Robert Spencer: Fifteen Years for Bacon Hate Crime

A man named Michael Wolfe was given fifteen years in prison followed by fifteen years of probation last Tuesday for smashing lights, cameras and windows at the Islamic Society of Central Florida Masjid Al-Munin Mosque, and leaving bacon by its front door.

These kinds of attacks on mosques are stupid and never justified. But the prosecution of this case only underscores the fact that when it comes to jihad attacks, authorities have lost all sense of proportion.

Eight people were recently murdered in a jihad attack in New York City. There are more dead all the time: over 32,000 lethal jihad attacks worldwide since 9/11. And the Islamic Society of Central Florida Masjid Al-Munin Mosque is playing the victim, with help from authorities, over … bacon.

Wolfe should certainly be made to pay for the broken windows and cameras, and any other actual damage he caused. But if Wolfe had broken windows and cameras at a church, would he have gotten fifteen years in prison and fifteen years probation?

An imam in central Florida, Muhammad Musri, explained the reasoning for the stiff sentence: “The intent is to really deter similar kinds of hate crime. Our schools, our churches, our theatres, it’s a red line. It’s heartbreaking. The hate must stop.”

So the State Attorney’s Office wanted to make an example of Wolfe. Musri implies that this sort of thing happens all the time, but in light of the numerous fake anti-Muslim hate crimes, all claims about mosque attacks and the like have to be regarded with skepticism. Moreover, one would think that in light of the steady stream of jihad attacks, the State Attorney’s Office would punish Wolfe for the vandalism but laugh off a few strips of bacon at the door of the mosque, and tell the mosque leaders to direct their attention to more important matters — such as making sure there are no jihad terror sympathizers and plotters from their communities.

That’s what the sentencing of Michael Wolfe is all about: shoring up the sagging narrative that the racist, “Islamophobic,” “far-right” bigots are threatening Muslims on a large scale, and that Muslims are more victims than victimizers.

A few strips of bacon and some broken windows and cameras next to 32,000 jihad attacks is a sad exercise in moral equivalence, but it’s all the State Attorney’s Office had to work with, and so they ran with it. Yet while the State Attorney’s Office devoted its manpower and resources to tracking down and punishing the perpetrator of this bacon hate crime, let’s step back for a moment and consider the larger picture.

How many Muslims are dead in the U.S. as a result of “far-right,” “Islamophobic” attacks? Why, none. None at all.

Are “far-right,” “Islamophobic” leaders in the U.S. calling for the destruction of the state and its replacement with an authoritarian system that denies equality of rights to women and others? Why, no. No they aren’t.

One wonders if the leaders of the Islamic Society of Central Florida Masjid Al-Munin Mosque were able to keep a straight face when they told the police about the bacon. 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 the United States is for Muslims, and long for the green fields of human rights bastions such as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq?

Did they demand the full force of law enforcement power be directed against the real threat — not jihad terror, but “Islamophobia”?

Consider this: if Muslims in the U.S. 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. They can do everything they can to make sure no more jihad attacks happen, instead of constantly whining and playing the victim, and claiming that counter-terror efforts are unjustly singling them out.

If Muslims in the United States and elsewhere stood up resolutely against jihad terror, acknowledged its roots in Islamic texts and teachings, honestly worked to root out that understanding of Islam from its community and cooperated 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.

In the final analysis, that’s essentially all this was: a rude act, along with some minor vandalism. Imagine if the law enforcement officials who spent time and resources on this crime had instead been 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 new book is Confessions of an Islamophobe. Follow him on Twitter here. Like him on Facebook here.