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Saturday, January 23, 2010

Free speech forms one of the most important pieces of society's immune system -- a system against bad and hateful ideas, in the same way it can spread them. Some times a virus of bad ideas spreads, but in the end, if the system functions as it should, health will emerge.

How tenuous is free speech in Britain today? How is the immune system under threat? A Jew-hating Anglican priest (let's speak straight here) named Stephen Sizer, a man who trucks with all manner of anti-Semites, managed to get the bobbies to intimidate a blogger into silence. This is a must-read post: Anglican Vicar Uses Police To Intimidate Blogger

This is a guest post by Seismic Shock.

As some people have noticed, I've been rather quiet in blogging about the Reverend Stephen Sizer's activities of late.

After all, what more can be said of a man who forwards emails from Holocaust deniers, shares platforms with Holocaust deniers, and shamelessly flaunts his anti-Zionist theology before Iran's apocalyptic Holocaust-denying regime? As Iranian pastors are arrested and house churches closed down, why is the Khomeinist regime translating Sizer's book on Christian Zionism into Farsi? How many more times can I point all this out?

Yet there's another reason why I've been quiet, and whilst I've held my tongue and my pen for a while, now is time to speak.

At 10am on Sunday 29th November 2009, I received a visit from two policemen regarding my activities in running the Seismic Shock blog. (Does exposing a vicar's associations with extremists make me a criminal?, I wondered initially). A sergeant from the Horsforth Police related to me that he had received complaints via Surrey Police from Rev Sizer and from Dr Anthony McRoy - a lecturer at the Wales Evangelical School of Theology - who both objected to being associated with terrorists and Holocaust deniers...

Be sure to read the rest.

Z-Word says: We Are All Seismic Shock

Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Anti-Semitic Anglican Priest Stephen Sizer Uses Police to Silence Blogger.

TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.solomonia.com/cgi-bin/mt4/mt-renamedtb.cgi/17367

At Harry's Place, blogger Joseph Weissman, aka Seismic Shock, gives more background on the threats made to him by anti-Semitic Anglican Priest Stephen Sizer: Introducing myself I am the blogger at the centre of Sizergate, having had an unwelcome visit... Read More

» Sizer Enforcing Ideological Compliance at the blog Solomonia

Looks like Stephen Sizer (previous: Anti-Semitic Anglican Priest Stephen Sizer Uses Police to Silence Blogger, More Detail From British Blogger Seismic Shock) is enforcing conformity within the Christian ranks, as those who do not toe the line: Seismic... Read More

Here is the second video from the filming session I had the other day (previous: Video: Dexter Van Zile on Richard Rubenstein's Jihad and Genocide) with Dexter Van Zile, CAMERA's Christian media analyst. The videos are informally done and lightly... Read More

23 Comments

A year ago, we saw footage of British policy running down the street away from Muslim extremists.

Now it looks like they are stifling the free speech of a blogger who is writing critical articles of a guy who has gone to Iran, and spoken on state funded television in TEHRAN, about the evils of Christian Zionism.

What is going on here?

Unbelievable.

This outrageous abuse of police power calls for further investigation. Either Sizer filed a false complaint or the police exceeded their authority. Both the police and Sizer need to explain this.

>> A year ago, we saw footage of British policy running down the street away from Muslim extremists.

To be fair, they either were soft-caps or under orders to avoid confrontation as they would at any public event (and there was a great moment as one rozzer lost his rag and laid into a crowd-member with his truncheon).

Minor point, Solomonia, if you dehyphenated anti-Semitism, when someone states "Arabs are Semites" you can tell them to go "forth and multiply".

Arabs are Semites, so when Sunni and Shiites kill each other, are they anti-Semites?

So much for their so called democracy.
George Orwell obviously was clairvoyant.

Alec,

Wilhelm Marr, a German journalist, in the late 1800s coined the word Antisemitismus from which antisemitism is derived.
In the German world of that time a Prussian Heinrich von Treitschke's writings the use of Semitic was synonymous with Jewish.
Just like neocon is synonymous with Jew in Liberal America today.
There was no linking of Arabs in the usage of the term.

What is going on here?

Unbelievable.


---

The Western Left is full of self hating, post colonial guilt ridden, Westerners.

These events are hardly surprising.

So is anglican priest stephen sizer a right winger or a left winger or a socialist?

When you've watched the Western Left in action all during the Cold War, none of this is surprising. It's not even hard to comprehend.

What is hard to comprehend is the idiocy that supports this stuff.

Then you realize that holding the correct opinions is rewarded with promotions, economic well being, status, awards, recognition....and rejecting it publicly and vociferously gets you lawsuits, demotions, fired, negative economic impacts, no awards, no recognition, villification, stigmatization, charged with crimes against humanity, the planet, racism, sexism, homophobia, being a hater, anti Semitism etc.

That second part is what the defender of Western Civilization is burdened with, but its worth defending.

Here is Keith Olbermann last week describing Scott Brown as an example...

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/01/21/jon_stewart_mocks_keith_olbermann_over_scott_brown_attacks.html

Will somebody please explain to me what the Left has to do with Sizer's philosophy?

(Answer: nothing. Apologists for the Iranian theocracy are by definition not leftists.)

Sheese EV can't you think a little more creatively?

Sophia,

The Left has allied itself with Islamists against Jews as one can see in Europe, Britain and amongst the American nutters.
Iran's theocrats are against Jews and are getting support from the Left in their anti-Israel/Zionist stance.
Does one have to repeatedly quote Hezbollah and the others about getting all the Jews to Israel making it easier to free the earth of them?

By the way Eddie WRT your question: So is anglican priest stephen sizer a right winger or a left winger or a socialist?
the answer would be 'all' because for one Hitler is considered Rightwing by the Left but he was a Socialist (You should read his Mayday speech of 1927) apart from the fact that he was head of the nationalist socialist workers party.
The Left consider themselves socialists so obviously those two are synonymous.
The only adjective you left out is Fascist which the Axis favoured during the Second World War. They supported corporatism
(the organization of a society into industrial and professional corporations serving as organs of political representation and exercising control over persons and activities within their jurisdiction basically what your Administration under the present president has done in making themselves owners of the car manufacturers and with health care down the line).

Sophia, you can play definition games and exclude people from the Left that you dont like, but that is a useless endevour.

One can see the so called Decent Left and the visceral attacks on them, by their fellow Leftists, as an example of those who became defenders of Western Civilizaton and were excoriated for it. Friendships ended, slander and libel abounded, they were excommunicated from organizatioins, they were excluded from publications, fired, demoted, etc.

Can I suggest that you read some David Horowitz, Destructive Generation, and also Ron Radosh, Commies: A Journey Through the Old Left, the New Left, and the Leftover Left. Mr. Radosh's book in particular shows what happened when he came to be a defender of Western Civilization.

A system of rewards and punishments has been set up by the Left, who weild significant power in Western nations and societies. When you run afoul of them, then you are punished. This is what is known as PC enforcement. The Palestinians are now a protected class.

The discomfort and angst that you feel Sophia, is that now you are on the receiving side of the PC Enforcement with regards to Israel. It makes you very uncomfortable and indignant. You are trapped between supporting PC enforcement as you always have, and denouncing it, because you see how it is abused with regards to Israeli Jews...thus your cognitive dissonance and unease at the whole state of affairs.

The Anglican Church is well known for being Left of most Chrsitian congregations, especially its European and Anglo nation branches.

There is no doubt in my mind that this man votes Labour.

EV knock it off. The reason I am uncomfortable with you is that you stereotype (to say the least).

Also you are attributing motives and characteristics both to me and to Israel that are innaccurate. Your comparisons of Israel to the BNP are outrageous and completely unrooted in reality. Also, Israel remains a target of the far right as do Jews in general so - like I said - knock it off. Please.

Along these lines your accusations about the left are also innaccurate and overlook the role of the far right and even the moderate right, until Buckley, in openly demonizing Jews and other minorities. Some of the most famous Jew haters in history have been right wing capitalists and Royalists and various religious groups; in fact The Protocols of the Elders of Zion are the product of a czarist (right wing) propaganda movement condemning Jews in the wake of Jewish leftism in Russia.

American industrialists and right wing Europeans and far right wingers in the Middle East believed and still believe in "The Protocols" - this isn't a Leftist concoction, period, the end.

I agree there is confusion on the Left these days. There is a disturbing overlap with the racism and antisemitism more commonly, historically, seen on the far right and the pre-Buckley mainstream right.

One of the problems confronting both sides of the political spectrum these days is the fact that wingnuts appear to be louder and more vigorous than the majority of people, who in fact are probably pretty moderate and who in large part have moved beyond stereotyping although antisemitism is on the rise again, which is frightening.

It's really important I think for people of goodwill not to oversimplify matters and also not to try and divide the many aspects of modern political thought into two black and white camps - "right" and "left" because obviously this doesn't begin to cover the complexity.

We'd all be served by thinking more and leveling knee-jerk condemnations and stereotyping less and this goes for political philosophies as well as groups of people.

In Radosh's book, it describes how he became critical of the Sandinista's and was then ostracized and ridiculed by the likes of Berman and Waltzer.

Fast forward 20 years, and Waltzer and Berman, became the objects of ostracization and ridicule from their fellow Leftists, as they supported the Iraq War.

As I said, being a defender of the Western Civilization will garner you reems of bile, slander, villification, and ridicule. But doing the decent thing has its own rewards.

Generalizations are required for higher level macro understanding. You stereotype 10 thousand times a day as you go about your business....stereotyping is the sign of a healthy successful human being who is socially adept.

Villifying successful human traits isnt the solution.

Im all for individualism, though. Perhaps the Left could adopt that instead of grouping people into victims and oppressors and so on and so forth. Alloting benefits based on group affiliation or characteristics.

Im not holding my breath though.

It's not the classically liberal conservatives, Christian Right, or the libertarians that are a moral mess these days.

Part of the reason for that is the success of the Left. They have been so successful the only place to go is farther Left, as their more laudable goals have already been achieved, the more questionable aspects of Western Civilization have already been addressed and corrected.

I am an avowed enemy of the Western Left. They are dominated by New Left Radicals and a gaggle of the worst sort of identity political groups, if they were white Euros, many would be considered supremacists and Neo Nazis....uncaring for anybody but those who share their culture or skin color or sexual organs.

It's a shame really, this state of affairs.

Anybody that calls Conservatives wingnuts doesnt understand that definitionally, Conservativism is anti wingnuttery....preferring peace, the status quo, not rocking the boat, support for stability, and the institutions of society. They arent making plans to annihilate the Israel, actively disempower it, villify it and so on and so forth....that is what the Left does....it acts to promote change...and it has targeted Israel.

There is nothing wingnutty about that. The wingnuts reside on the Left. They want change, progress, re-education, disrupting the status quo, political conflict and agitation, rocking the boat, instability and revolution...and so on and so forth.

Massive regulatory action on 20 percent of the US GDP, followed by massive regulatory action on Energy production and bankrupting the coal industry....is wingnuttery. Drilling for more domestic oil while building more nuclear power plants, and energy diversification sanity.

I realize that the Left's turn on Israel and Jews is disconcerting. But the Left turned on me and mine decades ago. Welcome to the club.

Some people are uncomfortable with me because I am unabashedly pro me and my groups and culture.

Me and mine has been so villified by the Western Left for so long, that in their minds, I am merely a white supremacist, or a Neo Nazi, or a racist hater, or a misogynist sexist.

Being proud and confident and unashamed at promoting me and mine, culture and groups, has nothing to do with any of those things..or rather they dont necessarily go hand in hand. One doesnt follow the other.

So a lot of people dont know how to deal with this. A lot of people write me off. A lot of people have written the white European Christian male off. They expect us to shut up, lie down and be run over like a door mat, and make room for others over me and mine.

Well, Im here to tell you that we arent going out like that.

And if that offends you, I really could care less. Im here, and you have to deal with it. Im not going anywhere. Im not going to disappear, quietly and apologeticly. Im a human being with my own culture that I am proud of and proud and willing to defend. Kind of like Israel and Israeli Jews. I admire them for that.

Let's take another example of where opposing Leftists agenda gets you villified, your career suffers and so on and so forth.

The Global Warming Skeptic scientists.

I know a half a dozen off the top of my head, people that were fired for not having the acceptable opinon on Global Warming. Head US state meterologists and the like.

However going along gets you accolades, making up lies in support gets you Nobel Prizes and other awards, speaking engagements, favorable press, and gobs of money thrown at you to continue the research that produces the pre determined correct results.

It's always the same with the Left, the agenda is truth. Truth is agenda dependent. Promoting "revolutionary truths" also known as lies is standard operating procedure.

The Big Lie.

Here ya go. Wallpapering the blog with false assumptions and personal chestbeating.

#1. I did not say that Conservatives are wingnuts. I did say however that the landscape is dominated lately by political wingnuts.

Enough said.

PS Mr. Nation of EV, what about the topic of Sizer and his antisemitism, and also the behavior of the police?

Do you have time to discuss this or do you just want to excoriate the Left, global warming, Secret Agendas, so forth?

Can we please just discuss Sizer and the implications of the attack on this blogger by the British police?

At least you only belong to 1 or 2 groups the Left has made its enemy. I belong to 6 or 7.

I oppose the Left, of which Sizer is a member. What more to you want from me?

Im also trying to illuminate the greater problem, and not get caught in minutia. This blogger isnt the first to be attacked by the Left.

Mark Steyn had the same thing done to him. Ezra Levant. And a thousand others.

If the Left would stop attacking me and mine, villifying me and mine, attempting to undermine and subvert me and mine. Then we could have an interesting discussion. I have interesting discussion with Decent Leftists all the time. They are a small minority on the Left.

Hi Solomon,

My first reaction to this story was the same as yours. But ... there's more to this. The story we have is that given by Seismic, the blogger. But he may not have been being straight with us all. I checked his representation of an article by Anthony McRoy, and it looked a bit dodgy.

Then I had a comment posted on my blog, which was a lot more worrying:

You need to read this post Stephen Sizer wrote

http://stephensizer.blogspot.com/2009/09/seismic-shock-one-year-on.html

Then link to his open letter to Seismic Shock

http://stephensizer.blogspot.com/2008/11/open-letter-to-mordechai-ben-emet.html

Dear Mordechai,

I promised to write one more time and offer to meet, as Jesus instructed us to do in Matthew 18, in response to your decision to use an anonymous blog to criticise me repeatedly since September.

You also gained access to our church facebook account without revealing your identity and then wrote to many of our church family to warn them about me, including children who were, not surprisingly, disturbed as were their parents. You also wrote anonymously to the hosts of various conferences I was invited to, to urge them not to allow me to speak. You know from the responses you received, some from Messianic leaders, that they share the Apostle Paul’s disdain for your methods. (this is just the opening, not Sizer’s full open letter)

I certainly wouldn’t call what Seismic Shock did acceptable. It is stalking and intimidation. Contacting members of his church and CHILDREN? This was what was turned over to police as well I assume.

Look at the closing to the open letter:

p.s. Why are you using the IP address of Agaf HaModin, the Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate?

The accusation by Sizer is that Seismic was stalking him, obtaining access by deception to church facebook groups in order to hurl insults, tracking his movements in order to demand organisers ban him -- not exactly "free speech"-loving! All this after blogging relentlessly on this chap for a year.

THAT seems to be what got the police involved; an online campaign of vituperation moving into the real world and real people.

Now I don't know the rights and wrongs of this. I'm 100% certain that we must not have the police deciding what appears online. But ... is that what is happening here?

They used to say that patriotism is the last resort of the scoundrel. Today "free speech" is the demand of the cyber-bully.

My politics, by the way, are more with Seismic than with Sizer. But I'm not sure there is any real free speech issue here.

I thought I'd tip you off, anyway. I've stopped blogging in support of Seismic until I know the facts.

The trouble for Sizer is that he's a known quantity. I've seen his name come up again and again and always in a very bad context. Sounds like Seismic got into their Facebook group and sent a message around perhaps alerting the parishioners to the Rt. Rev's hateful activities? There are worse crimes I think. What Seismic is accused of doing as far as blogging about him and letting venues know what kind of a guy they're having in...pretty common stuff and not at all up to the level of "stalking." I don't believe in this country that the police would ever take an interest in getting involved. Sizer has made a pretty horrendous spectacle of himself with his chosen line of activism.

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