I’m a fervent believer in the rule of law. I believe in fair trials carried out in honest courts, with honest evidence before unbiased judges and juries, the presumption of innocence, the right to adequate defence for the accused and with full due process for even those accused of the most heinous of crimes. It is because I believe in these things and because history is littered with examples of how ‘King Mob’ is a terrible and unjust dispenser of ‘justice’ that I am opposed to vigilantism. I see vigilantism not as an expression of ‘the people’s will’, as some do, but as evidence that society has failed or has at least failed to dispense justice properly or to, as it says on the inscription above the ‘old doors’ on London’s Central Criminal Court: “Defend the Children of the Poor and Punish the Wrongdoer”.

On quite a few occasions on here I have given grave warnings about what might happen in civilised Western societies were not the excesses of Islam and of its extremists curbed. I’ve warned that failing to deal with what is an obvious problem with Islam by the organs of various States or pandering to Muslims and placing the rights of Muslims above everything else, would do nothing apart from cause a loss of confidence in the political and legal system. Such a loss in confidence would almost inevitably encourage that most base of human behaviours, vigilantism.

A good example of how vigilantism is emerging in those nations that have not tackled Islamic extremism properly and how vigilantes may well be targeting the innocent or relatively innocent, comes from Paris. This incident saw two Muslim women, completely unconnected to the recent Islamic terror attack in France in which a history teacher was beheaded, stabbed. This is the sort of thing that nation’s get when hotheads perceive that the state is not doing enough to tackle a nation’s Islam related problems. Those of us who believe wholly in the biblical admonition to have honest courts with balanced scales of justice, cannot but deplore the sort of possible vigilantism that this case may represent.

Below is part of a Daily Mail story about what is plainly an attack on innocent Muslims carried out by angry French citizens possibly in revenge for the recent Islamic atrocity to afflict France. It should give readers some idea of how much the tension is being ratcheted up in France. What appears to have happened here is some French dog walkers were walking their dogs under the Eiffel Tower when a pair of Muslim women decided that they’d complain to the dog walkers about the dogs. The Muslim women said that their kids were scared of the dogs, but what may well be the issue here is that dogs are seen as ‘unclean’ in Islam and the Muslim women were trying to push their Islamic mores on these French women. This was the cue for things to kick off.

The Daily Mail said:

Two Muslim women were ‘stabbed repeatedly’ under the Eiffel Tower amid rising tensions in Paris after the beheading of a teacher last week.
French police have arrested two female suspects after an argument about dogs allegedly descended into violence and racist insults including the words ‘Dirty Arabs’.
One of the Muslim women said the attackers had pulled out a knife after refusing to put their dogs on a leash and slashed her on the skull, arm and ribs.
The victims of Sunday’s attacks have been identified as French women from an Algerian background named only as Kenza, 49, and Amel, who is a few years younger.
Those in custody are described as being white women of ‘European appearance’, who now face ‘attempted murder’ charges, said city prosecutors after the alleged row about dogs – which are seen as unclean in Islam.
‘We had gone out for a walk. At the level of the Eiffel Tower there is a small rather dark park, we took a little tour in it. As we walked, there were two dogs that come towards us,’ Kenza told Liberation newspaper.
‘The children got scared. My cousin, who was veiled, asked the two women if it was possible to keep their dogs with them because the children were afraid.’
After they refused, ‘one of the two took out a knife, she slashed me on the skull, on the back on the ribs and there was a third blow on the arm,’ said Kenza. ‘They then attacked my cousin.’

I cannot help but wonder whether this incident would have gone the way it did had a) there not been another gruesome Islamic attack in France a few days before and b) if the French government had not allowed a situation to be created where Muslims felt entitled to hassle dog walkers?

Is this a revenge or vigilante attack because of the latest Islamic terror attack in France on a French citizen? The metaphorical jury is out on that but this case does have a few aspects to it that would suggest that there might be vigilante aspects to it. The first is that the alleged assailants were already armed, the second is that the women they targeted were identifiably Islamic and thirdly their seemed to be an Islamic theological motivation behind the initial complaint by the Muslim women about the dogs. Lots of people don’t like dogs. I’m none too keen on them (I prefer cats) but I would not harm one and would not hassle anybody who owns one or is exercising one near me. The fact is that it was these Muslim women who felt entitled enough to hassle the women about the dogs was what has kicked this incident off. The stabby response was wrong I have to say. The Muslims could have merely been told the French equivalent of ‘fuck off’ and the non Muslim dog walkers could have walked away, but that’s not how this incident panned out.

Sadly I suspect that in places like France where there seems to be a slide into conflict between ordinary French citizens and the implanted Muslim population, incidents like these will become more common. I cannot of course condone or approve of this violence meted out to these Muslims even though they appear to have been the instigators of this incident with their entitled complaining.

Unless the French state puts its Muslims back in their box and makes them behave like the rest of French society is expected to behave then we might be seeing more of this sort of thing or sadly stuff that is much worse. This and worse types of vigilantism and revenge attacks and tensions are what the French are likely to get unless they make the average citizen feel that they are protected and that the worst excesses of Islam are being controlled. Like any other sensible person I do not want to see vigilantism, that will probably do little to quell Islamic extremism but will probably end up harming the non-violent parts of the Islamic community and may well drive them towards the extremists. If the French state sorts out its Islam problems then greater future problems may well be able to be solved. If the French state does not then I worry greatly about what will come along in the future.