Thread by @ARCCollective

In light of news that the @edmontonpolice don't have evidence to link the torch march to hatred (despite literally using imagery from a neo-Nazi torch march in Charlottesville) I thought I would do a bit of a deep dive into the Pawlowski brothers. 1/

https://twitter.com/Alberta411/status/1366930473146978307?s=20

FYI, this may be long and exceedingly boring for most people.

There will also be a great deal in this thread for which people will rightfully be very offended so please be warned. 2/

Artur Pawlowski again led a march, this time through Calgary (Feb 27), with torches claiming that there wasn't anything racist about it (again... they used the Charlottesville neo-Nazi torch march on their promotional material). 3/

https://twitter.com/RachelNotley/status/1366740083508920322?s=20

While watching the march was disturbing, a number of people who I spoke to found images such as this to be equally as jarring. 4/

Aside from being profoundly offensive on a number of very obvious levels, people commented on the frequent use of Jewish imagery by the Pawlowski brothers at these and other events. 5/

When challenged why Evangelical Christians would make use of Jewish imagery, in this case the Israeli flag, Artur's answer was rather telling. 6/

The Pawlowski brothers have, like many (though not all) other Evangelicals, adopted Jewish imagery and symbols as their own. 7/

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

Evangelicals have also been among the most ardent supporters of the State of Israel because of the role they believe it plays in end time prophesy. 8/

inthesetimes.com/article/christ…

On the surface this seems to be positive as Evangelicals appear to be supportive of a people who have been subject to persecution for the better part of 2000 years.

Dig a little deeper and certain ugly truths emerge however. 9/

nytimes.com/2018/05/14/wor…

According to the same prophesy the Jews must convert to Christianity when Jesus returns. Those who remain "perfidious" are damned to Hell. 10/

Another component of the prophesy is that while the Jews were God's chosen people in the Hebrew scriptures, Christians have replaced them since the death and resurrection of Jesus.

This not surprisingly is called Replacement Theology. 11/

tms.edu/m/tmsj20d.pdf

I have oversimplified theological concepts that require a deeper discussion, but I hope that the explanation and the links provided help to set the stage for the remainder of this thread. 12/

In short, rather than truly supporting Judaism, this theology merely sees them as a means to an end. 13/

Is the Pawlowski brothers' theology regarding the Jews and Israel in line with what was discussed above? That I can't say. What I can say is that despite what appears to be support of Israel and the Jewish people, they have no problem making common cause with antisemites. 14/

On June 3, 2017, Artur and his brother Dawid participated in an anti-Islam and anti-immigrant event in Calgary organized by the Worldwide Coalition Against Islam. Others there included the Canadian Combat Coalition, Soldiers of Odin, and III% militia who provided security. 15/

16/

anti-racistcanada.blogspot.com/2017/06/public…

The WCAI (which for all intents and purposes is moribund at this time) was certainly a hate group. In this interview in which the host also discussed the "JQ", WCAI founder Joey Deluca discusses why he refers to immigrants as sewage. 17/

It is hard to accept that Artur and Dawid wouldn't have been aware of the kind of people who were behind this rally based on the photographs that Artur himself posted to his FB profile. 18/

In addition to being virulently Islamophobic and racist, the leadership, particularly WCAI Vice-President Jesse Wielenga, were profoundly antisemitic as well. 19/

Deluca was also a speaker at an event organized by Artur in April 2018. 20/

At this event the Soldiers of Odin were said to be providing security. Among them was the SoO leader who also posted antisemitic, pro-Nazi, and Holocaust denial material on the Russian answer to Facebook, VK. 21/

anti-racistcanada.blogspot.com/2018/04/calgar…

Of interest to readers is that the WCAI was also well aware of Charlottesville and hoped to emulate it here in Canada. 22/

They even planned on having their own torch march through Toronto in August 2018. 23/

Suffice it to say, it was an unmitigated disaster. 24/

anti-racistcanada.blogspot.com/2018/08/wcai-p…

25/

26/

anti-racistcanada.blogspot.com/2018/08/islamo…

27/

anti-racistcanada.blogspot.com/2018/08/cancel…

Despite what they must know about the WCAI, both Artur and Dawid have continued to post on the private WCAI FB group for years, including details about February's anti-mask rallies. 28/

29/

As I noted the WCAI is basically done but for a few people who still post in the FB Group. However another interesting link has turned up in the past few days. 30/

A digression: I'm not sure just how well Poland is doing regarding the pandemic. 31/

The group Dawid is referencing is new, established on December 10, 2020. A Polish acquaintance who kindly did some translating for me stated the name of the group is the Armored Division Society of Poznań. He further described it as being a far-right paramilitary group. 32/

When going through the group's social media which is rife with conspiracy theories regarding the pandemic, one can't help noticing the virulent antisemitism of the FB group membership. 33/

34/

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36/

So where does that leave us?

Can I say that the Pawlowski brothers also feel the same way as these posters? There is no direct evidence for this. Maybe Dawid is simply careless and doesn't look deeply into the links he shares on FB. 37/

That said, one could argue that both brothers engage in their fair share of dogwhistling. 38/