The State Department admonished the U.K. this week against continuing its clampdown on free speech and persecution of Christians, once again blasting the penalties handed out to those Britons who dare to engage in silent prayer near abortion facilities.
It turns out that British pork lovers may similarly be in need of such advocacy.
A Englishman in the northwest of the country was arrested on Aug. 16 for expressing an affinity for bacon — a food forbidden by the Quran but essential to a full English breakfast. Apparently, such an utterance now qualifies as “racial abuse.”
Census data indicates that the number of people in England and Wales identifying as Christian dropped from 59.3% in 2011 to 46.2% in 2021. During the same 10-year stretch, the number of respondents identifying as Muslim rose from 4.9% to 6.5% — an increase of well over 1 million people.
To accommodate England and Wales’ fast-growing Muslim population, there has in recent years been an explosion in the number of mosques across the isle. This expansion has made its way to the town of Dalton-in-Furness in the English county of Cumbria, which is set to get its first mosque.
The South Lakes Islamic Center, spearheaded by Muslim doctors at Barrow’s Furness General Hospital, was greenlit for development in 2021, and construction began in earnest earlier this year. It is set for a grand opening next year.
‘Enough with the inclusivity BS.’
Some of the townsfolk are less than pleased over the construction of a $3.35 million, 3,234-square-foot mosque just outside their town of under 8,000 souls.
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Photo by Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images
Some critics are concerned parents who are worried that the planned mosque’s proximity to a Catholic elementary school will prove disruptive, affect the safety of the town’s children, and increase traffic congestion. Other critics have suggested that the mosque would be a “sign of conquest and occupation.”
The leader of the U.K. Independence Party, Nick Tenconi, noted in June that “Dalton-in-Furness has a population of 7,827 and there are 3 mosques already in Cumbria. Only 0.4% of people in Cumbria are Muslim. Mosques like this are being built to facilitate Operation Scatter.”
Critics have referred to the Starmer goverment’s campaign to move asylum-seekers and illegal aliens around the country and house them in empty homes or former student blocks instead of military bases and migrant hotels as “Operation Scatter.”
“The takeover of the U.K. continues,” Tenconi said in a video posted to social media.
“Enough with the inclusivity BS. That argument has been utterly lost by the woke left and proponents of the Islamist caliphate in Britain. People simply aren’t buying it any more and are rightly outraged. There is absolutely no need to put a mosque here, and the sole reason is to artificially flood the area with Muslims as an extension of Operation Scatter.”
According to the BBC, the Cumbria Police have increased patrols in the area, monitored online comments, and begun investigating potential thought crimes in response to criticism over the mosque.
On Saturday, hundreds of townsfolk protested at the construction site.
In anticipation of the demonstration, Cumbria Police pre-emptively issued a dispersal order, meaning police could “direct individuals who are causing or likely to cause harassment, alarm, or distress to leave the area and not return for a defined period.”
Viral footage taken at the protest shows two police officers hauling away one of the peaceful protesters for simply saying, “We love bacon.”
‘We British do love it, and there is nothing wrong with saying so.’
When the young man asks why he is being handcuffed, one of the officers informs him that he is being arrested under Section 5 of the Public Order Act of 1986, which prohibits the use of “threatening or abusive words or behavior, or disorderly behavior” within “the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm, or distress thereby.”
Muslim procession honoring the grandson of Mohammed in the English capital. Matthew Chattle/Future Publishing via Getty Images.
The officer suggests in the video that the expression “we love bacon” might be “perceived to be racially abusive.”
“Okay, listen,” said the arrestee. “A full English breakfast, yeah? What does that consist of?”
British journalist Isabel Oakeshott noted that bacon is a fundamental part of the full English breakfast, stressing that “it is part of our culinary culture — which is why there should be nothing remotely controversial about saying so.”
“Nonetheless, a 23-year-old single father is currently facing the possibility of court action after stating this simple fact at a public protest,” wrote Oakeshott. “Saying ‘We love bacon’ is simply a truism. We British do love it, and there is nothing wrong with saying so.”
Cumbria Police confirmed to the NWE Mail that a 23-year-old man was arrested at the protest on suspicion of a public order offense but later released on police bail.
Blaze News has reached out to the Cumbria Police and to the South Lakes Islamic Center for comment.
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