No backlash against Muslims

Soon after the attack by the Muslim terrorist in Australia, there were those in Australia who started worrying about a backlash against Muslims. 

A commenter was skeptical:

What anti-Islamic backlash? I keep hearing from the media and other groups how we Australians are inherently racist bigots looking for an excuse to lash out Muslims but I don't see it anywhere.

Recall that the anti-violent jihad ads on Muni buses a few years ago put city progressives and City Hall in a dither about a completely non-existent "Islamophobia."

Another Australian takes a dim view of #illridewithyou:

#illridewithyou has taken off. It is, of course, a completely empty gesture designed only to reinforce the arrogant feelings of moral superiority held by those who promote tolerance at the expense of our nation’s safety. And nothing shows the vacuous nature of the moral do-gooders than the fact that they don’t do any good at all. They just ‘Twitter’ good, like gods from on high. Apparently, that is even better than actually doing anything at all. If you support the idea of Islamic rule and Sharia law, the last 24 hours have shown that murdering two Australians is pretty much all it takes to get everyone who is anyone to show deference and submission. It’s not exactly a great deterrence. So expect more violence to come.

Naturally, the feebs at the MTA wring their over-compensated hands worrying about the non-existent backlash:

"During the 16-hour stand-off on Monday and Tuesday at a downtown café, 17 hostages were held and, eventually, two lost their lives...The gunman also died."

The passive usage tries to take the sting out of the reality: those two were shot to death by a Muslim fanatic, who, by the way, didn't die of Islamophobia. He was shot by the police.

Recall the MTA's fatuous "peace campaign" in response to the anti-jihad ads. Your tax dollars at work from the MTA's "creative shop." It's not enough that this agency is aggressively redesigning city streets on behalf of a small, often obnoxious minority of cyclists; it gives us this crap, too.

The MTA's blogger on the origins of the lame hashtag movement:

During this tragedy, two women on social media came together to form an idea about helping to reduce increasing backlash against those perceived to be affiliated with the Iranian perpetrator. The initial expression of support came from the blog of Rachel Jacobs who watched a fellow passenger on public transit remove her head covering. 

Once off the vehicle, Jacobs reached out to the woman to tell her that she would travel with her if the woman felt intimidated. Once the story was shared on Twitter, another woman...echoed the offer for those who shared her commute and then suggested the hashtag #illridewithyou.

This seems to be the extent of the backlash in Australia: a woman on a bus removed her head covering because she worried about a non-existent backlash in Australia.[Later: Seems like the "head covering" story was invented]

What about a backlash against Islam here in the US? According to the FBI's latest hate crime statistics, attacks on Moslems are way behind hate crimes against the usual targets: black people, Jews, and gays.

These "lone wolf" attackers are not so alone anymore:

The idea that the "lone wolf" is not associated with terrorism is a misunderstanding of how Islamist jihad has morphed today into a war on two fronts: overseas insurgencies that target everyone who is not a certain brand of Islam, and on the other hand, a sophisticated internet presence that incites anyone in the West (or dar al harb, the land of infidels) to carry out single acts of destruction. The "lone wolf" is no longer acting entirely on his own, but is linked voluntarily to a worldwide internet phenomenon...

Like the Boston bombers and a number of others in recent years.

As  the late, great Christopher Hitchens warned us five years ago: "The Battle will go on for the rest of our lives."

Thanks to Creeping Sharia and Jihad Watch.