In the early hours of Saturday 13 August 1989, tooled up Christian Fundamentalists broke through the security glass in the front door of our retail shop, cut through the security bars with bolt cutters and gained entry to the interior. In a frenzy they attacked the wooden bookshelf on the left of the shop containing works by Aliester Crowley; breaking and rending the shelves into pieces. Then they hacked at a bookshelf on the opposite side of the shop which contained books on witchcraft. Other books were untouched. They piled up books on WitchCraft and books by Crowley in the middle of the shop floor and ignited them. No other books or bookshelves were disturbed. The Gods were kind. A local client spotted the fire within a few minutes and their quick action resulted in the fire brigade being on the scene minutes thereafter. Although the retail sales shop was very badly damaged the mail-order survived and there was no disruption to our service.

For the past two years I have repetitively warned the political office at No 10 Downing Street, The Home Office, numerous Members of Parliament and the police as well as EVERY national newspaper editor that the witchcraft related child abuse allegations which have been current were PURE FANTASY and were really a disguised Holy War by Christian Fundamentalists. I categorically prophesied that unless government and police took action to deflate the situation burnings would occur. I have been proved entirely correct.

I pleaded for help from the Home Office and they ignored my cry for help and said they could do nothing. I pleaded for help from George Russell the Chairman of the IBA who had the power to stop the totally spurious Cook Report on Satanism And Child Abuse from being broadcast which I categorically stated to him would cause criminal action from fundamentalists to occur. He not only ignored my request but refused to answer any of my letters thereafter. I have no doubt whatsoever that the totally irresponsible trash tabloid approach and sensational allegations within the Cook Report were directly responsible for the attack on my business. The rooms above my premises were once flats, it is only by the grace of the Gods that a murder was not committed and unless a lead is taken NOW by government THAT MURDER WILL OCCUR SOONER OR LATER. I prophecy it.

Even though I have told them clearly what the situation is, none of these so called 'responsible' people who direct and sculpt the life of people in this country have given any serious thought to the problem and they have consistently ignored my advice and refused to help me. Yet, this government has spend thousands of pounds protecting Salman Rushdie from exactly the same situation - Fundamentalism. This is how it is; and all sincere and honourable people in this country need to beware greatly the forces which are at work, so heed my words very carefully.

Fundamentalism will remain powerful for the next ten years at least. The results of fundamentalism OF ANY KIND can easily be seen by reference to other countries around the world where it predominates. That I am not the only person able to see this problem was revealed when the Archbishop of Canterbury recently made public statements appealing for calm and right thinking from Christians and a rebuffal of the excesses of fundamentalism. Fundamentalism results in fanatics imposing upon individuals (That Means YOU), with the threat of loss of life if you do not accede to their version of how you should live, think, and behave. The authority for these dictatorial attitudes is usually contorted from aged holy writings the interpretation of which is exclusively the responsibility of the fundamentalist theocracy and "cannot be argued". Fundamentalism negates all liberal concepts of personal freedom and uses hysteria and fear to capture the individuality of people and turn that into mass hypnosis where millions will act like zombies, unable to exert their individuality and free will. Fundamentalism goes against inate human freedoms of belief and contravenes the United Nations Bill of Human Rights. All those who believed the ritual child abuse scare were sucked into the fundamentalist mind mass.

Make no mistake about it, the Christian fundamentalist campaign in the UK has been fully orchestrated and organised. It has not happened by accident. I can quote names, organisations, actions and have evidence to reveal their campaign strategy over a two year period. Moreover I have made the Home Office fully aware of this evidence as things developed but no one has been interested in my evidence. Realise that Christian fundamentalism has hi-jacked and is misusing the teachings of an important and valuable world religion. The vast majority of Christians are people who wish us well and who themselves decry the current fundamentalist activity.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN?

The fundamentalists will continue by recruiting bigots and pivoting their campaign by pursuing the usual fanatical prejudices. Now that they have firebombed us they are likely to firebomb other occult shops and general bookshops with occult departments on a monkey see monkey do basis. When they've finished with the occult they will turn to less controversial subjects, abortion, wierd sexual appetites, homosexuals, "foreigners", papists, and anyone else who is a danger to their theocracy. Inch by Inch they have already made great progress and the government is allowing them to do so FULLY COGNISANT of what is happening. They seem to think that it will all be a seven day wonder but after two years things have got worse not better because of the governments calculated blind eye.

The fundamentalists have hi-jacked the media and are manipulating most successfully. The Cook Report is a classic example. The "Devils' work" programme itself was unanimously condemned as the worst kind of tabloid journalism devoid of all proof by both low and highbrow newspaper reviewers alike. There were hundreds of letters of complaint about the tone and content of the programme itself yet, in order to further justify their actions, the Cook Report gave an update which included an interview with a "professional social counsellor" who was shown manning a video screen during the "helpline" phone in after the show, This "professional social counsellor" opined that over 900 calls had been received relating to satanism and child abuse. Cook did not reveal that this lady is in fact a Baptist fundamentalist who runs the Reachout Trust a charitable organisation set up in 1984 for (and we take the words from their application for a charitable licence) "The Advancement of the Christian Religion by Such Means As They Shall Consider Expedient In Relation to The Accepted and Taught in The Evangelical Tradition of the Christian Church." Maureen Davies has been at the forefront of the satanic child abuse allegations and assisted with the compilation of the Cook Report and is largely responsible for the tide of fundamentalism sweeping this country. The REACHOUT TRUST has strong links with American fundamentalists and helped import the ritualised child abuse scare from the USA where it ran during 1986/7. The Reachout Trust distributes Occult Activity Fact Files from the USA which incite inexperienced and amateur detection work against occultists by other fundamentalists. Fundamentalism creates its own self-fulfilling prophecy.

My business has been targeted and largely victimised by these fundamentalists in a sustained campaign over 18 months even though we are totally innocent of all accusations save the supply of information and books on ALL forms of human belief, providing those beliefs do not incite a breech of the laws of the land. A greater injustice has rarely prevailed. I have been in this business for 15 years. I have paid taxes and rates and provided jobs for many people over the years yet apart from the local Leeds police who have behaved wonderfully, I have received no support whatsoever from the government or those organisations set up by government to cope with complaints and unfairness in the media.

All that was necessary to spike the guns of the fundamentalists in this campaign was an official announcement by the Home office and respective police forces that those people giving anecdotal information which provided the so called "proof" of the fundamentalists allegations were themselves fundamentalists with a history of making such claims which the police had investigated and found to be lies. (I have proof that this is the case).

But the government did not give such a statement and the police of several counties also refused to act. When I asked my MP to invoke the powers of the parliamentary ombudsman to get the government to do something he refused to become involved. No one accorded me my due rights or any dignity whatsoever. I was being sacrificed to the Gods of Expediency and Prejudice.

I wrote to Linda Agran of "Right to Reply" [C4-TV]. She didn't reply at all. I wrote to Paddy Stamp of Council of CIvil Liberties - No reply either. I wrote to national newspaper editors and gave them the data; but no one even replied let alone asked for more information. I wrote to Alan Gilmore, then chairman of the NSPCC, and thanked him for not jumping on the secular bandwaggon and becoming involved in the scare during the 18 month old campaign. I gave him all the background information about the phantom child abuse allegations. The NSPCC happily acknowledged these. Then months later, without ANY EVIDENCE at all to prove his opinions, Dr Gilmour gave an interview to the Cook Report supporting the fundamentalist fantasies and setting up a task force to deal with satanic child abuse. I despise the offhand way these and hundreds of other people whom I have written have played this hypocritical game. Such people have dishonoured themselves. When I wrote back to Dr Gilmore and complained about his statement providing YET MORE INFORMATION to disprove fundamentalist claims, he tersely replied that he needed to take professional advice. Pity he didn't take the advice before adding what might have seemed like total proof to Cook Report viewers. All I prophesied has come true. IS IT NECESSARY FOR SOMEONE TO LOOSE THEIR LIFE TO PROVE IT FURTHER?

WHAT I AM GOING TO DO NOW

Although I have been in the Occult Business for 15 years we only opened our large shop on a main thoroughfare 4 years ago. Previous to this we used to run a by appointment system for callers at our warehouse. I opened our large retail premises knowing full well that we would create some controversy from fundamentalists but perceived that the public in general should be given as many opportunities as possible to investigate and perceive alternative forms of belief. I have always held the view that only when people are fully informed can they find their own way to their unique spiritual atonement and subsequently become a thinking and responsible member of our society. We have always existed to provide that wide scope; we do not concentrate on any one aspect of belief and include ALL philosophies and comparative religions INCLUDING CHRISTIANITY. Unfortunately the British are not ready for such things. Maybe they never were and never will be, and this fact has dire repercussions for the future quality of our people.

I cannot risk further attacks on my property and business and will not endanger the people who have loyally worked for me for many years by striving for a principle of freedom which the rest of the populace and our government itself seem unprepared to support. NOT ONE PERSON other than close associates and clients has been prepared to condemn the fundamentalist actions. Accordingly I have closed my retail store to passers by and the curious and will continue to supply only my established clients and new enquirers who will have to prove their integrity before we accept them as customers. We have NEVER supplied to people under the age of 18 and this rule will remain.

The people whom I have written to and from whom I pleaded for help are too many to be listed. They know who they are and they know that their choice was not one of great cosmic importance. They only had to chose to do the right thing but failed in that because of inate prejudices. I blame the ALL for the arson attack which could have so easily caused someones death and very nearly destroyed my livelihood. But I most especially condemn Roger Cook and Tim Tate of the Cook Report because there is no doubt in my mind that this attack, coming as it did three weeks after their broadcast, was incited by that broadcast. I am of course suing Central Television the makers of the Cook Report for libel during the programme.

There is much posed opining in politics and the press about the suppression of freedom of speech and belief in other countries and how well off we are in the UK. Yet there is no difference between restrictions of freedom in China which honestly curtail and suppress free though and expression, and the incidious and pernicious response by the establishment in this country which causes the same suppression by expediency and default. What has happened to me can happen to ANYONE in this country and the despicable way in which my rights have been travested is a sign to everyone who has eyes, here and abroad, that our country and those who run it are more deeply corrupted than could otehrwise be believed. This corruption has nothing to do with cash or greed but simply when they are, under testing conditions, given the choice of doing the right thing or hiding behind some device of officialdom, they have proved themselves unable to do anything humanitarian in favour of a person or a principle. Rather they have chosen the path of a settled career. I don't know if they can be blamed for this type of response but I do accuse them of dishonesty in pretending to do or be otherwise.

I confidently expect that rather than admit that they were totally and utterly wrong in their actions and conclusions that they will instead demand greater proof from me that it was fundamentalists who firebombed my business than they did from those who lied about the ritual linked child abuse allegations in the first place.

I confidently expect that, before too long, the fundamentalists will accuse me of setting fire to my own shop for political reasons. Knowing their strategy they will, in order to circumvent any sympathy for me, disinform their own ranks and the media that I have in some way cursed them for their actions. In order to circumvent such strategy I declare openly that my beliefs, wisdom, and knowledge are totally unshakable by the cowardly wimps who would perpetrate such crimes. Each time they attack me they simply give me greatness and strengthen me while revealing their own weakness. I have no need to curse such people; they are already incarcerated within their zombie like existence and will suffer the karma of their deeds in their own time. My attackers have destroyed forever their claim to purity and holiness and eventually they will realise this. There is no need to curse such people for they curse themselves well enough and Chronos will reveal the TRUTH to all in due course.

CLAIMS ABOUT CHILD ABUSE LINKED TO WITCHCRAFT CAN NOW BE SEEN TO BE A LIE USED BY CHRISTIAN FUNDAMENTALISTS TO DISGUISE A HOLY WAR AGAINST ALTERNATIVE BELIEFS.

So Mote It Be

Chris Bray, Leeds, United Kingdom, 15 August 1989