European “Counterjihad Activists” Making Links with Christian Right

Hate groups solidifying their links:

European “Counterjihad Activists” Making Links with Christian Right

by Richard Bartholomew (Barth’s Notes)

The British Freedom Party reports:

On Friday March 9 a media team from the Christian Action Network came to London to conduct interviews with various Counterjihad activists about the spread of sharia and the Islamization of Europe. Below is their interview with Paul Weston, the Chairman of the British Freedom Party.

The CAN interview with Tommy Robinson was posted yesterday at Gates of Vienna. Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff will be up next.

CAN previously interviewed English Defence League members in 2009, during a visit to the UK with Robert Spencer. CAN used the opportunity to invite EDL activists to a private dinner with Spencer and Douglas Murray, to the embarrassment of the two men; Murray’s Centre for Social Cohesion sent me a message asking me to clarify that “CAN asked Douglas to do an interview with them – upon seeing the presence of the EDL at the CAN discussion he refused to deal with them and left the venue.”

CAN was primarily known for anti-gay activism prior to taking an interest in Islam; CAN’s president, Martin Mawyer, has a history of virulent statements on the subject (in particular, in 1997 he denounced Ellen DeGeneres’ “FILTHY LESBIAN LIFESTYLE”), which Spencer initially dismissed in 2009 as “not jihad-related”. However, in 2010 Mawyer’s views were reported in Dutch media, prompting Geert Wilders to withdraw from the Los Angeles premiere of a CAN documentary entitled Islam Rising: Geert Wilders’ Warning to the West. The premiere, which had been organised by Pamela Geller and Spencer, was quickly cancelled, and Spencer affected to be shocked at the discovery of Mawyer’s “ugly, vitriolic… hysterical, self-righteous, abusive rhetoric”.

The British Freedom Party and the EDL now have several links with Christian Right activists. Weston and Stephen Lennon (“Tommy Robinson”) are regular guests on Michael Coren’s Arena TV show; Coren is a member of the more intellectual end of the Catholic right, and, like Mawyer, he is particularly known for his objections to homosexuality. Weston and Lennon are also friendly with the Tennessee Freedom Coalition’s Andy Miller (the TFC was in the news recently after arranging for local police to be trained in Islam at an evangelical church in Murfreesboro; the group alsohas links with the British organisation Christian Concern).

Sabaditsch-Wolff, meanwhile, was recently invested as a Dame of “the Knights of Malta — The Ecumenical Order”, by Nicholas Papanicolaou and none  other than Gen William “Jerry” Boykin; the two men are, respectively, the Order’s “Grand Master” and “Grand Chancellor”. Both men are close to the evangelist Rick Joyner, who is a “Deputy Member of the Supreme Council”. Joyner, who receives messages from God about how an earthquake will soon destroy the west coast of the USA, claims that he was introduced to the Order by an “Austrian baron”, and that his books were responsible for a “spiritual renewal” in the Order.

(Hat tip: EDL News)

Rep. West to screen controversial film on ‘Ground Zero mosque’

Rep. West to screen controversial film on ‘Ground Zero mosque’

By Jordy Yager – 08/02/11 11:22 AM ET

Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) is planning to screen a controversial film on Capitol Hill about attempts to build an Islamic center near Ground Zero in Manhattan.

The film, “Sacrificed Survivors: The Untold Story of the Ground Zero Mosque,” was produced by the conservative Christian Action Network (CAN) and has begun to garner criticism from such groups as the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR).

The 45-minute film is largely focused around a series of interviews conducted with survivors of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and members of their family. The interviews, according to CAN’s website, delve into the feelings they experienced last summer when a group proposed building an Islamic center blocks away from where the World Trade Center towers once stood.

Efforts to build the Islamic center, which was set to include a swimming pool and a mosque among other amenities, were the focus of nearly every news agency last summer and brought a slew of politically charged arguments from members of Congress.

CAN attempted to get permission to show the film in New York City parks over the week leading up to the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, but it was denied out of concern for the content.

According to CAN’s website, West plans to host the event during the week Congress returns from recess, on Sept. 8 in the Rayburn House Office Building.

This will not be the first time a controversial film about Muslims has been shown on Capitol Hill. In 2009, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) hosted the controversial Dutch filmmaker Geert Wilders and showed his movie, “Fitna,” which many Muslims have designated anti-Islamic. Following an anti-screening campaign by the Congressional Muslim Staffers Association, no members of Congress reportedly showed up to watch the film.

West came under fire last year for commenting during a conference that terrorists were fulfilling mandates laid out by the Quran.

A spokeswoman for West did not immediately return a request for comment.

Anti-Muslim Billboard: “Islam Rising…Be Warned”

The fearmongering continues, courtesy of a Christian Action Network (CAN) advertisement. (hat tip:Abdullah)

Some take offense to billboard warning drivers about Islam

By Jackie Faye

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) – A billboard along Interstate 26 is catching a lot of eyes, and viewers are calling our newsroom about it. Some think it’s offensive, and others just want to know what it means.

On a stretch of highway from Orangeburg to Columbia, one sees advertisement on billboards scattered along the side of the road. But this billboard stands out, reading “Islam Rising Be Warned.”

“I think it is exciting hate and fear,” said Jennifer Bynum. “You know there are terrorists out there, but they are not all out there amongst us.”

The Islamic Center of Columbia has been on Gervais Street for close to 30 years. Habeeb Abdullah has been a member since the beginning, and says there is nothing to fear over the sign.

“I am not going to judge what they meant, I’m just going to take it as-is,” said Abdullah. “They say Islam is on the rise — which is true, it is on the rise — but there is nothing to be afraid of from Islam.”

If you look closely at the sign, it sends you to a website paid for by the Christian Action Network. We emailed the group for a comment, and they requested we watch their video first.

The video shows protests of people holding signs reading “Be prepared for the real holocaust” and shows the deadly attacks of 9/11. It also shows a man saying “I have been ordered by Allah to fight against people until they testify there is no god but Allah.”

Abdullah maintains there is no correlation between his religion and the video or the billboard.

“If Islam is on the rise, I think American people are informed enough to know what is right and what is wrong,” Abdullah said. “So if they are accepting Islam, there has to be a reason.”

We emailed the Christian action network again after watching the video, per their request. Their response was, “If you still have questions after watching the trailer then you need to watch the full documentary.”

The billboard is owned by Revelation, which rents out billboards all over. The cost depends on size and location, and can run from $500 to $2,000.

 

Hollywood: Geert Wilders Movie Aborted: Yes We CAN!

Huib Reithof, a Brussels based blogger, historian and activist writes on the recent episode involving Geert Wilders and the Geller-Spencer axis. If our readers are unaware CAN, (Christian Action Network) a virulently homophobic and Christian supremacist organization which has had a long working history with Robert Spencer made a film, Islam Rising glorifying Geert Wilders.

Geller and Spencer both were giddy over their Hollywood debut, they had visions of red carpet treatment, sips of champagne and for Pamela maybe, mercifully some plastic surgery?

All kidding aside their Hollywood dreams blew up in their faces when the obvious despicable history of Martin Mawyer and CAN went viral in Holland and Europe. It was up to Geert Wilders to deliver thecoup de grace as his carefully cultivated ‘legitimacy’ as the heir to Pim Fortuyn was threatened.

Huib gave us permission to reproduce his article with a few minor touches, enjoy:

LA Wilders Sanctification Movie Aborted: Yes We CAN*! by Huib Reithof

The May 1st launch of an one hour Wilders adoration movie, produced by Robert Spencer, Pamela Geller and Martin Mawyat’s Christian Action Network (CAN) in Los Angeles (Ca), fell lamentably through, two days after its proud announcement.

The “Islam Rising” video features Geert Wilders, posing as an Old Testament prophet, calling off the numerous mene tekels on the wall of dhimmi-ridden Christianity. Among the illustrations: The unavoidable Ground Zero, loony bearded hysterics and Barack Obama meeting an Arab authority.

Outrage rose in Geert Wilders’ home country, Holland, after the announcement. In Europe, he never shows off with the extreme right. He never disowns their support either. Wilders pretends to fight for abortion rights and gay rights. CAN’s homophobic and pro-life agitation does not rhyme well with that.

At first, Wilders tried to play down the issue but last night, the “21st century Churchill” (Pamela’s description) met his Dardanelles (1915) against the modern Turks. He backed off, telling the news agencies that he “did not know” about CAN’s ideas, that he would NOT go to LA, and disappeared behind a “no-comment” wall. At the website of his political “party” (no members, only Pipes-money), the jubilant references to the movie and its launch disappeared all at once.

Spencer received a very “Dutch Treat”

Spencer had to call off the May 1st event. The damage to his cause is immense. “Going Dutch: Never More!” and receiving a “Dutch Treat” will best describe his inner feelings.

Our inner feelings are quite the opposite. Something like: “Yes We CAN”. What CAN couldn’t, we achieved.

We, the men and women who time and again exposed Wilders’ hypocrisy, finally met with some acknowledgment:

• In Holland he is behaving like a middle of the road politician, denouncing a “dangerous ideology, the Islam”, denying that he is against Muslims or Arabs, adopting some progressive issues like women’s liberation, freedom of choice (abortion), gay rights, gay marriage and keeping the pension age at 65.
• Outside Europe, Wilders associates with Christian fundamentalists, Great-Israel religious ultra-Zionists and American Birthers and Tea Party ideologues.

Why does Wilders do so? I think, that in his heart, he agrees with the ideas of his foreign sponsors. But he cannot win the vote in Holland with statements like he made in Copenhague last year (“deportation of tens of millions of Muslims out of Europe” and “the Palestinians already have their state: Jordania”). His racist rants in some US synagogues were not adapted for home consumption either.

But, I think, he HAD to tell his sponsors from time to time the things they want to hear from him, so he did, leaving out the subjects they would certainly have objected to, like abortion, gay rights, etc. Wilders chose his locations as far away from Holland as possible. Hoping that the Dutch are too dumb to see the difference. Hoping that Daniel Pipes, Robert Spencer and Avigdor Lieberman do not master enough of the Dutch language, to see the fraud.

Well, this is the beginning of Wilders’ exposure as a Fraud. The stream of US money that helps him to stay out of Dutch party funding control and to run a no-member “party” without inner political discussion will wither away. Good for Holland.

The Loony Right will have to look for another, more reliable hero.

The movie will just be a collector’s item.

 

Christian Action Network Gets Banned in Maine

Martin Mawyer

Christian Action Network Gets Banned

The Christian Action Network (CAN) a group that attempted to spread rumours that Hillary Clinton was a lesbian has been banned from fundraising in Maine for sending an “inflammatory anti-Muslim message” in one of their official letters. CAN was set up by Martin Mawyer who just a few months ago was in Britain where he spent time with and interviewed members of the EDL.

At the same time that Mawyer was interviewing the EDL he was also working and hanging out with, you guessed it, Robert Spencer. Of course Spencer’s friends over at CAN are crying “bloody censorship” now that their hate has been exposed (a favorite tactic of anti-Muslims), and they have even gotten a lawyer from that Harvard of Christian Law Schools, Jerry Falwell’s “Liberty University” to sue the state.

From Talk Islam,

Christian Action Network sues the state of Maine after it revokes permission for the group to fundraise there, citing a letter the group sent out that was inflammatory against Muslims.

Today the Christian Action Network (CAN) filed a federal lawsuit against the state of Maine for censoring a fundraising letter state officials claimed contained “an inflammatory anti-Muslim message.” Maine officials fined and banned CAN from mailing any future letters under the threat of criminal prosecution. Liberty Counsel represents CAN.

CAN was in good standing with a valid license for prior years in Maine, authorizing the group to mail letters in the state. CAN filed to renew its license in March 2009, prior to sending the letter, and the check for the annual license was deposited and cashed by the state. In April, CAN mailed a letter exposing how some public schools were promoting Islam by providing instruction on the Five Pillars of Islam and the Koran. The letter pointed out that some schools have provided a “prayer room” for Muslims and one textbook that told seventh grade students they “will become Muslim.” The letter listed Governor John Baldacci as a person who is over the public schools and someone to whom the recipients of the letter should voice their opinion.

CAN was informed in May 2009 that its application was now being denied, and a $4,000 fine was imposed for three reasons: (1) the state alleged CAN’s letter contained “an inflammatory anti-Muslim message;” (2) the letter used Gov. John Baldacci’s name without his approval; and (3) the registration was allegedly “incomplete.