--- Sponsor's Message -------------------------------------- Can't find your pictures? You should use FlipAlbum! Simply select a folder and FlipAlbum will create a page flipping album complete with thumbnails and index! Try it out now! -> http://click.topica.com/aaaafubz8SnrbAjwjxa/www.softflip.com/c/?x=topica_1 ------------------------------------------------------------ __________________________________________________________________________ The Internet Anti-Fascist: Tuesday, 28 March 2000 Vol. 4, Number 27 (#408) __________________________________________________________________________ CONTENTS Book Reviews: The Battle For God by Karen Armstrong The Book Of Jerry Falwell: Fundamentalist Language and Politics by Susan Harding Hammerskins In Increasingly Hot Water Michael Fisher (Riverside Press-Enterprise), "Black man sues alleged attackers: A Murrieta resident who was attacked claims an organization encourages hate crimes," 24 Mar 00 Brooke A. Masters (Washington Post), "Pentagon Suspect 'Is Not a Nut'," 25 Mar 00 Rightwing Quote of the Week: -------------------------------------------------------------------------- BOOK REVIEWS: THE BATTLE FOR GOD By Karen Armstrong. 442 pp. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. $27.50 Holy Wars: A scholar finds the fundamentalist movements in the monotheistic religions disturbing Chris Hedges (New York Times) 26 Mar 00 Dr. James Luther Adams, my ethics professor in seminary, used to tell us that we would end our careers fighting an ascendant fundamentalist movement, or, as he liked to say, "the Christian fascists." He was not a scholar to be disregarded, however implausible such a scenario seemed, and still seems. But it is clear that as we enter the new millennium the traditional versions of the three monotheistic religions have failed to fill the huge spiritual void of modernity -- one Jean-Paul Sartre called "a God-shaped hole." We lie on the cusp of a great religious experiment, one similar to the upheaval that led to the decline of paganism and the rise of reformers and prophets during the so-called Axial Age (800 B.C.-200 B.C.), when the most important thoughts worth thinking were first thought. Regretfully, for the moment, all innovation, passion and energy lie with the adversaries of secular, democratic society. Whether or not you see fundamentalism as a threat, as Karen Armstrong does in "The Battle for God," hers is one of the most penetrating, readable and prescient accounts to date of the rise of the fundamentalist movements in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Rather than make sweeping pronouncements, she wisely focuses on the fundamentalist strains in the United States, Israel, Iran and Egypt. She displays, as she should, sympathy for the plight of those who turned to fundamentalism after being shunted aside by forces and states that have little patience with the quest by the poor and the dispossessed to find meaning and purpose. But what has evolved as a response to modernity is also tainted, Armstrong points out, with the doctrines and mores of the 20th century, including the support for liberation movements, the requirement to fashion messages to suit the confines of the electronic media and the disturbing belief that the rational world can be applied to the mythos of religion as if it were a science. Protestant fundamentalists read the Bible, she writes, "in a literal, rational way that is quite different from the more mystical, allegorical approach of premodern spirituality." Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was not, as she aptly reminds us, a throwback to the Middle Ages: "in fact much of his message and developing ideology was modern. His opposition to Western imperialism and his support of the Palestinians were similar to other third world movements at this time; so was his direct appeal to the people." Even the ultra-Orthodox Jews, who try to turn their back on secular Israeli society, have founded yeshivas that are recognizable, voluntarist institutions. "They adopted a novel stringency in their observance of the Torah and learned to manipulate the political system in a way that brought them more power than any religious Jew had enjoyed for nearly two millenniums," Armstrong notes. These movements are struggling to define, often in disturbing ways, an ethic in a world whose landscape has altered dramatically. They are a product, although they do not recognize themselves as such, of the culture they hope to vanquish, and all "have a symbiotic relationship with modernity." Like other uncompromising movements -- fascism, communism and nationalism -- fundamentalist sects fester. "The West has developed an entirely unprecedented and wholly different type of civilization," Armstrong, the author of three previous books, including "A History of God," writes, "so the religious response to it has been unique." She is unsure how to vanquish or tame these movements, pointing out that each attempt to crush them has resulted in more virulent strains. The problem may be that such vindictive intolerance, racism and homophobia simply have no place in a civil society. Much of fundamentalism is an ideology of rage, a product of the worst elements of the society it condemns. The Gush Emunim in Israel, the forces grouped around the Iranian clergy, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the constituencies of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson "have absorbed the pragmatic rationalism of modernity, and, under the guidance of their charismatic leaders, they refine these 'fundamentals' so as to create an ideology that provides the faithful with a plan of action," Armstrong writes. The fieriest and deadliest battle, however, is not between the sacred and the profane, but between the anointed and the apostates masquerading as believers. The assassinations of Anwar Sadat and Yitzhak Rabin illustrate, Armstrong says, the two wars being fought in the Middle East, one between the Arabs and the Jews and the other "between secularists and religious." It was the internecine fighting between the powerful television evangelists, not the liberal establishment they set out to topple, that saw the collapse of the empires of Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart. The Christian right consumed itself. - - - - - THE BOOK OF JERRY FALWELL: Fundamentalist Language and Politics By Susan Harding Princeton University Press 276 pp., $26.95 Is one with Jerry Falwell a moral majority? Linda L. Giedl (Christian Science Monitor) 23 Mar 00 "If all the fundamentalists knew who to vote for and did it together," Jerry Falwell proclaimed in 1979, "we could elect anybody. If every one of these people could be intelligently taught and mobilized, brother, we could turn this nation upside down for God!" Everyone has an opinion about the Rev. Falwell's Moral Majority. Most are at one end or the other of the spectrum. Considering the almost volcanic force of the encounter of millions of born-agains with secular America, Susan Harding's new study, suggestively titled "The Book of Jerry Falwell," has a curiously static quality. But it builds steam as it goes along and, taken on its own terms, has a good deal to say. Harding has brought the finely tuned eyes and ears of an anthropologist to her research inside Falwell's fundamentalist Baptist community. Her analysis is incisive and empathetic. Rather than examining the political clashes, she dissects the Bible-based rhetoric that shapes and drives the fundamentalist world view. To fundamentalists, "Biblical narrators, past and present, tell histories, the way things actually happened," writes Harding. "Their stories ... do not represent history, they are history." During the 1970s and '80s, Harding says, two crucial overlapping events took place. Fundamentalists, with Falwell at the helm, radically transformed themselves from separatist outsiders to full participants in American life. Simultaneously, Falwell forged alliances with like-minded leaders of other Christian groups, especially conservative evangelicals. By radically altering the rhetoric that millions of born-agains listened to via sermons and broadcasts, books and Bible-study classes, revivals and prayer meetings, seminaries and schools, a new phenomenon - the Moral Majority - was born. Falwell was "the major cobbler and distributor" of those "hybrid religious and political rhetorics." Harding divides her study into two parts, "Rites of Origins" and "Rites of Revision." In part one, she invites readers to a Christian "witnessing" session - hers. Not improvised or casual, witnessing involves the focused use of oratory to turn a nonbeliever into a born-again believer. Next, she examines the watershed event that determined both the 50-year, "largely self-imposed," social exile of fundamentalists and the consolidation of America's self-image as a modern secular nation - the Scopes trial of 1925. Part two looks at how Falwell defines himself ("his tales of grace in the midst of misconduct"); how the "Sacrificial Economy" works, attracting millions in donations; the revised rhetoric that "enabled a kind of born- again Christian cultural diaspora"; how Falwell's Moral Majority produced a predominantly white, male-centered, pro-family agenda; how Falwell consolidated the pro-life position by embedding it in the born-again gospel; the story of "the world's largest creation museum"; and, finally, the impact of the born-again telescandals during the late '80s. Harding's postscript sheds light on the collision of modernity with "traditional Bible realism" and debunks the notion that Falwell and his fundamentalist constituency aren't modern. The postscript is a must-read, but in its proper sequence. It needs what comes before. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- HAMMERSKINS IN INCREASINGLY HOT WATER Black man sues alleged attackers: A Murrieta resident who was attacked claims an organization encourages hate crimes. Michael Fisher (Riverside Press-Enterprise) 24 Mar 00 A black man attacked, chased, beaten and stabbed by a pack of skinheads is suing his alleged attackers and a white-supremacy group whose message he blames for sparking the assault. Randy Wordell Bowen, 24, of Murrieta, filed a civil rights lawsuit in U.S. District and Riverside Superior courts last week targeting the Hammerskin Nation, the Western Hammerskins and its chapters in Riverside, Hemet and San Diego. Cases against such groups are rare, according to legal and civil-rights experts. Representatives of the Hammerskin Nation and the Western Hammerskins could not be reached for comment Friday. A Web site for the international organization lists only post office boxes for its chapters, 22 in the U.S. and 10 in Europe and Australia. By e-mail, the group declined comment. The lawsuit is an attempt to hold the local and national Hammerskin groups responsible for their role in encouraging hate crimes, said Andrew Roth, one of Bowen's attorneys. We believe they specifically encourage people to engage in violent hate crimes,' he said. The group calls for the murder and eviction of nonwhites and Jewish people from the United States in an effort to purify the race,FBI Special Agent John Schafer told a Riverside grand jury last year. Among the 30 people named in Bowen's lawsuit are six men facing hate crime and attempted murder charges in connection with the March 1999 attack in a remote area of Temecula. It was unclear whether this is the first civil rights lawsuit filed against the Hammerskin Nation. Such lawsuits can be dogged by free speech issues, experts say. It's difficult to hold the group responsible, especially in a situation like this when all the group was doing is advocacy,; said USC Law Professor Erwin Chemerinsky. But the U. S. Supreme Court has decided that groups can be held liable for encouraging behavior when there is ; of imminent illegal acts, and when that speech is likely to trigger those acts, he explained.Roth said the lawsuit does not target the Hammerskins' right to free speech nor its right to disseminate its philosophy. It's about the group advocating violence, he said.This was not protected conduct; Roth said. "You have an organization that is basically a conspiracy to encourage criminal violent attacks on African Americans. That is not protected speech, but criminal speech. The lawsuit states Bowen is seeking general damages for pain, suffering and disfigurement, and punitive damages. It gives no figure other than to state damages are expected to exceed $50,000. Fallbrook white supremacist Tom Metzger said he welcomes the lawsuit. I want them to suppress as much as possible and to drive white race more and more underground to where they have no other options but violence, Metzger said. The people who are doing this are shooting themselves in the foot. Bowen was at a gathering in the hills east of Temecula on St. Patrick's Day last year when a group of young men believed to be members of the Hemet- based Western Hammerskins allegedly struck him in the head with a beer bottle, chased him down when he fled, beat him and slashed his back open. During the incident, members of the group allegedly shouted racial slurs, such as Die, nigger, before he made his way through the dark to a ranch house, according to grand jury testimony. Witnesses testified that after the attack the group marched in lock step, thumped their chests in a Nazi salute, screamed and sang German songs. In August, a grand jury indicted four men on charges of attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder with enhancements for gang affiliation and commission of a hate crime. Those charged include Travis George Miskam, 20, of Hemet; Daniel Glen Butler, 21; Alan Thomas Yantis, 20 and Gregory Allan McDaniel, 20, all of Temecula. All pleaded not guilty and remain in county jail, pending trial. If convicted, the men face life behind bars, attorneys said. Facing the same charges are Jesse David Douglas and Jason Mac McCully, both of Temecula. Both were 17 at the time of the attack but have since turned 18 and are being prosecuted as adults. < Bowen's lawsuit also names Miskam's parents, Nancy and Ken, as well as his siblings and McDaniel's parents. It accuses the Miskams of negligently supervising minors. Nancy Miskam declined comment. Ken Miskam did not return telephone messages. Defense attorneys for the men facing charges also could not be reached for comment. There are 10 to 15 core members and up to 40 others in the Hemet chapter of the Western Hammer-skins, FBI agent Schafer told the grand jury last year.Bowen's attorneys say they intend to bring in as defendants the leaders of these various organizations, the parents of many of the defendants and various other members of the Hammerskins, according to the court documents. Roth said he has yet to identify the leaders of the group, locally or nationally. Miskam's attorney, Peter Morealle, has previously said his client is a member of the Western Hammerskins. It is unclear how many Hammerskin Nation members there are world-wide, said Joe Roy, who heads the investigatory arm of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Alabama. Roy noted that the center has successfully pressed a number of similar lawsuits in Texas, Georgia and other states that targeted white supremacy groups such as the Klu Klux Klan.One of those cases included the $12.5 million judgment the law center won against Metzger and his organization, the White Aryan Resistance, over the 1988 slaying of a Portland, Ore., bus driver. A jury found Metzger and his group sparked attacks on minorities through racist materials, speeches and remarks. Metzger said the verdict served only to make him more radical and more dangerous. They can get a judgment for 10 zillion dollars but try to collect it, Metzger said of Bowen's case. He described the Hammerskins members as mostly working class young people with no property. Roth said the focus of the lawsuit is not money. Mr. Bowen is not involved in this case because he thinks there is a financial jackpot at the end", Roth said. "He just feels it's the right thing to do Roth said he can't address whether Bowen has been targeted by threats since the March 1999 incident. He's still recovering from the attack, particularly the psychological damage and he is not completely healed from the physical attack", he said. Roth also represents the Tyisha Miller family in its lawsuit against the city of Riverside and five police officers involved in her December 1998 shooting. In the shooting, the young Rubidoux woman was sitting unresponsive with a gun on her lap in a locked, idling car at a Riverside gas station. Officers who arrived to help Miller said they shot her after she reached for the gun. - - - - - Pentagon Suspect 'Is Not a Nut' Brooke A. Masters (Washington Post) 25 Mar 00 As police and federal agents seized more weapons and explosives from the man arrested at the Pentagon this week, Anthony Premo's mother defended him, saying he "did not go there for any dastardly deeds." Premo, 29, was scheduled to begin work as a Defense Protective Services police officer next week. He was stopped Wednesday on Pentagon grounds with three guns, potentially explosive black powder and books on booby traps. He has been charged with impersonating a federal officer because he allegedly flashed fraudulent Immigration and Naturalization Service credentials during the traffic stop. His mother, Barbra Premo, said in a telephone interview from Merlin, Ore., that her son "is not a nut. They've blown this thing out of proportion. He went there for his job." INS spokesman Greg Gagne said Premo worked as a detention enforcement officer for five months in the U.S. Virgin Islands before resigning in October 1998. Premo's mother said he simply had kept the credentials. An affidavit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria disclosed that the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force and Fairfax police swept Premo's room at the Travelers Motel on Route 1 and found four handguns, military ammunition boxes, several more canisters of black powder, cannon fuse, fireworks, a bulletproof vest, a police jacket and a night vision scope. A further search of his car turned up INS and U.S. Border Patrol uniforms, a police raid jacket and books about bombs, according to the affidavit, signed by FBI agent Christopher Combs. Premo had a tattoo on his shoulder and a jacket bearing the emblem of two crossed carpenter's hammers surrounded by a circle--a design the FBI says is associated with the Hammerskins, a white supremacists group, the affidavit said. Premo told agents that he had copied the design from a music album, the affidavit said. Premo did not respond to a request for an interview from the Alexandria jail, and his newly appointed attorney, Patrick Anderson, declined to comment. Premo is being held until a detention hearing Monday. Barbra Premo said the items found in the car and hotel room were typical of her son's belongings. Defense department spokeswoman Susan Hansen said the Pentagon police got Premo's name from a list of applicants that had been approved by the Office of Personnel Management. She said a check of his criminal and driving records turned up clean. Sharon Wells, an spokeswoman for the OPM, confirmed that the agency put together a list of qualified applicants but said follow-up interviews and background checks were up to the Defense Department. "We just rate the applications," she said. Premo was to have completed a one- to two-week orientation and then would have gone to the federal law enforcement training academy in Georgia for 10 1/2 weeks, Hansen said. After returning from the academy, new police recruits spend the rest of their first year on probation and under close supervision, she said. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- RIGHTWING QUOTE OF THE WEEK: For those who believe that fascism is only a thing of the past The post below was in response to a news announcement of the marrage of the African-American woman Angela Brown to Prince Maximillian of Liechtenstein. -- tallpaul From: Dream Killer ® <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Newsgroups: soc.culture.african.american et al Subject: Why didn't the media tell us? Niggers very ignorant! Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2000 11:26:11 GMT I really should be measuring YOU for wet suit boy, on the crack-pipe again? You 'see' more black around you than Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles lynched together and you can not even spell the name of a country properly; the Wayne 'Black Eichmann' Johnson legacy foundation should sideline your funky ass because you manage to give jigs an even worse name. Check this out bozo (ask someone to help you if necessary): <http://www.news.li/fam/h_coup.htm> <http://www.news.li/fam/index.htm> Whatever palace-rat your gravy-digging call-girl has put her hiv- charged voodoo on, it is certainly not the 'hereditary prince' that might rock your wanna-be-white world. There would have been some coverage of the non-event, but all the shiny cameras were stolen by Bronx porch-monkeys. To put things into perspective ignorant Shitlamic Turd, do you know anything about Liechtenstein? [rhetorical] It is officially PRINCIPALITY OF LIECHTENSTEIN, German FUERSTENTUM LIECHTENSTEIN, a minute WHITE European principality fending off coon invasions between Switzerland and Austria; it has an area of a big honking 62 square miles (160 square km). Like Monaco it is a tax paradise that has little to offer to free-loading shitskins like you. They don't have a soup- kitchen, and they don't do hand-outs, so just forget about it. Just stick to the white princess on your tin foil. -- Dream Killer ® <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Wearing Wayne for Wet Suit Off 'N Afro Comedy Hotline (where the joke is on you) 1 (435) 514-9394 * * * * * In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. __________________________________________________________________________ FASCISM: We have no ethical right to forgive, no historical right to forget. (No permission required for noncommercial reproduction) - - - - - back issues archived via: <ftp://ftp.nyct.net/pub/users/tallpaul/publish/tinaf/> _________________________________________________________ Enlighten your in-box. http://www.topica.com/t/15
