Posted on 06/17/2005 12:13:58 PM PDT by JZelle
BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) -- Police are investigating whether a hate crime took place when someone left a bag of burned Korans in front of an Islamic center. Members of the Islamic Center of Blacksburg were shocked when they arrived at the building for Saturday prayers and found a plastic shopping bag filled with burned copies of the Koran at the front door. "It is a shame that people are so ignorant," said Idris Adjerid, 20, a member of the center. Mr. Adjerid told the Roanoke Times that he has attended the center since 1997 and nothing like this has happened before. Blacksburg police Lt. Donnie Goodman reported the incident to the Virginia State Police, which compiles hate crime statistics. But he said the department is not sure whether the Koran burning is a hate crime. For the incident to be considered a hate crime, police must be able to show that the act was meant to intimidate or harass, he said. Kevin Foust, the agent in charge of the Roanoke FBI office, said yesterday that his office is helping in the investigation. He declined to speculate whether the incident would be classified as a hate crime under state or federal law. Mark Potok, a spokesman for the Montgomery, Ala.-based Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate crimes nationally, said he doubts the incident would be considered a crime. "I think it amounts to a biased incident as opposed to an actual crime," he said. "It was certainly intended as an act of hatred toward Muslims, but you can burn a stack of Bibles and what are they going to do about it?" Laila Al-Qatami, a spokeswoman for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Washington, questioned how police could consider the act anything other than a hate crime.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Well if whoever did it had NEA funding, then it should be considered art.
Never were truer words spoken. Too bad he doesn't know who's ignorant.
No crime - public service
Ummm . . . you're the one attending the mosque, sweetcakes.
"Hate" litter
"It was certainly intended as an act of hatred toward Muslims, but you can burn a stack of Bibles and what are they going to do about it?"
He CAN'T be suggesting that Christians and Muslims are treated equally under the law? (sarc)
Unlike the jihadis who burn people and then hang their charred corpses from bridges......
If this is a hate crime, then I guess flag burning is also.
Hajis don't consider a translation an actual Koran and would have no qualms burning some to gin up a hoax.
There is no such thing as a hate crime.
It's an expression of free speech. What's the big deal?
I doubt it. It would be considered protected free speech. I really can't blame Ms. Al-Qatami for her ignorance, though, as a goodly portion of the population is just as uninformed.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has spoken. Idris Adjerid needs to STFU.
Some things deserve and ought to be hated.
The same people that say that comparing our soliders to Nazis at a time of war is free speech waste no time classifying this as a "hate crime." The perils of moral relativism.
Ditto
The crime should be not burning enough of them .. . . .
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