Edward S. May, who writes using the pseudonym Baron Bodissey, is the American co-proprietor of the anti-Islam blog Gates of Vienna along with his wife, who uses the pseudonym Dymhna. May wrote anonymously until he disclosed his name in July 2010. Prior to blogging, he was
"a mathematician, a computer programmer and a landscape artist". Based in Virginia, he is considered to be a central organiser in the development of anti-Islam Counterjihad networks within the United States and across Europe. Besides writing for his own blog Gates of VIenna, he has also written articles for Andrew Breitbart's website Big Peace and FrontPage Magazine.
Gates of Vienna.
May and his wife began blogging under the pseudonyms Baron Bodissey and Dymhna respectively in October 2004.
"The thesis of this blog is that, like it or not, we are in a religious war. We do not define the terms, but we should take careful note of them. We are mistaken if we think the Enemy wants merely to kill us. Once again, Jihad offers two choices to the West: conversion or death. Jihad exists in order to annhilate unbelief. Christians, Jews, Hindus, atheists or Wiccans. It is all the same to him."
Role in Counterjihad Movement (2004 to present)
A 2008 study by the Royal United Services Institute noted the role of May's blog in the rise of the Counterjihad movement.
"Very much like Al-Qaeda's violent jihad, the counterjihad discourse is the product of globalisation and the internet. Counterjihad blogs such as the Brussels Journal, Atlas Shrugs, the Gates of Vienna and until very recently, Little Green Footballs (see below) and websites such as FrontPage and Jihadwatch have served to amplify the work of a small number of writers and academics."
Another 2008 study produces by international terrorism expert Toby Archer for the Finnish Institute of International Affairs noted:
"There is no real membership criteria for the movemetn, as one of the central organisers "Baron Bodissey" (the pseudonym of the Gates of Vienna blog) wrote, clearly refecting the academic discourse on al-Qaeda. "we are a network of networks".
Controversy over May's alliance with European Far-Right Political Parties 2007-present
In the Autumn of 2007, a rift occured in the counterjihad blogosphere, what some bloggers have called a
"civil-war, over which European political parties were suitable allies". The controversy, generated due to May's alliance with the EUropean far-right - in particular the Flemishh separatist political party Vlaams Belang - drew criticism from Charles Johnson of the American political blog Little Green Footballs and generated a notabe rift within the American counterjihad movement.
"One particularly prominent US blog - Little Green Footballs - owned by Charles Johnson - denounced the Counterjihad 2007 conference as supporting European Far-Right parties with fascist links, and hence, ultimately against Israel. Others have been willing to accept these parties' word that they have moved away from any earlier antisemitic stances".
In early July 2011, May split with Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer after Geller repudiated her support for the English Defence League.
Breivik Controversy 2011
Counter-terrorism consultant and ex-CIA officer Marc Sagerman stated that counterjihad writers like May and blogs like Gates of Vienna are the infrastructure from which Breivik emerged. According to Guardian journalist Andrew Brown, May's blog was an influence on Anders Breivik:
"Breivik referred to something he called the Vienna school of thought, which consists of the people who had worked out the ideology that inspired him to commit mass murder. He named three people in particular: LLitman, the Norwegian Peder Jensen who wrote under the name of Fjordman, and the American Robert Spencer who maintains a site called Jihadwatch, and agitates against "the Islamisation of America". But the name also alludes to a blog called Gates of Vienna, run by an American named Edward 'Ned' May, on which Fjordman posted regularly, and which claims that Europe is now as much under threat from a Muslim invasion as it was in 1683 when a Turkish army besieged Venice."
After the Utoya massacre, journalist Scott Shane, writing in The New York Times noted:
"The Gates of Vienna, a blog that ordinarily keeps up a drumbeat of anti-Islamist news and commentary, closed its pages to comments Sunday "due to the unusual situation in which it has recently found itself."
In July 2011, an article by journalist Steven Erlenger in The New York Times stated that:
"Mr Breivik was said by analysts to have been an occasional commentator on a blog, Gates of Vienna, which is topped by these words: "At the siege of Vienna 1683 Islam seemed poised to overrun Christian Europe. We are in a new phase of a very old war."
Three days later, May acknowledged that Breivik may have commented on the Gates of Vienna in Septermber 2008 and October 2008.
Directorships
Co-director of Center for Vigilant Freedom Inc. (2007-2011)
According to annual report documents submitted by Christine Brim of the Center for Security Policy between 2008 and 2011, May was co-director of the Center for Vigilant Freedom Inc.between January 2008 and January 2011, along with Christine Brim, Vicky Marlene Kaufer and UK resident Chris Knowles, who still remain listed as current co-directors.
Co director of International Free Press Society 2009
May was also listed on the International Free Press Society (FPS) Board of Directors for 2009, from its inception in January, as an Outreach-Coordinator. His name was removed from their directors' list in early 2010 and does not appear thereafter.
Organisations
International Civil Liberties Alliance (2006-present)
In 2006, the couterjihad organisation known as the 910 Group came into being as a direct result of discourse in the comments section of May's Gates of Vienna blog. In 2007 the group changed its name to the Center for Vigilant Freedom (CVF) and since approximately 2009 has operated as the International Civil Liberties Alliance (ICLA) with a wensite of the same name.
Initially:
"The ICLA also ran the Counter-Jihad Europea website, which [acted] as a "clearing hosue for national initiative to oppose the Islamisation of Europe". Three months after Breiviks attacks the ICLA organised a counter-jihad conference in London with the help of European co-ordinator Christopher Knowles, a co-founder of the English Defence League and director of the UK branch of the CVF, which is registered in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.
Counterjihad Europa (2007-present)
Counterjihad Europa, which began as a project of the Center for Vigilant Freedom and now operates as International Civil Liberties Alliance, has held annual summits or conferences in European cities since 2007.
On 14 April 2007, May spoke at the first Counterjihad Summit in Copenhagen, which was organised by the Center for Vigilant Freedom and hosted by Stop the Islamisation of Denmark (SIaD) and Danish staff from the International Counterjihad network. Also present were Chris Knowles (aka Aeneas) and Ann Marchini (aka Gaia) representing the UK chapter of the CVF. Members of the Sweden Democrats party, including Ted Ekeroth and "several Norwegians, including Peder Jensen (aka Fjordman). Paul Belien founder of the Flemish separatist blog The Brussels Journal was unable to attend.
In June 2010, May attended the Counterjihad Europa annual Counterjihad Conference hosted in Zurich. Also present were Chris Knowles and Ann Marchini, who represented both the UK chapter of the ICLA and the English Defence League. May's co-director Knowles (as Aeneas) delivered a presentation entitled "The Anatomy of an EDL Demo".
In September 2011, May attended the Counterjihad Europa annual Counterjihad Conference hosted in London, where he met with Paul Weston (then of UKIP), Chris Knowles, Ann Marchini, Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, Kenneth Skorski (aka KGS), Henrik Raeder Clausen, the leaders of the British Freedom Party, Peter Mullins, Lee Barnes, Simon Bennett and Dr. George Whale and the current leaders of the English Defence League, namely Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (aka Tommy Robinson), Kevin Carroll and Jack Smith. As an outcome of the 2011 Counterjihad Europa Conference, Paul Weston, formerly of UKIP, would take helm as party-chariman. Additionally, an alliance between far-right street protest movement English Defence League was announced.
English Defence League (2008-present)
May's wife, who uses the pseudonym Dymphna, wrote in July 2011 of how she and her husband 'the Baron', gave financial support to Paul Ray (aka Lionheart) when Ray sought political asylum in America in January 2008 after being charged with inciting racial hatred. Ray went on to co-foudn the English Defence League.
"Back before the EDL, when he hid out here in the US (a few years back), the Baron and I supported him finanancially (we wuz "rich" then i.e. full-time work). In addition a fellow blogger gave him a condo to live in, rent free. On a golf-course, no less."
One of May's fellow co-directors at the Center for Vigilant Freedom, Chris Knowles (who is also European co-ordinator and director of the UK branch of the Center for Vigilant Freedom, is also a co-founder of the English Defence League.
Notes
1. Dymhna, Gates of Vienna at Big Peace, Gates of Vienna, 5 July 2010, via the Internet Archive Live Web, last accessed 01 May 2012
2. Ryan Lenz, Blogger Who Inspired Norwegian Terrorist Returns To Writing, Southern Poverty Law Center, last accessed 01 May 2012
3. Ned May at the Waybacvk Machine (archived November 2010, Andrew Breitbart's Big Peace.
4. Toby Archer, Learning to Love the Jews: The Impact of the War on Terror and the Counterjihad Blogosphere on European Far-Right Nationalist Parties, Finnish Institute of International Affairs
5. David Horowitz Freedom Center, Author Profile: Baron Bodissey at the Wayback Machine (archived January 3, 2011), FrontPage Mag, last accessed 02 May 2012
6.Edward S. May, Newest Phase of A Very Old War at the Wayback Machine (archived June 20, 2005) writing as Baron Bodissey, Gates of Vienna, 4 October 2004, last accessed 02 May 2012
7. Toby Archer, Countering the Counter-jihad, RUSI MONITOR, Septermber 2008, Royal United Services Institute.
8. May, Edward, July 4 2011), An Open Letter to Pamela Gellller, retrieved May 2 2012, via Internet Archive, archived 16 July 2011, last accessed 3 May 2012
9. Scott,
