UPDATE: For October 21 update on this post covering the local co-host, scroll down to the subhead: Screenshots from the Thee Book Club event page about Loudon's talk at a public school little theater [end update].
Many Americans are horrified by news of the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi; after all, concepts in our Bill of Rights like due process and a ban on cruel and unusual punishments by governments reflect the memories of the founders about such matters at the hand of European governments.
However much these values may have been neglected in our past, they are ideals to which our Constitution binds us, and that set of values has often been an inspiration for citizens of other nations.
That being the case, we're seeing friends on social media perturbed at headlines like Slate's New Republican Talking Point: Jamal Khashoggi Was No Angel. Joshua Keating reports:
With the Saudi monarchy’s denials of responsibility for the killing of Jamal Khashoggi becoming harder and harder to believe as time goes on, the regime’s American defenders appear to be shifting to the time-honored tactic of suggesting that a victim of state-sanctioned violence had it coming.
Robert Costa and Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post reported Friday on the “whispering campaign against Jamal Khashoggi that is designed to protect President Trump from criticism of his handling of the dissident journalist’s alleged murder.” Reportedly, House Republicans have been quietly sharing emails about Khashoggi’s background, but as the article notes, quite a few prominent conservative voices have hardly been whispering.
U.S. Senate candidate Corey Stewart of Virginia said on a local radio program that Khashoggi was “not a good guy himself.” Fox news anchor Harris Faulkner said on her show that Khashoggi was “tied to the Muslim Brotherhood.” The president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., retweeted a post about Khashoggi “tooling around Afghanistan with Osama Bin Laden.”
It is true that Khashoggi first made a name for himself by interviewing a young bin Laden and that he supported the jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan during the 1980s. Back then, of course, the United States supported it as well. It is also true that for at least a time early in his career he was associated with the Muslim Brotherhood and that he expressed support for political Islam as well as democracy. Far from a lifelong dissident, he had a complicated and at times close relationship to the Saudi royal family before emerging as one of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s most prominent critics.
This is all fascinating background about a complex person, but not really relevant to the questions of whether a journalist and U.S. resident was tortured and murdered by an authoritarian regime and whether the U.S. administration is helping that regime cover it up.
The BBC looks at the reporter's past in Jamal Khashoggi: Who is missing Saudi Journalist?
Among the GOP's fellow travelers on the right? Anti-Muslim conspiracy theorist Trevor Loudon who will be speaking in Sartell and Willmar on the Exposing Keith tour sponsored by conservative group Action4Liberty. We posted about the effort and Loudon in Is Radical Agenda of Keith Ellison Tour another cog in MN's anti-Muslim propaganda mill?:
We wrote about Trevor Loudon's earlier excursions into Greater Minnesota in 2015's Help Trevor Loudon, Central MN Tea Party Patriots speaker, fill in bios of dirty hippies and 2017's Commies, Muslims & terrorists, oh my: Loudon joins bush league in Little Falls & St. Cloud MN.
Loudon' outlandish conspiracy theories have been widely reported. Take the Washington Post's 2008 Obama as You've Never Known Him! and Right Wing Watch's 2017 post, CPAC Speaker: Leftists, Islamists And Russia (!) Are Working Together To Destroy Trump. Here in South Dakota, the Sioux Falls Argus Leader looked at a 2017 presentation in Speaker at Minnehaha GOP event says Congress infiltrated by traitors.
Jacobin's Branko Marcetic reports about Loudon's red-baiting in The Man Behind KeyWiki...
So what is Loudon sharing online? At the New Zeal blog, there's The Other Facts About Jamal Khashoggi, by Denise Simon, crossposted from Founders Code.
He's also shared tweets like these:
The press is invited to the Sartell and Willmar events that supposedly will expose Representative Ellison.
UPDATE: The Willmar event is co-hosted by the Thee Book Club, a self-described "Christian Patriots" group we explored on September 15 in Newest Minnesota anti-Muslim speaking circuit venue to host Chris Gaubatz on October 2:
Via Willmar City Council Member Ron Christianson's Facebook page, we learn of a new venue for Minnesota's anti-Muslim speaking circuit: the Let Freedom Ring forum, which will host anti-Muslim speaker Chris Gaubatz on October 2 at a location to be announced.
The event is the second offering by the group, which brought Phil Haney to The Harbor church in Spicer on September 11. Read about Haney's beliefs at Right Wing Watch. Willmar Radio' spoke to Haney here. Let Freedom Ring events are hosted by the THEE Book Club . . .
The forum is sponsored by the THEE Book Club. The latter bills itself on Facebook as:
. . .a small group of Christian patriots; small in numbers but strong in effort because we are obedient to the Lord’s Word, Will and Ways. We are not ones who believe in oneness because one does not make an army. We are minutemen who believe in many! We are a group that is Biblically foundational; we are driven by our love of God and love of our country! We pray on Ephesians 6:12-14 to give us strength and courage to journey into territories that may have struggle, strife and uncertainty at times but we know that no matter the path that lies ahead, our true victor has already WON!
We believe in facts and truth, not hearsay, rumors and lies. We live by our Bible but secondly we live by the law of our land, our US Constitution. The very constitution initiated and written by founding father of this great country of ours. Men also guided by love of their God and love for their newly formed country. Men who sought life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness free from the dominance of monarchy and government restraints.
THEE Book Club and its events appear to be organized--at least in part--by Heidi Jo Fagerlie-Ahmann, wife of Kandiyohi County Commissioner and former Willmar City Council Member Steve Ahmann.
The public nature of the events appears to be fueled by the extreme conservative star-power of its speakers. Fagerlie-Ahmann posted about the announcement of group's first speaker, Phil Haney:
It was to be more private but when we found out we were to be blessed by Phil's presence, we made it more public and shareable.
The group does not allow its meetings to be recorded by attendees.
The THEE Book Club Facebook page was created on August 28, 2018.
Another sort of club: one leadership faction in Willmar
Rick Fagerlie, the brother of THEE Book Club organizer Fagerlie-Ahmann, is on the Willmar City Council and was part of what the West Central Tribune in 2016 called the "Ron Christianson-Steve Ahmann-Tim Johnson-Rick Fagerlie faction." According to the paper, this faction punished anyone whom it perceived as opponents; one example cited was state representative Dave Baker, R-Willmar, who was not re-appointed as president of the Willmar Municipal Utilities Commission because of his involvement in an effort called Moving Willmar Forward.
We started this post with mention of City Council member Ron Christianson, who has served on the Willmar council since 1994. He is not seeking re-election, telling Willmar Radio that his retirement is related to public criticism he received about his Facebook activity in 2017.
As we noted in Willmar city council member Christianson under scrutiny for liking racist & mean Facebook posts, Christianson wasn't only "liking" posts, but commenting on them as well. .. .
Screenshots from the Thee Book Club event page about Loudon's talk at a public school little theater
While some of the posts on the Thee Book Club Facebook Event page for the Willmar event use the phrase "invited guests," the Action4Liberty Exposing Ellison calendar listing notes "This event will feature author Trevor Loudon speaking about the radical agenda of Keith Ellison 6:30 pm – Doors Open 7:00 pm – Event start 8:30 pm – Event ends This event is free and open to the public. Local media is welcome to attend." No address, however, is listed on the calendar date. Here's the screengrab:
Here's the event listing from Thee Book Club:
Here is the text from the About section:
Some of the discussion. The October 18 and October 16 posts include the "if invited" and "invited guests" language:
That scarf in the swag looks dangerously close to violating flag code decorum (though drawings that don't require any cash being spent by those registering appear to be legal for any kind of candidate, party or political committee--and this event is free):
The link in the free download copy of Loudon's instabook slamming Ellison is dead, so if our readers want swag, they'll have to attend and pray they get luck in the doorprize drawing for the socks. Winter is coming.
What a Connection: Exposing Keith Ellison and ISIS
Action4Liberty's smear campaign and Wardlow fundraising letters claiming opponent hangs with terrorists, "radical Islamic groups" jarred an incident in Ellison's career from 2016 in which he called ISIS "Daesh." Read more in the City Pages ISIS threatens Keith Ellison, other moderate Muslims and Fox9's Rep. Keith Ellison shreds ‘Daesh' in response to ISIS hit list.
Via the Bemidji Pioneer, Forum News Service reported in U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison lashes out at Islamic State after group’s death threat:
U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison isn’t backing down in the face of a death threat from the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS.
Ellison, a Minneapolis Democrat who was the first Muslim elected to Congress, was threatened in ISIS’ official English-language magazine, Dabiq, as a “politically active apostate.” . . .
In a statement, Ellison said he is taking the threat as a point of pride.
“Daesh is a collection of liars, murderers, torturers and rapists,” Ellison said, using a pejorative term for ISIS. “The fact that I’m on Daesh’s bad side means I am fighting for things like justice, tolerance and a more inclusive world.” . . .
Screengrabs: From Trevor Loudon's twitter feed.
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