – whom I blogged here, and who has some controversial links with Angola – has recently been pressing a lot of religious flesh in his quest to become mayor; a strange report in Haaretz from a few days ago noted that:

Arcadi Gaydamak, the billionaire candidate for mayor of Jerusalem, met on Monday with the Vatican’s representative in Israel…The meeting was announced on the Web site “Axis Globe,” which American officials have been known to use in order to plant anti-Russian stories. The fact that the meeting took place, and that word of the meeting was leaked to “Axis Globe,” is intriguing. Under the headline, “The Vatican Made Its Choice,” it was noted that Vatican representatives have not met with any other mayoral candidates. In addition, Gaydamak held a meeting with the Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theofilos III, who wished him victory in the upcoming election.

“Axis Globe” is slightly mysterious; it uses material from “journalists, ex-diplomats, and former officers of the special services of a number of Asian and East European countries”, some of whom use pen names. The orginal “Axis Globe” report is here, and as well as noting his links to Christian leaders, it adds that

[Orthodox Jewish] leaders already expressed their empathy for Gaydamak during the last year. The most prominent among them were the Rabbi and Member of Parliament (Knesset), Avraham Ravitz, another Rabbi and an even more powerful MP, Yakov Litzman, and one of the most influential spiritual leaders of the Orthodox Judaism, Rabbi Yosef Elyashiv.

…About 225 thousand of Jerusalem citizens practice Sunni Islam, and are concentrated in the Eastern part of the city. As early as in summer – autumn of 2007, Gaydamak established contact with the influential Muslim Sheikhs. He also began to study the problems of the Muslim population and its needs.

Traditionally, the vast majority East Jerusalem Palestinians have declined to participate in Israeli elections; however, a second report adds the claim that:

…the situation that persisted for more than forty years has now started changing rapidly. As the elections come closer, the representatives of the Arab city establishment, of the Palestinian Authority, and even of Jordan royal dynasty that still has a significant influence in Jerusalem, all started direct contacts with one of the candidates for the mayor…With consent of the both sides, the leaders of hundred of most influential families in East Jerusalem are going to meet with Gaydamak next week…One project, for instance, deals with engaging of massive tourism from Muslim States to Jerusalem. Realization of these projects offers the local Arabs a significant financial benefit, as well as a higher status in the eyes of their coreligionists all over the world.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a comment »

A piece of theatre from Burundi; the Kampala Monitor reports:

Last week, Pastor Robert Kayanja was on a state invitation to preach the gospel and join the President of Burundi, Jean Pierre Nkuruziza [sic], in celebrating three years in power…During the crusade, Pastor Kayanja took time off to join the President and his countrymen in a communal building exercise, which highlighted the unity level of Burundians.

It was a big crusade, attended by thousands, and the first lady opened the ceremony with a passionate prayer…When he came on stage, [the President] sang and danced, jumping around to his favourite songs like Our God is an awesome God as the whole nation followed.

It was amazing to see God performing miracles in people’s lives. Some received their sight back and others walked as Pastor Kayanja prayed for them. When it was time for his departure, the President refused to leave the stadium and just sat back to witness God’s hand in the land.

The Sunday Vision has a slightly different emphasis:

THREE years ago, when Burundi’s president, Pierre Nkurunziza, took over leadership on August 28, 2005, uncertainty prevailed over how long he would last. This was because of the track record of the toppling and assassination of earlier presidents, including Melchoir Ndadaye and Cyprien Ntaryamira.

This explains why each year, the month of August is set aside for public prayers and thanksgiving for peace in Africa’s smallest country, which has Catholic, Pentecostal, Anglican and Orthodox believers.

…President Nkurunziza, an ex-rebel, said it was by divine appointment that he was joining the entire country to celebrate three years of relative peace.

“When given stewardship, there is need to seek God’s assistance for direction since all gifts come from him,” he said.

There seems to be a blurring of thanks for three years of peace and thanks for three years of Nkurunziza’s “divine appointment”. Some problems with political freedom in Burundi are highlighted by Human Rights Watch here.

The Vision notes the presence of some American guests:

Others were pastors Marty Martinez from the Family Worship Centre, Louisiana, US, Dr. Brigitte Kitenge of the African Global Mission, Tennessee, US, and Dr. Steve Ball and Nathan Westfield from Metro Tabernacle Church Chattanooga, Tennessee, US.

The “Family Worship Center”, in Baton Rouge, is better-known as Jimmy Swaggart’s base; Kitenge is a genocide survivor; and Ball is a prosperity gospel evangelist whom I have noted in the past, and who has long-standing links with Kayanja (whom I profiled here).

Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a comment »