The Ancient Order of the Templar Knights

We met Paul Ray, "Lionheart of England", when we were making the VBS.TV film Royal Wedding (which you can watch right here) a few months ago. Paul is a religious skinhead who formed the EDL, but now lives in exile in Malta. Paul is the leader of an anti-Muslim organisation called The Ancient Order of the Templar Knights. That rings a bell right?

When Anders Breivik, the Norwegian terrorist's 'manifesto' went public yesterday, it was not only full of the same Holy War rhetoric as Paul Ray's supremacist literature, but he also referenced the ‘Reformed Templar Knights of Europe’. And the EDL. We began to get worried that maybe the other terror cells Breivik had mentioned had something to do with Paul Ray, so we called him.

Vice; Hi Paul. So, did you ever have any contact with Anders Breivik?
Paul Ray: No. Not at all. Not that I know of anyway.

Were there many connections with Norway back when you were running the EDL?
Well, you should look up "Alan Lake's EDL Final Solution" and have a read. He was one of the early EDL members and his "Final Solution" explains pretty much the same ideology as Anders.

Jesus, "Final Solution" is a pretty loaded term. So, you think Breivik stole from Lake's manifesto?
Yeah. But this Anders guy says that he gave his ideological outlook to the EDL. If he did, he never gave that to me. I’m the one who brought the EDL together and brought it to motion. Thing is, Alan Lake came in at the beginning as well and he was dealing with either the Swedish or Norwegian anti-jihad movement. He had his fingers in a few of those movements throughout Europe. If [Breivik] did have contact with anyone in the EDL at that time, I wouldn’t be surprised it if was him.

I saw in the press Anders said he was planning to reform the Templar Knights of Europe, which sounds pretty close to your Ancient Order of the Templar Knights group. Were you aware of that?
I think he was a lone wolf, and he’s just creating this mythology around him to make it look likes he’s part of something much bigger. He claims he arranged this meeting in London in 2002 with people form the Catholic Church, Greek and Serbian Orthodox Church… Do you really think people from these different denominations would really come together to meet someone like him, and then approve of killing 90 innocent people? It’s pretty far-fetched.

How do you reckon this affects the name of the Templar Knights?
It’s bad isn’t it? Look at what he’s been saying, and then look at what I’ve been portraying. Don’t look good, does it? My friends have been reading the manifesto and a lot of the things that we’re involved in and promoting are in his manifesto. It apparently says in his manifesto that he has an English mentor called Richard. People are thinking that might be codeword for Richard Lionheart… Who else is there called "Lionheart" who writes about anti-jihad, Muslims and Templar iconography? It blatantly looks like it’s me! He talks about diamonds in Liberia and whatever, meanwhile, Nick (Mad Nick, another Templar Knight, above with Paul Ray) is supporting Charles Taylor… It looks like he’s pointing the finger at us! It’s like he’s copied us. He’s just using the Templar Knight iconography to condone his actions.

Why do you think he has been copying you?
To me, I think he’s just one crazed man, that’s created a story to make himself look a lot bigger than he is, and ultimately made it look like he’s pointing his finger directly at me and people I’m associated with.

Will EDL members be shitting themselves about what connections with Breivik might be revealed?
EDL are a bunch of lying hypocrites and they’re pushing for a full-on confrontation in our country. They put on the face of being a peaceful group, but really they’re pushing for a civil war. The intelligence services aren’t stupid and extreme far-right groups like the EDL will just be worried about being banned, and worried that whoever had connections with that man will come out. And especially if there is any link with Alan Lake – it will be interesting to see how that plays out.

In your opinion, do you think there are probably more terrorists like him?
Yeah, I think there’s always going to be far-right people out there who’ll commit terrorist attacks.

Well, that's terrifying.

CHRIS O'NEILL