Do you consider this a hate crime?

I came across this article it's about someone placing a Koran on the step of a Mosque with a couple of strips of bacon between the pages. It is being investigated as a hate crime, what do others think?

I don't consider this a hate crime, mean spirited and childish but a hate crime NO. It's freedom of expression or free speech.

CAIR SEEKS FBI PROBE OF ‘HATE CRIME’ AT TN MOSQUE

Political, religious leaders asked to repudiate growing Islamophobia
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 4/10/07) - A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today called on the FBI to investigated what Tennessee law enforcement authorities are calling a “hate crime” targeting a mosque in that state.

The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said worshipers at the Islamic Center of Clarksville found a defaced copy of the Quran, Islam’s revealed text, on the front steps of the mosque just before communal prayers (Jummah) on Friday. Two strips of bacon, which is prohibited for Muslims to eat, were smeared in the Quran. Local police are investigating the incident as a hate crime.

SEE: Muslims on Alert After Hate Crime (Leaf-Chronicle)

“We once again urge local, state and national political and religious leaders to repudiate the growing level of anti-Muslim rhetoric in our society that can lead to such troubling incidents,” said CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad.

According to the Clarksville Leaf Chronicle, two hours before the 1 p.m. Friday service, the Koran was found on the front steps of the Islamic Center. Someone had written “Mohammad pedophile” on the front, and an (unnamed) expletive was on the inside, smeared under two strips of bacon. Not only did the local police report it as a hate crime, but they said they would contact the FBI. Mosque representatives are meeting with the City Mayor Johnny Piper to see what he can do as well.

This is a clear example of how hate crime laws are being used to impose sharia law, in the guise of religious special accomodations, and in place of U.S. federal or state laws. I’m not a lawyer, so correct me if I’m wrong - that’s why we have a comments section - but under the current laws in Tennessee and the U.S., these are facts of the case:1.

The Koran - simply a book under our laws, rather than “Islam’s revealed text,” and therefore not subject to the special treatment required by sharia law - belonged to whoever put it on the steps. So no theft or defacement of someone else’s property was involved. If I had left a Bible on their steps, would that have been a hate crime? Or a Koran from Yemen, not accepted by the Wahhabi cult?2. Leaving a Koran on a property’s steps - again, just a book like any other, under our law rather than sharia law - does not vandalize that property. Maybe you can define it as littering, but “hate crime littering” seems a bit of a dhimmitude stretch when it’s a single book and two pieces of bacon, neatly placed inside the book.

3. Writing in a book, including a Torah, New Testament, Bible, Lolita, The Pentagon Papers, the Yellow Pages or the Koran (again, just a book under any laws other than sharia) is permitted under the First Amendment. Writing an expletive in a book is permitted under the First Amendment. Writing that Mohammed was a pedophile is permitted under the First Amendment, and is also amply documented by both Islamic and other scholars of the Koran.

[Scriptural Evidence] Volume 7, Book 62, Number 64: Sahih Bukhari [the most venerated and authentic Islamic source]
Narrated ‘Aisha: that the Prophet married her when she was six years old and he consummated his marriage when she was nine years old, and then she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death).

4. Bacon is not illegal in Tennessee, and putting bacon in a book is not illegal in Tennessee. It’s a waste of good bacon, but it’s not illegal. In fact, Tennessee is the new home for the Pig Improvement Company, the world leader in genetic pig stock production (” Selling breeding stock and boar semen is a profitable business…”:

In 2005, the Tennessee pork industry had over $52 million in cash receipts and ranked 24th in the United States in pork population. Tennessee’s 1,300 pig farms take up 51,876 acres of land and constitute the state’s 10th most lucrative agricultural industry.

Where was the underlying crime that must exist for this to be a “hate” crime, under U.S. or Tennessee laws? Or was the underlying crime one that exists only under sharia law, followed with meticulous political correctness by the Clarksville police in reporting it as a hate crime? Will leaving a book on the steps of a mosque become criminal trespass, in order to find some underlying crime to make it “hateful” under the National Incident Based Reporting System of the Department of Justice? The methodology for gathering hate crime statistics uses 3 categories of crimes: against people, against property and against society. Since this was not a crime against property or people, under U.S. and state laws, should we assume that the Clarksville police department has found it to be a crime against society under sharia law?

Or are we in the never-never land of searching for or inventing underlying crimes, to criminalize hostile and critical speech, so that it can be prosecuted as a hate crime? The 2005 Department of Justice “Study of Literature and Legislation on Hate Crime in America” warned of the risks:

Over the past 25 years, the federal government and all but one state have passed pieces of legislation addressing hate crime in some way. Still, there remains no national consensus about whether hate crime should be a separate class of crime, and among those supporting hate crime statutes, there is disagreement about how these statutes should be constructed and focused. The keys issues in the debate include:

(1) the necessity of considering hate or bias motivation when the core offenses(e.g., assault, vandalism) are already covered by criminal law;

(2) whether there is a danger in basing additional penalties for crimes upon the thoughts motivating offenders, rather than keeping the focus of criminal law on the behavior itself;

(3) whether it is possible to determine with legally-acceptable levels of certainty the motive behind a person’s criminal acts;

(4) whether, in practice, hate crime laws result in crimes against certain groups of people being punished more severely than equivalent crimes committed against other groups, and if so, whether that is fair and legally defensible;

(5) whether having hate crime statutes deters potential offenders; and

(6) whether having these statutes hinders law enforcement’s ability to investigateand prosecute crime.

Until we determine otherwise, assume that Clarksville, Tennessee is operating under sharia law regarding the First Amendment. Make sure you don’t criticize the violent verses in the Koran while jaywalking, owing time on your parking meter, or buying bacon at Target. You don’t know who in Clarksville’s finest may be watching and reporting you for hate crimes.

Nope no hate crime, Just rednecks having fun with the newcomers. If they don't like it there is option B, MOVE.

just a case of people overreacting.

it's a dick move though, not very nice at all....

Yes definitely a hate crime. A deliberate act intended to make it known that the Muslims are not welcome or liked. That the act of droppong the book itself is no crime is inconsequential. The medium is unimportant, the message is clear. The act was meant to incite anger and fear and is therefor a hate crime.

It would be no different if it was a burning cross in front of a black Baptist church, or objects arranged in the shape of a swaztika in front of a Synagogue. The people who did it should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Tennesee Code 39-17-309:

39-17-309. Civil rights intimidation. —
(a) The general assembly finds and declares that it is the right of every person regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion or national origin, to be secure and protected from fear, intimidation, harassment and bodily injury caused by the activities of groups and individuals. It is not the intent of this section to interfere with the exercise of rights protected by the constitution of the United States. The general assembly recognizes the constitutional right of every citizen to harbor and express beliefs on any subject whatsoever and to associate with others who share similar beliefs. The general assembly further finds that the advocacy of unlawful acts by groups or individuals against other persons or groups for the purpose of inciting and provoking damage to property and bodily injury or death to persons is not constitutionally protected, poses a threat to public order and safety, and should be subject to criminal sanctions.

Delwin if you read the bottom of the article you will note no laws were broken. Free speech is still allowed in the US a book and Bacon are legal in the US for now.

Nope not hate speech, the koran is a book and it wasn't damaged. Bacon is legal in the US and the last I heard Sharia Law isn't applicaple to non-Muslims. In fact Sharia Law isn't reconized as a law in domocratic societies. It was a spiteful prank nothing more, the fact that the FBI got involved shows how political and powerful Radical Islam has become in the US.

Yes, the use of bacon is a serious hate crime.

No, that's not a hate crime! :lol:

I find this hilarious!

I wonder when the FBI ran it over to "Trace" if they got a finger print or DNA off the bacon. Perhaps they can charge the Pig's relatives with being Hateful Porkers.

Bloody PC nonsense, what's next banning ham. Oh that's another story I read lately someone left half a ham sandwich in the lunch room on a table and it's being investigated as a "Hate crime" because a few muslims sat at the table and noticed the half eaten sandwich. Perhaps we pork eaters should be banished to the janitors closet lest we offend the radicals of Islam. Political correctness run amok.

Hate crime 100% and shows a lack of backbone......had to leave it on the step instead of giving it to a member of the Mosque.
Don't get me wrong i am not a big Muslim fan....but it goes to show you the confiction of the spineless pricks that did this...just intent on scareing someone with out the balls for a fight.

Flip side. You're not supposed to eat meat on easter Monday or Sunday if you are a Christian right? What if I stuck a steak into the pages of a bible and left it on the stairs of a church? Hate crime?