By Stuart Littlewood – London

Christianity too has its extremists and none worse than the Christian Zionists.

A prize example is His Eminence The Very Reverend Charles J. Edgbaston, DD, PhD, Chair, Christians for Moses Ministries Inc. and Rector, Zion College of Canada. At least, that is what he calls himself.

This person has just declared me an enemy of Israel. He says he will broadcast the sentence of his church court to the media and my family. His disciples are “empowered to facilitate” my removal from my place of work. He is applying to the Home Office to revoke my passport and warns that medical and pension benefits may be stopped and my bank accounts frozen. And he has ordered his goons to put me under close surveillance.

He is also getting Israel to ban me from the Holy Land.

He’ll do all this, he says, unless I hand over a suitcase full of US dollars.
 
The Very Reverend Edgbaston claims to have 55,000 followers worldwide. Others who were similarly threatened have tried to find out who Edgbaston is, and the results can be seen here.

So… is this a full-blown church of thousands, or a sad little one-man extortion racket run from a garden shed full of flies?

The charge-sheet he sent me provides an entertaining glimpse into the hatred and self-delusion that drives this particular Christian Zionist and his colleagues (if he has any). It is headed “Notice of Judicial Sentence by Ecclesiastical Court” and begins:

"Reliable sources in the Anglican community have informed Christians for Moses Ministries that you are committing slander against the holy state of Israel and its holy Jewish people, singing the praises of Palestinian Islamic terrorists and committing an assorted variety of other related reactionary activities. Our disciples in London corroborate this news. This constitutes a disproportionate abuse of your Christian upbringing and calls into question your British residency.”

My British residency is being questioned? Oh dear, am I about to be ethnically cleansed from my UK ancestral homeland and my house demolished to make way for another Zionist settlers’ outpost, then forced to flee to some refugee camp?

And is the good Reverend defending the same “holy” state of Israel that was founded with the help of terror gangs, that flourished by dispossessing the resident population and now stands accused by the UN Goldstone report of war crimes?

“Review by our Investigations Department of the evidence submitted in your dossier clearly reveals that the views and activities you have adopted on behalf of the enemies of Israel are obscene and racist."
 
This Christian mission in Canada keeps dossiers on British citizens?

The allegations continue: "You act as a stooge of the Palestinian Islamic terrorists, engaging in a demonization and negation of the holy Jewish people and their Zionist state… I want you to realize that your outrageous behaviour is unforgiveable. Zionist Israel is a revolutionary micro-state whose existence has permeated the world with universal morality."
 
Another comedian. Military blockade, economic strangulation, wholesale land and water theft, racial subjugation, demolition of homes, war on civilians, etc, etc… is he saying this is what passes for morality in the Zionist world?

"Today, Zionist Israel is surrounded by 21 backward Arab countries dominated by a jihadist, imperialist culture seeking Islamic hegemony over the Middle East and beyond. Along with the Hamas Gazan junta, these feudal Arab regimes daily repress their populations and incite them to support their quest for the genocide of Israel’s 6 million Jews. They have now been joined by the Persian imperialist Shiites of Iran and their Hezbollah Shiite lackeys in Lebanon in this goal.

"Your active support of these neo-fascists is a result of your absorption of a Judeophobic ideology which has brainwashed dysfunctional radicals such as yourself into supporting the ultra right- wing Islamic fundamentalists in the Holy Land and their terrorist masters in Damascus and Tehran as well as the criminal Fatah gang in Ramallah. This is utterly revolting… Islam is a religion founded on wars of colonial settler occupation."

Those who embrace Islam might disagree. Anyway, what is Zionism based on? We have already seen the lawless tactics it employs to achieve its aims. 

After lecturing me on his own version of Holy Land history he concludes: "It is now abundantly clear to the entire world that Palestinianism is the insistence on an ethnically-exclusive state for ethnically-defined Arab Muslim people only.

“The so-called Palestinian people are not enduring any brutal occupation but the Christians under the Palestinian Arabs are… Israel, in fact, maintains no ‘occupation’.”

You have to laugh… Clearly he has never been there and is easy prey to Israeli propaganda.
 
"Every week on world television screens the Palestinan Arabs slaughter each other in the West Bank and Gaza with ambushes, roof-top lynchings, bombings of hospitals, raping of Christian nuns, theft of business property, hoarding of fuel and flour for resale, horrific and unimaginable cruelty against intellectuals, and confiscation of tax monies to pay for smuggled weapons of war. The Islamic Hamas ruling clique has tortured and incarcerated thousands of Palestinian women, children and young men without access to Red Crescent visitations. Gaza has been turned into a vast concentration camp by Hamas… Not a word has been written or uttered by you against this phantasmagoric orgy of death perpetrated by the brutal and satanic Palestinians."
 
Talking of stolen taxes, did Israel ever repay the $500 millions of Palestinian tax funds it withheld?

Whatever Hamas’s crimes, they pale into insignificance alongside Israel’s. There’s no mention by His Eminence of the 11,000+ Palestinians, including women and children, rotting in Israel jails, many without charges. Or the torture…

And does this Reverend Christian show the slightest concern about the horror of the Gaza blitzkrieg, the continuing humanitarian crisis, and the indescribable suffering inflicted by “holy” Israel on an already starving civilian population? And has he nothing to say about the stunted growth of the children and the deformed babies?

As expected he brought up the subject of Auschwitz, although it has diddly-squat to do with the Palestinians or me, and said how "the International Christian Zionist Solidarity Network is committed to the heroic Zionist Jewish Israeli resistance against Palestinian neo-fascism."

There are international networks committed to the heroic Palestinian resistance against Zionist fascism.

After more ranting and raving he finally got to the point. "On the basis of the above evidence, it is my solemn duty to inform you that our Ecclesiastical Court has issued an edict inscribing you as a slanderer of Zion and a terrorist collaborator. This means that, ipso facto, you are an enemy of the people.”

I don’t know any terrorists to collaborate with, ipso facto he’s spouting nonsense.

"As a consequence, our disciples are now empowered to facilitate your removal from your places of employment and association. To this end, an application will be made in London to have the Home Office revoke your passport for consorting with fronts for proscribed Middle East terrorists who practise violence against Israeli civilians. In addition, your social security, medical and pension benefits may be forfeited entirely and your bank accounts frozen.”

Would a genuine Christian, especially one so Christ-like as to have disciples, sink this low?
  
“In the meantime, we will proceed with the Justice Ministry in Israel to have you declared persona non grata in the Holy Land.”

Funny how Christian Zionists are happy for Israel, the illegal occupier, to control the gates to the Holy Land knowing that the regime takes pleasure in denying many Arab Christians and Muslims access to their holy places.
 
“The British and Israeli news media will be apprised of this edict, including your family and associates. Simultaneously, our disciples in Britain will be undertaking a close surveillance of your activities…"
 
No kidding. For good measure I will notify the Canadian Director of Public Prosecutions and the British authorities because this is where the holier-than-thou gentleman reveals what he really is… "You may wish to exercise your right to have this decree set aside. In such case, you are invited to submit a notarized affidavit renouncing your calumnies against the holy Jewish state, circulating a statement of support for the victory of the holy Jewish people in the Holy Land against their terrorist enemies to all your affiliated organizations and publishing it in the media, both online or offline, and paying our court costs of US $10,950."
 
I’m only the latest of many who have found themselves in receipt of an Edgbaston demand note. And I hear that the sum required to grease the Reverend’s palm is inflated for every new victim whose livelihood and family wellbeing he threatens in the name of Christianity and Zionism.

Under the Theft Act 1968 English law knows how to deal with those who demand money with menaces. I imagine Canadian law does too.

– Stuart Littlewood is author of the book Radio Free Palestine, which tells the plight of the Palestinians under occupation. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com. Visit: www.radiofreepalestine.co.uk.