There is an important trial underway in London which is getting very little media attention. On the stand are seven Muslims accused of plotting a series of terrorist attacks ranging from poisoning the water supply to crashing a British Airways airliner. To carry out the latter, they sought to recruit up to thirty men to overwhelm whatever resistance may have arisen on board. Last week a tape was played in the courtroom of a phone conversation where one of the defendants was overheard as saying:

The beauty is they don't have to fly into a building, just crash the flipping thing... Thirty brothers on a British Airways flight... as soon as an air marshal gets up and shoots one the others just jump him.

Despite the gravity of the plots, the proceeding has received only scant mention in the major media outlets. And when it does get reported it is usually in blatantly skewed fashion. A recent BBC news story, for instance, did not state once that the defendants are Muslim. This is not the first time. Terms such as Muslim, Islam and jihad have yet to appear in the BBC's reporting on the trail.

The sparse coverage of this event contrasts glaringly with that given to an operation which took place earlier this month. In the evening of June 2, the British security forces conducted a massive raid on a house in east London on suspicion it contained a chemical weapons lab. In the course of the operation — which involved around 250 personnel some of whom wore chemical suits — a young Arab male was shot in the shoulder. His injuries were not life—threatening and he was released within a few days. The police did not find any chemical weapons, however, and it now appears that they acted on a flawed tip.

Unlike the terror trail, this incident has proven to be a veritable magnet for media analysis. Needless to say, almost all of it has been sharply critical of the police while strongly sympathetic to the Muslims involved. On June 18, for instance, the Guardian opened a story in this way:

Whichever way you look at it, the two Muslim brothers whose home was raided in London's Forest Gate at the beginning of the month suffered a very serious breach of their rights. Their home was broken into by armed men who didn't declare themselves as police officers.

In an article titled "Counter terrorism, counter productive," the Daily Telegraph had this to say:

The public has good reason to be cynical and, indeed, suspicious of the police actions.

This campaign of police vilification is being deftly seconded by leftist politicians. The most outspoken among them is George Galloway — known in the US for his testimony before a congressional committee investigating the oil—for—food scandal — who in a recent speech called for the resignation of either the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police or the Prime Minister himself.

Egged on in this way, British Muslims have been stridently complaining about the 'barbaric and unacceptable treatment' at the hands of the police. Demanding an apology at the highest levels, Muddassar Ahmad, the founder of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK, said: 'We clearly, clearly want an apology unqualified.' He then issued a statement demanding an 'end to the association of Islam with terrorism' as well as a full review of the war on terror.

Muhammad Abdul Bari, the secretary general of the ubiquitous Muslim Council of Britain, has gone even further and issued thinly—veiled threats of violence:

Angry people can do anything. Angry people can even feel that they should take the law into their own hands, so anger has to be directed into positive action.

It is truly astounding for such language to emanate from the population that has produced the killers who barely a year ago bombed the London subway and whose seven members are presently on trial for conspiring to commit further acts of terrorist mayhem.

Although there may be a temptation to feel angry with the Muslims, it is important to realize that they are only partially to blame. The relentless portrayal of them as victims and of the police as abusers has created an environment which almost calls for this kind of reaction. This in turn brings about a situation where a terrorist—breeding community can freely condemn those who try to stop its members from committing acts of terrorist destruction.

The combined assault on the security forces by the media, Muslim leadership and leftwing politicians is a certain prescription for disaster. Put upon and criticized, the police are being forced to place politically correct patterns of behavior above public safety. That the pressure is taking its toll is evident from their repeated claims that the Muslim community is made up of peaceful people from whom there is nothing to fear. Such assertions fly directly in the face of reality.

It is an obvious fact that western Europe is being terrorized by Muslims within. We have everything to fear from them, for they harbor those who would destroy us if they could. Not all Muslims, to be sure. But some. Yet the very people tasked with dealing with this problem are afraid to say the truth. Disturbingly, it appears that this fear has infected police forces all throughout the western world. Only recently we saw a striking instance in Canada when after having thwarted a terrorist plot, police officials went into absurd lengths to avoid the obvious.

Having what they believed was a credible tip, the British police did the right thing by raiding that house in east London. We can never be certain that the information we have is completely accurate and the only way to find out is to act. The question now is whether the police will have the will and courage to act decisively next time they are in possession of critical intelligence. Given the badgering they have endured, they may well be tempted to follow the route of caution. Considering the world we live in such vacillation could have catastrophic consequences.

Vasko Kohlmayer is a frequent contributor. Email Vasko.