It is no exaggeration to say that Britain may be a little safer today as a result of the JC’s reporting. Yesterday, our political correspondent, Lorin Bell-Cross, revealed that the police were taking no further action after an imam in east London – not far from both the local Jewish community and Allison Pearson’s house – had led a prayer calling for the destruction of Jewish homes.
“Oh Allah, curse the Jews and the children of Israel,” he had ranted. “Oh Allah, break their words, shake their feet, disperse and tear apart their unity and ruin their houses and destroy their homes.” This had been duly reported to the Metropolitan police, who after careful consideration had concluded that there was nothing to see here, move along please.
Given that their colleagues at Essex plod saw fit to pay a Telegraph columnist a visit on Remembrance Sunday for the supposed crime of a misguided tweet (which to the mind of any normal person could not possibly be construed as “inciting racial hatred”), this episode appeared to confirm suspicions that many Britons have harboured for some time: in the eyes of the law, some victims are now more equal than others.
After the JC broke the story, it garnered some attention online, with my tweet alone being viewed more than a quarter-of-a-million times. Suddenly, social media was awash with allegations of “two-tier policing” and observations that in modern Britain, “Jews don’t count”. Clearly, this was the police’s Achilles heel. Last night, the force released a statement vowing to “urgently” review the decision to drop the case because of “significant concerns” from the public.
So we arrive at the heart of the problem. Reviewing the case was of course the right decision. But if the law is supposed to be upheld without fear or favour – stop sniggering at the back – then the men and women who uphold it must do so based on their impartial professional judgement, not outrage on social media. The U-turn suggests that the police will try to get away with moulding society in the image of their own prejudice, so long as they don’t get caught by the internet. This is the imposition of progressive dogma by increments, the Grandmother’s Footsteps of social engineering.
Why must it fall to the JC (and X) to police the police? Who stole the establishment’s moral compass and where did they hide it? Several tens of millions of Britons would really like to know. The creeping dominance of progressive dogma inside the police is no longer an amusing oddity. It is spreading real fear amongst real people, not least those neighbours of the east London imam who wished destruction upon their homes simply because they were Jewish. Not least countless people like Allison Pearson.
It is hard to avoid the conclusion that Pearson, who is not Jewish, has been caught in the blast-zone of antisemitism. As both this newspaper and the Telegraph have reported, whistleblowers at Essex police have suggested that the force may have something of a problem with Jews (an allegation which it of course denies).
Indeed, this wasn't even the only Imam who has been allowed to rant unmolested. The Telegraph recently reported that Essex police had chosen not to pursue another imam, Shaykh Shams Ad-Duha Muhammad, who had prayed: "O Allah, destroy the Zionists who fight your allies and obstruct your path. O Allah, seize them with a mighty and powerful grip, O Lord of the worlds, and unleash upon them your punishment that cannot be repelled by the criminal people."
Take a step back and it is becoming difficult to recognise our country. How have we arrived at a moment in which a middle-aged writer can be pursued by the boys in blue while an imam is apparently free to wish destruction on the Jews down the road? This in a county where less than ten per cent of crimes – including burglaries, rape and domestic abuse – are solved each year. The cops are overstretched, we are told. But they find the time to paint their faces in rainbow colours, lecture us on social media about the many possible meanings of a call for “jihad”, and harass a columnist for an honest mistake she made a year before on X (and swiftly deleted).
It's the bigger picture that is most damning. As ever, the targeting of Jews represents a blinking warning light on the dashboard of wider society. For over a year, we have watched from behind our hands while the police have allowed the grossest antisemitism to run riot on our streets. Sure, there have been arrests and it is not my intention to downplay that. But contrast the policing of the Gaza rallies with that of the far-right protests last summer. Riot helmets, horses and batons, followed by a speedy journey through the justice system that ended in hefty custodial sentences. Hang on, we thought the prisons were full?
Clearly, the criminal justice system is able to toughen up when it wants to. The intimidation of Pearson and the crackdown on the far-right, together with the softly-softly approach towards the Gaza marches and the imams who deliver fruity sermons, is an expression of a certain sentiment embedded in the culture of the police. It is a culture that most people in this country do not share and we do not want it imposed upon us.
