Why the Christian right is backing a brutal despot (The Family frm of C Street)

[Shallah Kali]

imagine what abuses good 'Christians' like these would tolerate in order to have power over America considering who they ally with elsewhere.

Why the Christian right is backing a brutal despot
An Ivory Coast leader accused of widespread human rights abuses finds a pocket of support in the U.S.


While the crisis has gotten substantial press attention, one aspect of Gbagbo's past -- and present -- has flown under the radar: his longtime ties to the Christian right in the United States, a movement in which he still finds at least some support.

That includes a U.S. senator and acquaintance of Gbagbo who declined to intervene in the crisis when asked by the State Department earlier this year, a former congressman who was hired by Gbagbo as a lobbyist, and a Christian right TV network that ran a fawning profile of Gbagbo, even as violence engulfed Ivory Coast. The senator, Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, today released a letter to Hillary Clinton calling for new elections in Ivory Coast, putting him in direct opposition to the view of the Obama administration, the United Nations and the African Union that Gbagbo lost a fair election.

Gbagbo, along with his influential wife, Simone, are evangelical Christians who are known for lacing their speeches with religious rhetoric. "God is leading our fight. God has already given us the victory," Simone Gbagbo, who is both first lady and politician in her own right, said at a rally in January. Both Gbagbos have attended the National Prayer Breakfast, a big annual Washington event run by the secretive Christian group known as the Family, or the Fellowship.

The Fellowship, founded in 1935, cultivates relationships with people in positions of power in both the United States and abroad (it has long been active in Africa) to promote conservative evangelical values. It has drawn controversy for, among other things, running the C Street House, where several members of Congress live, and its ties to proposed legislation in Uganda that would provide for the death penalty for the "crime" of homosexuality.

Inhofe Defends Ivory Coast Strongman With 'Happy Face' (VIDEO)
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/inhofe_defends_ivory_coast_strongman_with_happy_face_video.php

President Barack Obama called Alassane Ouattara, the democratically elected president of the west African nation Ivory Coast, on Tuesday to congratulate him on assuming his duties. According to a White House readout, Obama told Ouattara that the United States would be a strong partner as Ouattara "forms an inclusive government, promotes reunification and reconciliation, and responds to the current humanitarian situation."

At about the same time, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) was on the floor of the Senate backing Laurent Gbagbo, the incumbent president who refused to step down from his office after losing an internationally certified election in November.

In a long 30-minute speech on the floor of the Senate late Tuesday afternoon, Inhofe said he believes massive vote fraud occurred in the monitored election, condemned "the use of so-called peacekeeping forces made up of the United Nations and French forces" which he said "have caused countless deaths," while saying it wasn't their role to step in on behalf of the democratically elected president.

"I'm going to show you something here that I hesitated doing," Inhofe said as he displayed a portrait of Gbagbo. "But this is the happy face of President Gbagbo. This is the face I know. This is the president, he's been president since 2000. And he's gone through a lot of these same problems, but he stood up against the French and against Quattara up in the north."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv2hqTXB-Bs

Pat Robertson Gaga for Gbagbo
http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/sarahposner/4464/pat_robertson_gaga_for_gbagbo/

Human Rights Watch, which has also called upon the internationally recognized winner of the presidential election, Alassane Ouattara, to reign in forces under his control, has documented possible war crimes by Gbagbo and his militias against Ouattara supporters. While HRW documented evidence of extrajudicial executions and other abuses by Ouattara forces:

The vast majority of abuses documented by Human Rights Watch were perpetrated by forces loyal to Gbagbo against real or perceived Ouattara supporters, notably members of political parties allied to Ouattara, as well as West African immigrants and Muslims. The documented abuses include targeted killings, enforced disappearances, politically motivated rapes, and unlawful use of lethal force against unarmed demonstrators. These abuses, committed over a four-month period by security forces under the control of Gbagbo and militias loyal to him, may rise to the level of crimes against humanity as defined by the Rome Statute, which created the International Criminal Court (ICC).

As you might imagine, the fact that Gbagbo is a Christian and Ouattara is a Muslim plays a key role in Robertson's ramblings on the matter. His CBN has falsely portrayed the situation in Cote d'Ivoire as one involving voter fraud that deprived Gbagbo, "a nice person" and a "Christian," of the presidency.

This would not be the first time Robertson has used his airwaves to support a brutal African dictator. As I reported last summer about Robertson's American Center for Law and Justice's activities in Zimbabwe (where ACLJ also promotes recognition of a "Christian nation"):

Ivory Coast: The Man in the Basement and the Christian Right
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/09/964770/-Ivory-Coast:-The-Man-in-the-Basement-and-the-Christian-Right

[Keith Bee]

1. You answered in the title

K&R ;-)

[AndyTiedye]

2. k/r

[Shallah Kali]

3. Did US Christian Right Know Gbagbo's Other Wife Is Muslim?

http://www.aolnews.com/2011/04/14/did-us-christian-right-know-laurent-gbagbos-other-wife-is-musli/


Not many outside Ivory Coast are aware of the very-married Gbagbo's other marriage, to Nadiana Bamba, 37, a glamorous, former broadcast journalist turned publisher and public relations executive who happens to be Muslim.

Most Westerners only know about Simone Gbagbo, 61, Gbagbo's high-profile, Bible-wielding wife, who has been called the "Iron Lady" of the regime and the "Hillary Clinton of the tropics."

Bamba, who is from a village in the northern, predominantly Muslim section of Ivory Coast, is a power in her own right as the publisher of Abidjan's pro-Gbagbo Le Temps newspaper. Gbagbo and Bamba were married according to "tribal custom" in 2001, and she's listed among the Gbagbo family members and associates facing European Union sanctions.

She and Gbagbo have an 8-year-old son, but they are almost never photographed and rarely discussed publicly. An image of Bamba in a red Islamic veil is one of the few available.