Paul Ray
Paul Ray is a right-wing blogger based in Dunstable, who writes under the name 'Lionheart'.
Contents
Stop the ISM
According to Pamela Geller:
- Paul-the brave "Lionheart' was the Brit Christian Evangelical sleuth on the International Solidarity Movement 'bust" in Israel last summer written up on FrontPageMag.com.[1]
The original FrontPageMag story by Lee Kaplan appeared in September 2006, and claimed:
- One of our volunteers in the United Kingdom for Stop the ISM managed to infiltrate the ISM late last June in the Holy Land where the ISM operates in direct support of terrorists. Our volunteer (who prefers to remain anonymous to avoid retaliatory attacks) has had prior experience going undercover for the police in the UK. The photos and intelligence he brought back are proving invaluable to intelligence agencies watching the ISM and have been in official hands for over a month prior to this publication.[2]
A statement by the International Solidarity Movement on this article and the accompanying photos stated:
- The article accompanying the photos also claims that the fifth, unnamed foreigner with the obscured face in the photos went undercover in order to try and sabotage those, such as the ISM, who support Palestinian non-violent resistance.
- At the time the photographs were taken, these individuals had not yet become ISM volunteers. They went to Jericho of their own volition without coordinating or discussing their plans with the International Solidarity Movement. They had not attended ISM’s mandatory intensive non-violence training and were new to the country. The fifth foreigner encouraged them to join him in the photographs and have their pictures taken holding guns. These individuals regrettably followed his advice.
- We have discovered the real name of the fifth foreigner to be Paul Cinato from Britain, though he gave his surname as Andrews at the time.[3]
In February 2007, Paul Ray published an account of the episode on his Lionheart blog. The accompanying photos, in which his face was no longer obscured, made it clear that Paul Cinato and Paul Ray were the same person.[4]
Luton activism
In January 2007, Pamela Geller interviewed Ray on BlogTalk Radio.[5]
In January 2008, police sought to arrest Ray for inciting racial hatred. As a result he was interviewed by Phyllis Chesler.[6] In February 2008, he fled to South Carolina to avoid arrest for inciting racial hatred.[7]He then returned to the UK and was arrested and bailed in March 2008.[8]
Royal Anglian March
Tension rose in Luton after a protest by al-Muhajiroun at a homecoming parade of the Royal Anglian Regiment on 10 March 2009. Ray was involved in attempts to organise a counter-demonstration in the following weeks along with March for England and the United British Alliance.[9]
English Defence League
Events in Luton formed the backdrop to the formation of the English Defence League. Ray later told Adrian Morgan of Family Security Matters:
- 1) The EDL was founded as a direct result of the present British government’s total failure to act to prevent British society from being a safe and secure place for us and our children, now and in the future, from Islam and Moslems whose aim is one of converting the country into an Islamic State by all means necessary. Those aims take on all approaches through Jihad, whether peacefully through politics or through the bomb conducted by terrorists.
- 2) The original EDL was instigated by myself coming together with members of UPL (United People of Luton) and other anti-Jihad activists around the country who had finally had enough of the danger posed to our local communities and the country as a whole. The name was taken, as an English equivalent of the Welsh Defence League that was already in place after someone came to me, knowing my intentions, and posed the question “what about setting up an English Defence League?”[10]
By August 2009, Ray had fallen out with the EDL leadership according to The Times:
- Paul Ray, who claims to be one of the founding members of the League, says that the group has been taken over by a cabal of extremists including Chris Renton, whose name appears on the list of BNP members leaked last year.[11]
External Resources
- Norway police to question Anders Behring Breivik's British 'mentor', Telegraph, 23 August 2011.
- Police question right-wing extremists, Views and News from Norway, 25 August 2011.
References
- ↑ Pamela Geller,Atlas and Lionheart on the Air Tuesday, Atlas Shrugs, 6 January 2007.
- ↑ Lee Kaplan, The ISM-Terror Connection, FrontPageMagazine.com, 13 September 2006.
- ↑ ISM Responds to Internet Photos, Reaffirms Commitment to Non-violence, International Solidarity Movement, 16 September 2006.
- ↑ Part 1 - "The International Solidarity Movement unmasked", Lionheart, 24 February 2007.
- ↑ Atlas and LIONHEART, blogtalkradio, 9 January 2007.
- ↑ A Profile in Courage: An Interview with "Lionheart," The British Blogger in Hiding, by Phyllis Chesler, Pajamas Media, 9 January 2008, via the Internet Archive.
- ↑ Web logger seeks asylum in States, Luton and Dunstable Express, 16 February 2008.
- ↑ Racial hatred arrest for internet blogger, by Jessica Cunniffe, Luton & Dunstable Express, 12 April 2008.
- ↑ English “Patriots” Capitalise on Islamism, Batholomew's Notes on Religion, 26 March 2009.
- ↑ A voice of the pan-European resistance, Lionheart, 1 October 2009.
- ↑ Nico Hines and Costas Pitas, Far-right group, the English Defence League, in disarray after Birmingham fracas, 10 August 2009.
