Robert Spencer: Murder at the Bridge, Bacon at the Mosque

The Geller Report had the news this morning: “Police are increasing patrols at two mosques in Cambridge after strips of bacon were…left on the car windscreens to insult fasting Muslims.”

That’s right: this is what the British police are concerned about in the wake of the jihad massacres in Manchester and London: bacon. Not that they’re enjoying a hearty breakfast; they’re protecting Muslims and mosques from supposed “hate crimes.”

The proportions here are a bit off. Twenty-two people are dead in Manchester and seven in London at the hands of Islamic jihadists. One would think that in light of that, the Cambridge police would laugh off a few strips of bacon in front of a mosque, and tell the mosque leaders to direct their attention to more important matters, such as working to root out jihad terror sympathizers and plotters from their communities.

One would think wrong. It must be remembered that not long before the Manchester and London jihad massacres, the supposedly “anti-extremism” Quilliam Foundation claims that “the threat from far-right groups is as severe as the jihadist threat.”

That’s what these bacon police patrols are all about: shoring up that sagging narrative, and buttressing the claim that the racist, xenophobic “far-right” constitutes just as much of a threat to Britons as Islamic jihadis. A few strips of bacon next to twenty-nine dead is a sad exercise in moral equivalence, but it’s all the British authorities have to work with, and so they’re running with it.

Yet while Cambridge police devote their manpower and resources to tracking down the perpetrators of “bacon hate crime,” let’s step back for a moment and consider the larger picture.

How many are dead in shattered, staggering, dhimmi Britain as a result of “far-right” attacks? Why, none. None at all. Are “far-right” leaders in Britain calling for the destruction of the British state and its replacement with an authoritarian system that denies equality of rights to women and others? Why, no. No. they aren’t.

Islamic jihadis are killing people, and Muslim leaders in Britain have boasted about one day (probably not too very long from now) imposing Sharia on the Sceptered Isle, but that doesn’t matter: the cynical and duplicitous Quilliam is peddling moral equivalence, and so moral equivalence it is: the “far-right” is just as dangerous as the jihadis. Yes, twenty-nine dead, but…bacon at a mosque!

One wonders if mosque leaders were able to keep a straight face when they called the police to report this “bacon hate crime.” Did they shed tears at the horror of it all? Did they plead for protection from porcine persecution? Did they fulminate about what an inhospitable place Britain is for Muslims, and long for the green fields of human rights bastions such as Pakistan? Did they demand the full force of law enforcement power be directed against the real threat – not jihad terror, but “Islamophobia”?

In any case, the police were duly called. But consider this: if the Muslims in Britain really want to make sure that no more bacon is left at mosques, they can accomplish that very easily, by working against jihadis in their own community, and doing everything they can to make sure that no more jihad attacks happen, instead of constantly whining and playing the victim, and claiming that counterterror efforts are unjustly singling them out.

If Muslims in the UK stood up resolutely against jihad terror, acknowledged its roots in Islamic texts and teachings, and honestly worked to root out that understanding of Islam from its community and to cooperate energetically with police against jihadis, no more non-Muslims would be so frustrated by the Muslim community’s duplicity and the government’s supine reaction to terror, and they would no longer do rude things like leave bacon at mosques.

But in the final analysis, that’s all it was: a rude act. And yet police are out in force in Cambridge today, on bacon patrol.

Imagine if these police officers were instead diverted to other duties, such as trying to stop the next jihad attack. Then maybe no more blood would be spilled, and no more bacon would be deployed.

Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and author of the New York Times bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad. His latest book is The Complete Infidel’s Guide to Iran. Follow him on Twitter here. Like him on Facebook here.