Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion

From WND:

It was at the Congressional Black Caucus that Sen. John Edwards, D-S.C., then a vice presidential running mate with Sen. John Kerry, made a speech in which he cited the words of Isaiah 9:10 on the third anniversary of 9/11 in explaining how the U.S. could respond. In fact, he didn’t just site the ancient curse of judgment, he built his entire speech around it.

But a member of that caucus, Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, took the time to write a formal letter of thanks to WND Chief Executive Officer Joseph Farah for the gifts of “The Harbinger” and “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment” distributed to every member of Congress last month.

“I look forward to reading your book on my flights back to Dallas,” she said.

…Johnson joins Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, Democrat Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, Sen. Michael Enzi, R-Ind., Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Sen Dan Coates, R-Ind. along with Reps. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., Nick Rahall II, R-W.V.; Lamar Smith, R-Texas; Joe Wilson, R-S.C., and Ben Quayle, R-Ariz.

I’ve discussed the background to Jonathan Cahn’s book The Harbinger previously. In the days after 9/11, Edwards had quoted Isaiah 9:10:

The bricks have fallen, but we will build with dressed stones; the sycamores have been cut down, but we will put cedars in their place.

Alas, however, Edwards (or, perhaps, his speech-writer) didn’t bother to look at the wider context of the passage: the Biblical author presents it as a futile boast by ancient Israel that they would repel neighbouring enemies through their own efforts, when in fact their enemies represent the wrath of God.

For Cahn, this is not just an example of ignorant quote-mining: he seems to regard it as a magical invocation, through which Edwards (and later Tom Daschle, who quoted the same passage at a later date) has unleashed a supernatural curse on the USA; God seems to be little more than an impersonal and mechanistic force. As well as the book and Joseph Farah’s tie-in DVD, a “study guide” is due for release in January, under the tagline “Decode the mysteries and respond to the call that can change America’s future – and YOURS”.

Back in May, WND reported that Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb of Oklahoma had made a call to thank a man who had given copies of the book to members of the legislature. Of course, as with the letters sent to Farah, this may have been no more than a polite acknowledgements.

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In February 2006, the media noted the presence of sanguinary signs at a protest organised by an al-Muhajiroun front-group outside the Danish embassy in London. The signs bore slogans such as ”Massacre those who Insult Islam”, and they were crudely but distinctively created with black marker-pens and white cardboard.

The phrase “Massacre those who Insult Islam” has now made a comeback, this time on properly-printed banners. These new banners can be seen in an EPA photograph taken at a 5 October protest in Kolkata/Calcutta. According to the blurb, ”Hundreds of protesters, from the Muslim Group of Bengal [for Peace], rallied to denounce the anti-Islam film ‘Innocence of Muslims’”; these specific banners, though, also include the detail “Organised by the Aashiqan e-Rasool Committee”, along with what appears to be an address. They are shown intermingled with banners from other groups (including one, oddly, which shows Obama in the form of a Na’vi from the film Avatar), and judging from other crowd photos in the set they do not appear to have been widely distributed among the protestors.

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Who would have thought that having a webhost in the USA rather than the UK would actually come with a free speech disadvantage?

For an explanation as to why this blog disappeared for a few hours, and why the entry for 27 September 2012 is now missing, please see reports at BoingBoing and TorrentFreak.

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Speaker Warns of “Nuclear 9/11, or a Financial Apocalypse or even an Oil Crisis” for USA

“Similarities Between Nazi Germany and America Today”

Repeal of DADT Caused Heatwave

WND reports from an apocalyptically-minded conference that recently took place in Eden Prairie, Minnesota:

Attendees traveled from as far away as India and Jerusalem for the 15th annual conference at a large church auditorium.

The event was organised by Jan Markell’s Olive Tree Ministries.

First up, Mark Hitchcock:

…Hitchcock pointed to one prophecy he feels is nearing fulfillment. Known by those watching prophecy as the Gog-Magog war, the text of the prophecy can be found in Ezekiel 38. It describes an alliance of nations that go to war with Israel.

…He also points out that the prophecy indicates that the warring nations attack Israel with “spoil” on their minds and that until just two years ago, Israel didn’t have much value to offer.

“As of 2010, it was discovered that Israel sits on natural gas and oil fields that suddenly makes their land very appealing,” said Hitchcock.

…Hitchcock also spoke about America’s role in Bible prophecy and said that although some try to twist possible hints in the Bible about America, there are far too many problems with those views. Instead, he says, America doesn’t seem to be part of an end-times scenario.

He admitted that any conjecture on why America may not be involved in the end times would only be a guess, but he offered a few plausible scenarios.

“We could see a nuclear 9/11, or a financial apocalypse or even an oil crisis,” he said.

Ezekiel 38-39 imagines ancient Israel being attacked by the surrounding nations, including indistinct barbarians given the name of Gog; the invasion is defeated due to God’s direct intervention, after which Israel spends “seven years” burning the invaders’ weapons and “seven months” burying the bodies. It was composed to comfort the inhabitants of Jerusalem during and after the Babylonian siege, but it keeps details vague enough that any sort of middle east unrest can be fitted into the template. The reason why America is “not involved” is so obvious to be hardly worth stating: the author had no knowledge of, or interest in, another land mass on the other side of the world.

Next, Bill Koenig:

Koenig wrote a book that researched and documented disasters that corresponded with efforts to pressure Israel into dividing its land. He told the crowd that he has gotten the book, “Eye to Eye: Facing the Consequences of Dividing Israel,” into the hands of many prominent national leaders, yet actions against Israel seem to persist.

While he sees costly disasters tied to key dates involving Israel, he also pointed to other issues that may also cost America.

He refers to July 19-22, 2011, as, “Four days of presidential decisions America may never recover from.”

Those are the days that Barack Obama went through the process of repealing the longstanding military policy of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.”

“In those days America, and Washington, D.C., saw 322 heat records tied or broken,” he said. “The heat index reached 129 degrees in Washington, D.C.”

This kind of supernatural causality is of course impossible to falsify; had heat records not been broken in July 2011, Koenig would have simply found some other unusual event to link to the repeal of DADT (or, had DADT not been repealed in July 2011, he may have found something else to link to the heatwave). Incidentally, it’s worth remembering that WND regularly vilifies scientists involved with investigating climate change.

Inevitably, resentment against Muslims was also a major theme of the gathering:

Koenig also warned about the impact of radical Islam and said while Obama certainly has defended Islam, Christians should ask, “What is Obama doing about the persecution and death of Christians?”

Another prominent speaker at the event was the senior pastor at Moody Bible Church in Chicago, Erwin Lutzer.

Lutzer started his talk by mentioning his forthcoming book, “The Cross in the Shadow of the Crescent: An Informed Response to Islam’s War on Christianity,” which will be available in January.

But Lutzer wasn’t there just to plug his book:

Lutzer spoke about the similarities between Nazi Germany and America today… He then talked about the economy, indoctrination and propaganda, with a reminder that in Nazi Germany, and somewhat easily recognizable today, “Facts become irrelevant.”

“Language and euphemisms are created, and there is a tendency to demonize any opposition, or to call an opposing view hate speech,” he said.

To make a “Nazi” accusation and a complaint about “demonization” in the same breath shows a strange lack of self-awareness.

Finally:

The final speaker at the conference, which saw around 6,000 attendees, was The author of “The Harbinger” book, and the inspiration behind “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment,” the bestselling Christian book of 2012 and the bestselling faith movie of the year, Jonathan Cahn.

I discussed Cahn and his book here.

Although WND does not mention the conference’s venue, it was held at Troy Dobbs’ Grace Church. The church featured in a Guardian article by Ana Marie Cox in February, describing a visit by Rick Santorum.

The church will host another conference at the end of the month, entitled “Unveiled” and aimed at those working “to make an impact for Christ with Muslims in their communities and around the world”. Among those attending with be “Glenn Beck’s End Times Prophet” Joel Richardson, with a presentation on Islamic apocalypticism:

Islam and the End Times; what are the Muslim people here and abroad talking about in the coffee shops?

From the author of the Mideast Beast, you will hear a compelling and powerful presentation that will help you “connects the dots” between Islamic eschatology, Middle East politics, current events and the effect of Islamic end times views on missions and evangelism.

Listeners will doubtless be able to contrast the sinister dangers of Islamic End Times beliefs with their own perfectly benign Christian armageddonist views.

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Militant Hindu has elsewhere attacked Christian missionaries, “Hindu traitors” etc.

A couple of sites have drawn attention to a 25 September article about Pamela Geller’s 11 September “SION” conference (I discussed English Defence League involvement with this event here). The piece, by Aaron Labaree and published by Guernica, ascribes immoderate words to one of the speakers, Babu Suseelan:

“If we do not kill the bacteria,” the jowly Suseelan scolded the audience, “the bacteria will kill us.” Otherwise, he warned, “Muslims will breed like rats and they will be a majority.” Still, he concluded hopefully, “Islam can be stopped! And it can be wiped out.”

[Robert] Spencer laughed, but Geller covered her face, as if witnessing the antics of a naughty child.

True, Suseelan calls for “Islam,” rather than Muslims, to be “wiped out”, but coming after “breed like rats” it is difficult to take seriously the suggestion that the rhetoric here is not eliminationist.

I discussed Suseelen back in January, when he appeared at an earlier Geller meeting. To repeat what I posted then, Muslims are the the top of a very long list in Suseelan’s mind; in a typically overheated rant elsewhere, he rails against

Radical Muslims, conversion mafia, missionary misfits, Marxist criminals, bogus secular leaders and the corrupt congress party…  Anarchists, Maoists, Naxals, vagabonds, miscreants, counterfeiters, and subversive groups… 

Suseelan explains that Christian missionaries “are devising various modern deceptive plans to convert unsuspecting and ignorant Hindus”, and he is critical of Christianity in principle:

Islam and Christianity are religions of the book with a specific God, messenger, strict rules, prescription to follow, organizational hierarchy and dogmatic belief system. These are closed, dogmatic and fundamentalist and closed belief systems, which divide people between believers and non-believers.

…Hindus need to counter the growing trend among pseudo secularists and phony liberals to promote the false ideology “all religions are the same”. What we need is an informed mind to rationally conclude that religions of the books and Hindu Dharma are not complementary.

There are also “Hindu traitors” to worry about:

The nature of present destructive behavior of Hindu traitors, anti Hindu stance of pseudo secular and corrupt Hindu political leaders may resemble the past. Looking at more and more evidence of policies and programs against our eternal, sacred Vedic Dharma helps us to adequately explain the uniformity of destructive political behavior of Hindu traitors.

…In contemporary politics, most of our pseudo secular Congress party and regional political party leaders are subservient to Christians, Muslims and their political actions retard Hindu advancement. Hindus in general are servile or otherwise lacking a sense of pride in Vedic Dharma or spiritual tradition.

Unsurprisingly, his advice for the 2009 election was “Vote for BJP for a positive future”.

(H/T Loonwatch)

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PJ Media has a piece by Marc J. Fink, “Director of Islamist Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum”:

Recently, Native American Congressman Tom Cole (R-OK, member of the Chickasaw Nation) introduced H.R. 2362, the Indian Trade and Investment Demonstration Project. The bill singles out Turkish-owned companies for exclusive investment preferences and special rights in Native American tribal area projects.

…The bill was the culmination of a multi-year effort by Turkey to ingratiate itself with Native American tribes: tribal students now study in Turkey with full scholarships; Turkish officials regularly appear at Native American economic summits; and dozens of tribal leaders have gone to Turkey on lavish all-expense-paid trips.

…Why the intense interest in business and cultural ties with Native American tribes now, when Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist Justice and Development party (AKP) have taken Turkey down a path of aggressive and dangerous Islamism?

Evidence from Uzbekistan points to a possible motive: infiltration and Islamization.

The text of the Bill can be seen here.

I’ve no quarrel with drawing critical attention to what appears to be Turkish “soft power” in action, but Fink’s supposed evidence of “Islamization” here is a red herring. He continues:

According to Agence France-Presse:

[The Uzbek government has accused] Turkish companies of creating a shadow economy, using double accounting and propagating nationalistic and extremist ideology. … Long wary of the influence of Islamic fundamentalism … secular authorities appear to be linking Turkish private business to the activities of the Nurcus, an Islamic group that is banned in the country.

Nurcus is also banned in Russia.

Fink has nothing more to say about the Nurcus, presumably because – despite working for an organisation called the “Midde East Forum” – he doesn’t know anything about them. In fact, the Nurcus are a movement consisting of several groups, and in this instance the group under discussion in the AFP report cited above (which dates from last year), although not named, is clearly the well-known “neo-Nurcu” Gülen movement, or FGC (Fethullah Gülen Community).

Eurasianet has some background:

Underlying Tashkent’s actions is mounting distrust of the Islamist orientation of Turkey’s governing Justice and Development Party (AKP). It would seem that Uzbek President Islam Karimov’s government worries that the AKP is working to promote Islamic piety not only in Turkey, but in the Turkic states of Central Asia. In particular, Tashkent is suspicious that the AKP is somehow abetting the activity of an Islamic evangelical movement led by the Turkish theologian Fetullah Gulen, whose ideas are rooted in concepts earlier espoused by Bediuzzaman Said Nursî in the mid-20th century.

…Amid the prosecutions, state-controlled television channels aired programs clearly designed to stir up anti-Turk sentiments. For example, a late February documentary, titled “Crime and Punishment”  and broadcast on two state-run channels, claimed that the arrested entrepreneurs took advantage of “our country’s favorable investment climate and committed economic crimes, including trade in counterfeit goods and the use of dishonest accounting practices to hide profits.” The documentary – which included apparent confessions from some of the accused – asserted that several of the arrested entrepreneurs were affiliated with the Gulen movement.

In addition to the religious element, governmental corruption appears to be a factor in the crackdown, some observers contend. A Tashkent-based financial analyst suspects the attacks on Turkish ventures might be part of an ongoing redistribution of property that began in 2010.

Interpretation needs be cautious: on the one hand, it is reasonable for Turkic countries to be wary of Turkish influence. On the other hand, though, Uzbekistan is a brutal dictatorship, and its attempts to curb such influence appear to be crude, excessive, and tinged with corruption.

It is simply too much of stretch to suggest that either the situation in Uzbekistan or the general activities of the Gülen movement provide the secret template for understanding international Turkish business interests or why Turkey is seeking to woo Native Americans.

Certainly, though, the Gülen movement is worth keeping an eye on; useful background is provided by a 2009 email written by Reva Bhalla of STRATFOR and published by Wikileaks. It concludes that:

The FGC is perhaps the best organised grass roots movement in Turkey. Moreover, the group has a vast social and economic organisation, intelligence assets, a global network and a message that appeals to the West, even if that message appears to be mostly for international consumption. The FGC is effectively a third force in Turkish politics, and the world will hear a lot about it in the years to come.

There was also a highly-critical profile of the organisation in Spiegel Online in August.

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The Pocono Record reports from the Pocono Leadership Prayer Breakfast:

Retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. William Boykin told how faith and prayer sustained him through combat in the Iranian desert, Grenada and Mogadishu.

“I worry about our country but I believe revival is coming to America,” Boykin told 870 people gathered at Camelback resort.

Boykin said he wasn’t a religious man, but told stories of how his prayers were answered in times of grave danger.

…”Prayers, we say, are acts of striving,” Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Jim Cowley [sic - should be "Jim Cawley] said. “They’re almost political acts…”

Prayer speaks to an impulse almost as old as humankind, he said.

The founding of the U.S. transcends government, said U.S. Sen. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., calling it “the idea that our fundamental rights came from God himself.”

Judging from the article, Boykin’s speech consisted for the most part of military reminiscences; the audience was thus spared his thoughts on how Obama intends to create an army of Brownshirts as part of a Marxist conspiracy, or about how there should be “no mosques in America“. It’s not clear why Boykin is reported as saying he “wasn’t a religious man”: he describes himself as an “ordained minister”, and he is a close associate of the neo-Pentecostal evangelist Rick Joyner. Perhaps what is meant is that Boykin “hadn’t been a religious man” earlier in life.

An earlier article in the Pocono Record has some background to the Prayer Breakfast:

While the Pocono Leadership Prayer Breakfast has a Citizens Support Committee made up of prominent business people, elected officials and community leaders, Jack Muehlhan is the chief organizer… Muehlhan, a Stroudsburg Realtor for 40 years, said he and [his wife] Paula spend hundreds of hours on breakfast details.

…This year’s speaker [2008] is Barry Asmus, a senior economist with the National Center for Policy Analysis. Previous speakers include Major League baseball player Bobby Richardson, motivational speaker Zig Ziglar, syndicated newspaper columnist Cal Thomas and Prison Fellowship director Mark Early.

…”We let political figures participate, but not the year they are running, and no campaign literature is allowed,” Muehlhan said.

“I don’t care what motivates people to come,” Muehlhan said. “Most people leave with a good feeling. People are hungry. They’re looking for a relationship with God. My dream would be to see a prayer breakfast in every town across the country.”

This year’s Prayer Breakfast also included music from a singer named Robin Smith; she has posted a video to YouTube, along with a blurb:

The Pocono Leadership Prayer Breakfast is the largest gathering of its kind in the USA. I am honored to sing once again. This is my 5th time participating. It is attended by US Senators, State Governors, Representatives, Judges, Police Departments, and Local and state leaders of every kind. It is an honor and I am on my way to the White House and beyond!

Muehlhan is a Republican Party activist in Monroe County: he was Toomey’s Monroe County election coordinator in 2004, and apparently again in 2010. Toomey was profiled by Philadelphia magazine in August; the piece judged him to be “surprisingly moderate”, and noted that although he benefited from the rise of the Tea Party, he “declined to join the organization’s Senate caucus”:

Toomey might have been a radical by the mainstream GOP standards of 2004, but in 2012, stacked up against the likes of Jim DeMint and Sarah Palin, Donald Trump and Michele Bachmann, Toomey comes across as the most sober adult in the Republican room.

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Religion Dispatches has an interesting article by Jonathan Fitzgerald on the fall-out from Christianity Today‘s August investigation into David Jang, a Korean evangelical leader who is increasingly influential in the USA. The article, by CT editor Ted Olsen and an independent journalist named Ken Smith:

The pair investigated claims that members of David Jang’s ministries were encouraged to believe that Jang embodies a “Second Coming Christ,” an act of blasphemy for Christians. In addition to drawing further ties between Jang and Rev. Moon, who famously declared himself the messiah, this recent controversy hits close to home for evangelicals because of Jang’s ties to many parachurch organizations with seemingly orthodox beliefs.

While Olsen and Smith are careful to cite sources who both confirm and deny that members are led to believe that Jang is the second coming of Christ, the article leaves the reader with the sense that, at least for a time, many of Jang’s followers did believe it.

Additionally, the CT article points out that the connections between Jang and the Unification Church go beyond surface similarities, noting that Jang taught at a UC seminary for 9 years (1989-1998), though in later interviews Jang claimed to be infiltrating the seminary with orthodox theology.

The suggestion is that some members of Jang’s movement were introduced to private teachings; according to the CT article:

Former member Ma Li, who says she began the lessons in China in 2002, said that when she finished, her instructor looked at her and another new member very seriously and asked, “Have you understood? All the content?”

“I answered firmly: ‘Yes,’” she said. “Then she asked me separately: ‘Who is Pastor David?’ I answered without thinking, just followed what I heard just now and answered: ‘The Second Coming Christ!’ She said, ‘Shhh,’ calmly, and then, ‘Don’t tell others.’”

CT also explains why this of international interest:

Over the last five years, ministries and organizations founded by or connected to Jang have gained influence in American and global evangelical ministries, including the World Evangelical Alliance.

…The first missionaries to China arrived in 1996 and formed the core of the Young Disciples of Jesus. The Christian Post and Christian Today have dated their founding to 2000 (on its website, The Christian Post recently changed the founding date to 2004). The Gospel Herald and the American body of the Evangelical Assembly of Presbyterian Churches (EAPC) launched in 2004, and the International Business Times in 2006. By 2002, Jang had recruited adherents in key cities throughout China, Japan, and Korea, and had begun expanding into the United States.

…Southern Baptists have played a prominent role on advisory boards of Jang’s organizations. The Christian Post, which bills itself as “the nation’s most comprehensive Christian news website,” lists as its chairman [William] Wagner, the president of Olivet University (OU) who ran for the Southern Baptist Convention presidency in 2008. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, is the media outlet’s executive editor.

What, then, should we make of the Christian Post’s response to the CT story? Fitzgerald writes:

The day after CT’s article was published online, the Post published a long piece titled, “Sources in ‘Second Coming Christ Controversy’ Face Scrutiny,” followed days later by another with the less subtle headline, “Christianity Today Writer Ken Smith Is Founder of a Company Fined for Deceptive Business Practices; With Child Porn Ties.”

…Penned by the Post’s Katherine T. Phan, it highlights Smith’s work as the founder of the now defunct software company, Zango (which web-savvy readers may remember for their intrusive advertising in web browsers). 

Smith acknowledged that Zango “partnered with some people that we should never have partnered with” in a 2009 post on his blog—which the CP article cites—titled “What Zango Got Wrong.”

When I asked if he was aware of Smith’s history with Zango, Olsen told me that “The child porn thing really came out of the blue. It wasn’t an issue that was on my radar until CP ran the article.” He continued, “That headline was really shocking. Did he distribute child porn? was the question in the headline. If you read the article the answer is no. Zango is not a child porn company and never was.”

The truth of the accusations about Jang discussed by CT may remain murky, but the Post‘s reaction to those accusations is in itself very troubling: the “child porn” headline’s slant is manifestly misleading and repellently vicious. This kind of scorched-earth counter-attack is more the kind of thing that one associates with Scientology.

Fitzgerald also draws attention to some commentary by Timothy Dalrymple at Patheos. Dalrymple writes:

…what they issued was a full-throated defense of David Jang and an even more rip-roaring excoriation of Christianity Today and every person who criticized Jang within the piece.  They issued, in other words, a performative affirmation that they are, in fact, David Jang’s mouthpiece.

The purpose of the response was to defend David Jang.  If possible, however, the nature of the response was even worse — presented as journalism, it was actually a no-qualifications, no-holds-barred defense.  There was not a single criticism of Jang that possessed any merit whatsoever, and none of the figures cited in Christianity Today‘s article were anything but complete and utter liars.  Meanwhile, the people who defend Jang and who attack his critics, even if they themselves work for Jang-affiliated companies, possess unquestioned authority and good will.  This is not journalism; it’s public relations.  It’s not reporting, but spin.

The Post claims that Smith’s association with Zango was brought to its attention by “commentators” following the CT article. However, it seems that the Post planned a hit-pierce on Smith ahead of the CT piece; Smith himself writes

one of their emails to Christianity Today said that the “story is going to be about Ken’s involvement with an international network of pro-North Korean, anti-Christian and leftist groups that are attacking Christian organizations.”

That line of attack never materialised, but it just so happened that an alternative concern was raised by “commentators”.

Last month, CT ran a follow-up piece, with input from Edmond and Susan Chua, who used to run the Post‘s Singapore edition:

Edmond and Susan also confirmed what other sources have told CT: Before 2006, it was common for those who had confessed [to Jang as Christ] to send a letter of their confession to Jang. CT has independently obtained a document which, although it is not addressed to Jang, otherwise appears to be just such a written confession. (To protect the confidentiality of its source, CT was asked not to quote from the document directly.) The writer, a current employee of a Jang-associated organization, refers to Jang as “Christ” more than a dozen times in this document.

The Chuas also showed CT a transcript of a 2002 sermon suggesting that “Jang’s church constitutes the 144,000 sealed servants of God of Revelation 7″. There’s also the interesting Unifcation Church-tinged detail that

The two married on David Jang’s birthday, October 30, 2006—the 14th anniversary of the founding of Jang’s movement—along with 69 other couples, Susan said.

According to the Post, however, this was not a wedding, but rather “a Christian service for couples who desire to dedicate their family to God in front of other believers before marriage”.

CT also claims to have seen evidence suggestive that Jang is strangely secretive about his media empire:

In one email provided to CT, Johnathan Davis, the chief content officer of IBTimes, declined to participate in a Christian industry association being organized by leaders of other Jang-affiliated publications like The Christian Post, because, he said, “My commission is inherently covert.”

…In a different email thread discussing whether to include The Christian Post‘s history as part of its employee handbook, one senior leader wrote, “I don’t think we should include the history in the handbook. The issue is that PD [Pastor David] doesn’t want the history in written, audio or video form to fall into a non-members’ hands. Once you make a hard copy of something it is set in stone and he still wants some things to remain vague.”

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From the Guardian:

The Russian aluminium tycoon Oleg Deripaska dramatically settled his long-running feud with the billionaire businessman Michael Cherney on Thursday when Deripaska announced both parties had reached an out of court settlement.

…Cherney claimed that during this period under President Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s he was Deripaska’s business partner….

According to Deripaska, the arrangement between the two men was simply one of “krysha” — the Russian word for “roof” — with Deripaska paying Cherney and his mafia partners huge sums of money in return for physical and political protection. Cherney denied this and said that without his help Deripaska – now a close ally of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin – would never have become a major player in the industry.

The case was to be heard in London; Cherney was due to give evidence via video-link from Israel, because “authorities in Spain had issued an EU-wide arrest warrant for him” over money-laundering allegations. The “In the City” column of the latest Private Eye magazine (1324) has an account of the case, focusing in particular on evidence submitted about both men’s association with a third individual, Sergei Popov.

Cherney has featured in the blog in the past: his “Michael Cherney Foundation” sponsors an organisation called the “Jerusalem Summit”, which promotes the view that Palestinians ought to be given “relocation grants” to leave “Israeli-administered areas” (inevitably described as “Judea Samaria and Gaza”). The Summit’s “Presidium” includes Baroness Caroline Cox, Daniel Pipes, and Sam Brownback; other associates include the apocalyptic Christian Zionist Mike Evans and UKIP’s Lord Pearson, to whom Cherney presented an award in 2007 at an event held in Paraliment. The Summit has also promoted a short book called Universal Zionism, which contains a number of bizarre (and somewhat distasteful) religious ideas.

Cherney has always maintained that he has been the victim of smears by his enemies – these include an investigative journalist, whom Cherney accuses of having faked a gun attack against himself.  It must have been tricky to keep one’s distance from organised crime during the ruthless “Aluminium Wars” which made Cherney and Deripaska both incredibly wealthy, but Cherney nevertheless managed to rise to the top without resorting to anything reprehensible. I discussed the full background here.

In the UK, media interest is primarily focused on Deripaska, who is “a long-time friend of Peter Mandelson and financier Nat Rothschild”, and who has also received George Osborne on his yacht. However, although Deripaska may be a “close ally” of Putin, a 2009 incident demonstrates that he’s kept on a short leash

Over 20,000 people in Pikalyovo have been sitting without jobs, paychecks, heating and hot water for several months… Thinking of business and not social welfare, employers simply sent their workers into unpaid furloughs or laid them off.

…In a particularly remarkable episode which was shown by all national TV channels, Putin called billionaire Oleg Deripaska – the owner of one of the factories [in the town] – over to his desk and literally made the latter sign an agreement that would allow the plant to restart operation.

“I can’t see your signature here,” Putin’s voice was full of irritation, a very rare scene on Russian television. “Come over to me. Here is the agreement,” Putin said, throwing a pen on top of the document.

Looking somber, the unshaven tycoon… stooped over the desk with a demeanor of a schoolboy and signed the agreement, forgetting to return Putin’s pen. “And will you give me the pen back as well?” Putin reminded Deripaska without a trace of politeness.

(Name variations: Michael Chernoy; Mikhail Chernoy; Mikhail Chernoi)

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Last week, the UK far-left Morning Star newspaper attracted criticism and condemnation for publishing an article by the notorious figure of Israel Shamir on the subject of Pussy Riot. Shamir advanced the theory that the trial had been orchestrated as “a weapon against Putin” by ”oligarchs, big business, the media lords, the pro-Western intelligentsia of Moscow, and Western interests which naturally prefer Russia divided against itself”, noting in particular the alleged role of “Marat Gelman, a Russian Jewish art collector”. Shamir further opined that:

The Russians proved that they care for Christ as much as the French care for Auschwitz, and this shocked the Europeans who apparently thought ‘hate laws’ may be applied only to protect Jews and gays.

This naturally brought to mind Shamir’s well-known denialist views about the Holocaust, and his conspiracy theories about Jews. The Morning Star removed the item a few hours after publication, and issued a statement explaining that the article had been “syndicated from Counterpunch in good faith without knowledge of the author’s background” and that the paper does not share Shamir’s opinions.

“Syndication” has the connotation of articles from one source being published in another through a more or less automatic arrangement. However, it was noted by Jim Denham that one particularly egregious sentence had been dropped from the Morning Star version of the article: this was that “Western governments call for more freedom for the anti-Christian Russians, while denying it for holocaust revisionists in their midst”. Further, Shamir has now published what purports to  be an email from the Morning Star asking him personally for permission to reproduce the article:

Unfortunately, we run on a shoestring so we’re unable to pay a fee but I hope you will agree as it will bring your challenging piece to a wider readership.

Inevitably, Shamir now attacks the Morning Star for having supposedly given in to “the pressure of the Jewish lobby”, and he goes on to identify “enemies of the Church in Russia” with a number of non-practising Jews who “apparently inherited their hatred to the Church from their forefathers”.

Shamir is a convert to Orthodoxy, having been baptised by the controversial and dubious Bishop Atallah Hanna. He is also well-known for his links with the authoritarian regime in Belarus; in December, Charter97 reported that he had met with Uladzimri Makei, Head of the Belarusian President’s Administration. Shamir has been described as “representing” Wikileaks in Russia and Belarus, and there is a concern that Wikileaks cables concerning opposition groups may have been brought to the attention of the authorities. It should be recalled that Belarus President Lukashenko also receives strong personal support from the Russian Patriarch.

Footnote

Shamir’s views on Pussy Riot put him at odds with Julian Assange. Assange, famously speaking from the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy in London, compared the sentencing of Pussy Riot with the extradition case against him:

There is unity in the oppression. There must be absolute unity and determination in the response.

However, this was just a couple of days after the Pussy Riot sentencing, and was perhaps opportunistic; the Guardian noted:

Some observers pointed out that Assange avoided any reference to dissidents or free speech campaigners in Russia while carrying out interviews with international figures as part of a series broadcast exclusively by Russia Today.

Evgeny Morozov, the author of the Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom, tweeted sarcastically: “Great that Assange supports Pussy Riot. Perhaps, he can have them on his TV show. Oh wait….”

Shamir’s view of the rape allegations against Assange was noted by the Guardian in January 2011:

On 27 August, in Counterpunch, a small radical US publication, Shamir said Assange was framed by “spies” and “crazy feminists”. He alleged there had been a “honeytrap”. On 14 September, Shamir then attacked “castrating feminists and secret services”, writing that one of the women involved, whom he deliberately named, had once discussed the Cuban opposition to Castro in a Swedish academic publication “connected with” someone with “CIA ties”.

Meanwhile, Assange has also reportedly suggested – and then withdrawn – claims of a Jewish conspiracy against him, in an exchange via telephone with Ian Hislop.

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