Machine Gun Preacher on Kony 2012 (Muslim Brotherhood angle)

Earlier this week, I wrote about the Kony 2012 video and that while it espouses the noble goal of removing Joseph Kony from the Uganda region, there is also a uniquely surreal aspect to it. The man known as the Machine Gun Preacher, Sam Childers knows more about the region than anyone. He has been on the ground there for fourteen years. He builds orphanages for children and protects them with actual weaponry. In short, he's not your typical missionary.

Childers has issued a response to Invisible Children's Kony 2012 video and while he congratulates the charitable organization for drawing attention to Joseph Kony, he stresses that Kony is just a "small part" of the  problem. The larger part? Northern Sudan's president Omar al-Bashir, who according to Childers, has been the source of Kony's funding for years. Any guesses as to what group Bashir has the support of?

The Muslim Brotherhood.



The success of the Kony 2012 video was no accident. Obama signed an order back in October that sent approximately 100 U.S. Military personnel to Uganda. Six months later, Kony 2012 is made. Yet, there is no mention of Bashir or the group to which he is beholden and has benefited most from the Arab Spring - the Muslim Brotherhood.

Also, did you catch what Childers said beginning at the 3:00 mark?

Take note:

"If all eyes are not focused on South Sudan, what Bashir is doing there, within the next two months, we could have another genocide in South Sudan. It needs to be stopped NOW."

Why is this important? Because just last summer - three months before Obama signed the order that sent 100 military personnel to arrest Kony - South Sudan gained its independence from North Sudan and Bashir.

Via the New York Times:

"The eyes of the world are now on us," said South Sudan President Salva Kiir, who was inaugurated during a scorching midday ceremony. Kiir stressed that the people of South Sudan must advance their country together, and unite as countrymen first, casting aside allegiances to the dozens of tribes that reside here.

Saturday meant that South Sudan and its black tribesmen would for the first time be linked politically with sub-Saharan Africa. Kenya and Uganda are already laying strong economic ties with their northern neighbor, an oil-rich country that may one day ship its oil to a Kenyan port, instead of through the pipelines controlled by Khartoum.

"From today our identity is southern and African, not Arabic and Muslim," read a hand-painted sign that one man carried as he walked through the crowds.

Again, back to the quote from Childers in response to the Kony 2012 video:

"If all eyes are not focused on South Sudan, what Bashir is doing there, within the next two months, we could have another genocide in South Sudan. It needs to be stopped NOW."

Incidentally, the Jerusalem Center identifies South Sudan's new president, Salva Kiir as a "devout Christian."

"Kiir is a devout Christian and attends services regularly at the Roman Catholic Cathedral in the Southern Sudanese capital, Juba.

Kiir understands the difficulties facing Southern Sudan — Muslim states of the region (Chad, Libya, Egypt and Saudi Arabia) are obviously not excited to accept the appearance of a new Christian state that ostensibly has ties with Israel and enjoys the support of the American Jewish lobby.

Ok, according to Childers, if attention is directed away from Bashir, then South Sudan is in grave danger. Kony 2012 is a video that has quite mysteriously garnered tens of thousands of views in just a few days. That is not typical of organic YouTube hits. In fact, its length (30 minutes) actually makes viral viewing even more difficult. Perhaps the volume of leftist Hollywood celebrities and staunch Obama supporters like Oprah and P. Diddy have assisted in the video's success.

If there is one thing we've learned about the Obama administration, it's that when it wants to ignore something that doesn't fit its agenda, it's very, very good at doing so. Obama has endorsed the video. White House spokesman Jay Carney jumped on the Kony 2012 bandwagon just days after it was posted to YouTube.



Ok, again, if Childers is right about South Sudan needing to be protected by being a central area of focus, why does Kony 2012 seek to make an adjacent region that central area of focus?

Practically every policy of the Obama administration has benefited the Muslim Brotherhood-inspired Arab Spring. Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, and now Syrian rebels are all the beneficiaries of Obama's policies. In every instance, those policies have worked toward giving rise to the Muslim Brotherhood. So does all of this attention on Kony actually serve to help the Brotherhood's leader in North Sudan less than a year after the oil-rich South Sudan gained its independence and elected a devout Christian leader?

If so, it would be consistent with the administration's Middle Eastern policies to date.

For the record, Childers has far more credibility than the producers of Kony 2012. Yet, in the words of Winston Churchill, "A lie makes it halfway around the world before the truth can get its pants on."

I've posted the Kony 2012 video in question below. Note its left wing slant (Peace logo, raised fists, etc.). That is also another sign that the Obama administration doesn't just endorse it but is likely involved.

As of this writing, the video has 65 million views in under one week.



***UPDATE***According to the Sudan Tribune just last month, the Muslim Brotherhood is demanding that Bashir become even more extremist. Why? In response to South Sudan's independence and the rise of Christianity there:

A coalition of radical Islamic groups in Sudan has threatened to unseat the country’s President Omer Al-Bashir if he fails to heed demands for a constitution based on Shariah laws.

Sudan’s far-right and Islamist groups have been lobbying to have the country’s 2005 Transitional Constitution replaced with an Islamic one after the mainly Christian South Sudan gained independence in July last year.

To that end, they formed the Islamic Constitution Front (ICF) and proposed the Draft Constitution of Sudan, which is based entirely on Shariah law and according to a report earlier this month, prohibits the appointment of women in the judiciary.

If you listen to Childers, Bashir is more evil than Kony. If the Muslim Brotherhood is more evil than Bashir, shouldn't that be a bit of a clue about what we're dealing with in the Middle East?

God help us.

***UPDATE #2: 3/11/12***According to Kuzleem, there is no information on when Machine Gun Preacher will be released on DVD. The film was released in theaters back in September of 2011. Note the screen shot says DVD release dates for movies are usually issued 45-80 days after opening in theaters. Here we are 170 days after that opening and not only hasn't a DVD release date been given but the estimate for that release was January of 2012 and has come and gone.

There is an interesting dynamic at work here. Kony 2012 has generated a lot of interest in apprehending Joseph Kony but as in all Community Organizing strategies, organizers cannot be allowed to get bored or move on. Whenever this film (MGP) is released on DVD, it very well may keep interest in Kony from dying out. However, interest in Sam Childers may rise as well and his take doesn't seem to be in lock step with those behind Kony 2012.

What's up with that Kony 2012 Video?

Back in October of 2011, the Obama administration made news by announcing that it would be sending one hundred military advisors to Uganda to deal with one of the most evil men in the world - Joseph Kony.  It was a puzzling decision when we were already engaged in military actions in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya at the time.

Here is an excerpt from the White House letter on the subject, written to Speaker John Boehner:

In furtherance of the Congress's stated policy, I have authorized a small number of combat equipped U.S. forces to deploy to central Africa to provide assistance to regional forces that are working toward the removal of Joseph Kony from the battlefield. I believe that deploying these U.S. Armed Forces furthers U.S. national security interests and foreign policy and will be a significant contribution toward counter LRA efforts in central Africa.

More than anything else, the move and subsequent announcement seemed bizarre.

Less than six months later, a YouTube video pops up called Kony 2012 by a charity that goes by the moniker, "Invisible Children." After just two days, the video garnered more than 25 million views. Some sources are asking questions about the group's funding.

At first blush, the video comes off as extremely noble and calls for a mass, international movement to remove Kony by December of 2012 while leveraging the new social media in order to do it. As you watch though, other questions arise. Who or what is really behind the success of this video? What made this one take off so quickly? Who are the producers of the video? Is it wise for them to be touting the International Criminal Court as the final authority? Is there a political agenda that involves arresting Kony at around the same time as the elections? Is there any connection between the Obama administration's sending troops there and the timing of this video's release? Was there any communication or coordination between those troops and the producers of this film? Part of the video features what appears to be members of "Invisible Children" in the Uganda war zone. Were U.S. troops nearby?

This is clearly a concerted effort to use social media in much the same way as it was used in the Arab Spring uprisings and the OWS protests. In this particular case, it's being used against a very evil man but what if it works? Is it a model that could be used against political enemies instead of just evil men? Also, what's up with the circular peace sign used by these protesters? It's a left wing symbol, which indicates a left wing movement, potentially. Video of young people raising clenched fists can be seen as well. Again, that too is a symbol of left wing unity and solidarity.

Another interesting aspect to Kony is that he is not a Muslim. With the increase in persecution of Christians all over the Middle East taking place at the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood, why this monumental effort to focus on Joseph Kony? Again, I cannot stress enough that this guy is one evil dude but what is going on here? Is this international community organizing? Is this a civilian international security force?

If this movement is an attempt solely to remove Kony, it'd be a very good thing. If it's an attempt to use his arrest as a political springboard, it quickly becomes something else entirely. If mobilizing millions of people all over the world results in granting the ICC more power, the long-term consequences could be quite dangerous.

Is this an attempt to open Pandora's box by doing so in the name of a good cause?



Coincidentally, at about the same time the Obama administration's letter to Boehner was issued, a film about the heroic story of Sam Childers - starring Gerard Butler - was released. Childers, a man with an ugly past, made saving the children of Sudan and Uganda his life's work. The courage of Childers is beyond immeasurable. Known as the Machine Gun Preacher, he converted to Christianity and built orphanages for Kony's victims. The work he's done in the region is the stuff of legend. I wrote about it at the time here and here.

LRA Leader Joseph Kony is NOT Christian

On Thursday, October 13th, I went to see the latest Gerard Butler film entitled 'Machine Gun Preacher.' It is a film based on the true story of a former heroin addict who became a born again Christian. Sam Childers was subsequently inspired to go to Sudan to help Christian children who were being terrorized by a man named Joseph Kony, head of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). On Friday, October 14th, news broke that Obama was sending troops in to Uganda to target Kony. Look for a narrative to develop over the coming days from the Obama administration's apparatchiks that says Kony is an extreme Christian. That's an outright lie I wrote about over at Breitbart's Big Peace site:

Joseph Kony, the monstrous leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda, a group possibly more despicable than Hitler’s nazis, has apparently been targeted by the Obama administration. News broke on October 14th that 100 US troops were being sent to track Kony down. The meme that is being floated in the liberal media is that Kony is a radical Christian protestant. Obama’s apparatchiks might attempt to advance that meme as much as possible for political advantage against the Christian right.

There’s a small problem with it. It’s a lie.

Late last month, a movie – Machine Gun Preacher – was released about a man named Sam Childers, whose character is played by Hollywood A-lister Gerard Butler. Childers, a former heroin addict and bad guy himself, converted to Christianity; he was inspired to help the children of southern Sudan and northern Uganda after hearing a guest speaker at his church.

Childers knows the truth about Kony; he’s witnessed the evil from a front row seat. The Machine Gun preacher built an orphanage for Sudanese children, replete with a playground, in a war zone and has defended it against Kony’s LRA by fighting alongside Sudanese freedom fighters with guns. Childers has put his life at risk countless times while protecting children from capture, torture, rape, and perhaps the most despicable fate enslaved boys can endure – being ordered to kill their own brethren by fighting as soldiers in Kony’s LRA.

In 2007, I had the opportuntiy to interview Childers on my radio show. The subject of Kony came up multiple times. Here is a portion of what Childers told me:

“Our area is almost all Christian people and the LRA is financed by the Arabs of the north… so the Arabs are the Muslims so it’s basically a holy war inside of our area. This man (Kony) is just out to kill every Christian he can kill in south Sudan and also in Northern Uganda… He’s being financed… it’s been proved for many, many years that the Arabs of the northern Sudan ok, which is Muslims, they have been financing this man for many, many years.”

Kony is a very, very bad guy who needs to go. That point is granted. What cannot and should not be allowed to happen is the politization of his motives to push a narrative that says he is a Christian. The truth is that he is an insane madman whose evil is sanctioned by northern Sudan’s Arab Muslims. Childers went on to explain that Kony claims to have added an eleventh Commandment to the Judeo-Christian ten. It says, “Thou shalt not ride a bicycle.” Childers also said Kony reportedly had “160 some spirits that speak to him.” These are NOT Christian tenets, nor is killing children. Islamists, however, do believe in killing non-Muslim children; Kony does that for them while being paid to do so.

In some respects, this comes back to the Islamic problem the west simply refuses to identify. Kony is evil, for sure, but Childers indicated to me in 2007 that the root of the problem is Arab Muslim money:

“The north gives truckloads after truckloads of guns and ammunition and money and food so if somebody’s not financing a war, no, I don’t believe it would be going on.”

The reality is that if Kony isn’t a Muslim, he’s certainly doing the will of the Arab Islamists while taking their money to do it. If he is removed, Islamist money will find a new proxy.

The Arab Spring meme has been serving Islamists well for months now. The Muslim Brotherhood waits in the wings for dictators to fall in places like Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Syria; it then fills the vacuum left behind after the Obama administration either runs interference or does its dirty work.

The situation in Uganda is similar in some ways with the potential for an added twist. Look for western media to paint the picture of a radical Christian named Joseph Kony who is slaughtering children in the name of Christianity so it can convey moral equivalency between religions. If it is successful, know that the Obama adminstration will have approved such a portrayal.

Meanwhile, the Arabic Islamists will hide behind the Joseph-Kony-is-a-Christian narrative just like they are hiding behind the Arab Spring moniker.

The conservative media must not allow this administration to establish the narrative that Kony is Christian; it's a lie.

Read it all.

CHRISTIANS TURNING BACKS, NOT CHEEKS

Ted Shoebat, son of former Palestinian terrorist Walid Shoebat, points out a stark bit of hypocrisy on the part of the so-called 'contemporary evangelicals' like Rick Warren. In Uganda, an Anti-Homosexuality Bill continues to garner staunch opposition from the Christian left while persecuted Christians in other countries like Pakistan receive nothing but silence from the same groups. In fact, leaders like Warren continue to implement appeasement and inclusiveness strategies in response to such atrocities.

Via Ted Shoebat:

Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill is making an uproar in the United States, especially amongst contemporary evangelicals, who have rushed to denounce it. It seems that the reason why these mainstream Christians are making denunciations so hasty is to simply protect their own images. The Turkish government throws people in prison for talking about the Armenian genocide; the Buddhist country Bhutan throws Christians in jail for blaspheming against Buddhism. Just in October 7th of this year, the Bhutan government sentenced one pastor Ugyen Tashi to three years in prison for preaching the gospel (Click here for full story). Pakistan has its Blasphemy Law being implemented right now–having Christians sentenced to death for preaching Christianity (Click here for full story). In fact, Pakistan wants to push its Blasphemy Law to a global level. According to the Catholic News Agency, Pakistan has presented a draft to the UN that would condemn the “defamation of religion” and create a global “anti-blasphemy law,” (Click here for full story). Islamic and Buddhist nations are persecuting Christians as we speak, but mainstream evangelicals are not denouncing these tyrannical regimes, they would rather jump on the band wagon of bashing Uganda for its anti-homosexuality bill which they have not even passed yet.

Of course, just one year ago, TIME reported that Warren caved to pressure after he initially didn't condemn Uganda for their anti-Homosexuality bill:

"As an American pastor," Warren said in his statement, "it is not my role to interfere with the politics of other nations, but it is my role to speak out on moral issues." He told the Ugandan pastors that the bill was "unjust, extreme and un-Christian toward homosexuals." The bill's requirement that Ugandans report any meeting with homosexuals to authorities, he said, would hinder the ministry of the church and force homosexuals who are HIV positive underground. He also defended the timing of his denunciation. "Because I didn't rush to make a public statement," he said, "some erroneously concluded that I supported this terrible bill, and some even claimed I was a sponsor of the bill. You in Uganda know that this is untrue." He added, "I oppose the criminalization of homosexuality."

To Shoebat's point, Warren has not directed any such strongly worded statements to Islamic or Buddhist nations who imprison or kill Christians simply for being Christians.

More Here.