Has the “Islamic Revolutionary Force” been planting glass and needles on Canada’s beaches?

Brad Hammond lives on the waterfront at Kirby’s Beach in Ontario, and he had never seen anything like it: glass shards and sewing needles had been deliberately planted at intervals along the beach, leading to the beach being closed for the first time in his memory. Another beach area, Bracebridge Bay Park, was closed as well. For the first time, but not likely the last, jihad had come to the beaches of Ontario.

There is no doubt that the glass and needles had been placed on the beach deliberately. “It was pretty much the width of the beach but it was in clumps, so you could tell it had been seeded in different areas,” Hammond said. Global News added that “Bracebridge Mayor Graydon Smith said the discovery of the needles and glass goes beyond what municipal staff would typically encounter after a spring melt.”

But who did this? Global News professed not to know, saying: “What remains unclear is who is responsible.” However, several weeks ago, Toronto-area media outlets received a letter purporting to be from a group called the Islamic Revolutionary Force, vowing to “destroy your beaches from Toronto to North Bay.”

The letter explained: “We do this because you reject Islam and follow the Great Satan. Infidels you allow your women to disgracefully, shamelessly parade around your beaches all but naked!” The letter writer claimed that the group had already begun to target the beaches: “We have started with the Muskoka’s and other tourist destinations. Your Northern towns are extremely easy targets, unlike cities.” Kirby’s Beach and Bracebridge Bay Park are in Muskoka. The letter says: “Yes we have destroyed your beaches over the winter months with snowmobiles, making them unsafe and all but unusable.”

The letter added: “Yes we cannot pull off anything like 9-11. But we can destroy your tourist industry, hurt your people, de-rail your trains, poison your water supply, start devastating forest fires….”

The Islamic Revolutionary Force has not been heard from before, and no one has ever been identified as a member. There are several possibilities here. One is that there are Muslims who threatened jihad violence against the beach, and who then planted glass shards and sewing needles all across it. Another is that non-Muslim hoaxers wrote the “Islamic Revolutionary Force” threat letter, and then planted the glass and needles on the beach. A third possibility is that one group, whether Muslim or non-Muslim, issued the “Islamic Revolutionary Force” letter, and another saw it and thought they would have some fun by putting the glass and needles on the beach.

Bracebridge Mayor Graydon Smith said that Ontario Provincial Police were examining the letter and investigating the incidents. He said about the letter: “I don’t know the legitimacy of it and it’s not my place to figure that out. It’s theirs. So it’s in the right hands, so we’ll work with them to make sure that they get everything they need to make a determination of its legitimacy or if it’s just a hoax.”

One thing is certain, however: this kind of thing never happened before jihad terror became a commonplace feature of life in the West. The beaches have been strewn with glass either by jihadis or by pranksters who admire the jihadis and want to “strike terror” into people’s hearts (cf. Qur’an 8:60), as jihadis do. Osama bin Laden once said: “When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, they will naturally want to side with the strong horse. When people of the world look upon the confusion and atheism of the West, they see that Islam is the strong horse.”

We are seeing people in the West demonstrating their admiration for the “strong horse” by converting to Islam in nations (particularly Britain) where the government shows anxious solicitude for Muslims and Islam but ill-concealed disdain for the native population. If the Islamic Revolutionary Force is a hoax perpetrated by non-Muslims, it is another example of how the jihadis have captured the imagination of the world, looking younger, stronger, and more confident than any force arrayed against them.

Or, the glass and needles on the beaches could really have been placed there by Muslims who hate Canada, the West, and its mores. Either way, jihad has come to Ontario’s beaches.

Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He is author of the New York Times bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad. His new book is The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS. Follow him on Twitter here. Like him on Facebook here.