How do you define a "hate crime" or "hate incident" in the first place?
Reader comment on item: CAIR's Hate Crimes Nonsense

Submitted by Pat (United States), Dec 4, 2007 at 14:23

It seems the first error is lumping "hate crimes" and "hate incidents" together and the second is how we define "hate incident."

Obviously any violence is bad - arson is wrong. The people who torch mosques are wrong. The people who vandalize mosques are wrong. The people who throw ham sandwiches into mosques are wrong.

But hate "incidents....." Yeah, after the teddy bear incident or after the latest suicide bombing, people wearing hijabs are going to be looked at funny on the train. That's what happens when you advertise that you belong to an ideological group whose key texts - Qur'an, Sira and Hadiths - all promote aggression against non-believers. You're going to get funny looks for the same reason that skinheads get funny looks.

Take a picture of a crucifix in a toilet, that's art - and worthy of public funding.... At some college it was reported that someone had left a copy of the Qur'an in a toilet - that's a hate crime???? What about what the Qur'an actually says about Jews, Christians and other believers - honestly, parts of it read like the Mein Kampf. If I put a copy of the Mein Kampf in the toilet, would that be a "hate incident" against neo-Nazis? If I sent letters to Aryan Nation telling them what a bunch of lying, hateful, bigoted f-ups I think they are (and that is what I think of them), would that be considered a "hate incident?" If Aryan Nation held meetings in my town and tried to hide what they were really about, and I left materials about what they were really about in train stations and other public places, would that be a "hate incident?"

There are a LOT of mosques in this country that have had ties to terror organizations - or where the imam gives a sermon condemning Jews or promoting violence or, with or without his flock's support, has funneled money to terror groups. Is that most of them? No. But many? Dozens? Yes, this is documented. CAIR itself is an unindicted co-conspirator in one of the larger federal cases.

Do you think that in response to that type of criminal and threatening activity, some people might send a few nasty letters to the mosque in question? Probably. Is that a "hate incident?" No, it's free speech and it probably serves a useful purpose. Is it something that we would consider in the same category as some jerk spraypainting a swastika on the wall of a temple? Of course not - but unfortunately it IS categorized in the same way. It's considered "intimidation" thus a hate-incident - in some jurisdictions it's even considered a "hate crime." That's ludicrous.

When you light candles on Friday night instead of Sunday morning and people single you out for intimidation because of who you are, because of things you do that are different but not threatening, that's unprovoked and it's a hate incident. When you distribute books that talk about Allah enabling rocks to cry out "Muslims, there is a Jew hiding behind me, kill him" and people react differently than you wanted them to, you brought it on yourself.

Isaiah Thomas probably receives nasty letters from women all the time...

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