Examining Two Hate Crimes - Bibles verses Korans
Is our society going crazy - you decide!First situation from FRC: Going the Extra Mile - In the Wrong direction! Officials in Key Largo, Florida were apparently living by the old adage of "going the extra mile" (Matthew 5:41). In January, two Gideons were arrested for distributing Bibles on a public sidewalk outside a local elementary school. They were charged with trespassing. With the help of the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), which represented the men, the charges were dismissed a short time later. However, the men were then notified that other charges were being filed--this time under a different statute which prohibits anyone from being within 500 feet of school property without permission. As ADF's statement suggests, "Does the state [believe] that its citizens will be safer if 'protected' from Bibles? In a country founded on religious freedom, the actions of the state are a disgrace." As were the actions of the local police, which allegedly mocked the Gideons after handcuffing them, saying, "Now you can pray to Jesus all the way to jail." Thanks to ADF, common sense prevailed in court and, for a second time, all charges against the Gideons were dropped. See also: ADF successfully defends religious freedom for Gideons When did law enforcement official stop respecting and start mocking their elders and men of God who peacefully care enough for children to share the word of God by passing out Bibles.
Second Situation from FRC: First Amendment - Flushed Away by Hate Crimes? While some men were arrested for distributing religious books, another has been charged for flushing one. In a bizarre case at Pace University, former student Stanislav Shmulevich has been accused of taking two copies of the Koran from a "meditation room" and throwing them in toilets. While no one could legitimately defend his actions, it likewise seems indefensible that University officials bowed to demands by the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and charged Shmulevich with a hate crime in addition to the initial charges of "criminal mischief." The Islamic community has every right to be express disdain for Shmulevich's actions, but not to insist on extra criminal punishment for his thoughts, which is what "hate crime" laws provide for. Supporters of the proposed federal hate crime bill defend it as targeting only acts of violence. Yet New York's law apparently targets vandalism as well. See also: Hate-crime arrests in Quran desecrations at Pace Univ. How long will it be before mere speech expressing disapproval (be it of Islam, or of homosexuality) is also criminalized, as in several other countries? This is the slippery slope of the "hate crimes" mentality, and we shouldn't take even one step down it. When Andres Serrano submerged a crucifix in urine and called it "art," Christians condemned the act--but demanded only that the taxpayers not pay for it, not that he be jailed for a "hate crime."Tags: ADF, Alliance Defense Fund, Bible, CAIR, Council on American-Islamic Relations, Gideons, Hate Crime Bill, hate crimes, Koran To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Posted by Bill Smith at 6:51 PM - Post Link
9 Comments:
THIS HATE CRIME IS DAMAGING OUR COMMUNITY. SAY NO ... THIS HATE CRIME IS DAMAGING OUR COMMUNITY. SAY NO TO KORANS IN TOILETS!
I and other members of our diverse community wish to denounce in the strongest possible terms the current craze for flushing the Koran down the toilet, as started by a certain Mr Stanislav Shmulevich [see http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=26463_The_Koran_Complaint&only ]
These Islamophobes think they are making a political or religious statement in sending this book into the sewers, but do they realise just what harm they're doing? Where do they think these soggy, smelly Korans go to? They don't just harmlessly dissappear, I can tell you!
I am a member of a diverse community of single celled organisms who work in the activitated sludge at a sewage treatment plant. Our community is composed of bacteria, amoebae, Spirotrichs, Peritrichs, Vorticellids etc who were all working happily side by side to process human wastes and render them harmless, until all this Koran-flushing business started.
Between us, we microbes can biodegrade any normal pee or poo. But these Korans have got us beat. They are toxic supershiite. We've never seen crap like it, not even the stuff that comes out of the toilets in government offices.
What's worse is the danger of the development of militant cells. As you are no doubt all aware, if the Koran comes into contact with certain low and primitive life-forms it can turn them into virulent killers. I'm afraid this could happen to some members of our previously well-integrated microbial community. I and my fellow protozoans have got more sense than to be affected by this crap, but some of the previously harmless bacteria could turn pathogenic and escape from the sewage treatment plant to cause havoc. That's why flushing the koran is such a serious hate-crime.
So next time you're tempted to wipe your botty on Sura 5:33, spare a thought for all of us at the other end of the sewer. There are alternative environmentally acceptable ways to dispose of unwanted korans. Have you thought of using the pages as beer-mats, or as kitchen towels to absorb the excess fat from your fried bacon?
A. Meba
The arresting officer on the complaint, Det. Faisal Khan, has been nominated for the board of the American Muslim Law Enforcement Officers Association, and on the page where it’s announced you’ll also find links to CAIR, the ISNA, the ICNA, and the SoundVision discussion forum.
Note that two of the organizations linked at the AMLEOA site, CAIR and ISNA, have been named as unindicted co-conspirators in the Hamas funding trial now under way in Dallas.
Mark Steyn muses about the flushed Koran: “Obviously Mr Shmulevich should have submerged it in his own urine, applied for an NEA grant and offered it to the Whitney Biennial.”
Actually, no. The NEA would have turned Shmulevich in to the police, too. Now, if he had submerged a Bible in urine or coated a Torah in cow dung and submitted it for a federal grant, he’d be sitting pretty–and facing rave New York Times editorials instead of time behind bars.
Turns out the newspaper reports were wrong: he hasn’t been charged with any counts of aggravated harassment, just two counts of fourth-degree criminal mischief (one for each Koran he flushed). As we saw yesterday, fourth-degree mischief is a misdemeanor. So how did Shmulevich end up with two felonies? Simple — they used the state hate crimes statute to elevate the penalty. You’ll find it here in section 485.05; criminal mischief is specifically identified as a covered offense in subsection 3. The provision ordering the court to enhance the punishment is in subsection 2 of section 485.10, right below the hate crimes statute. In pertinent part:
"When a person is convicted of a hate crime pursuant to this article and the specified offense is a misdemeanor or a class C, D or E felony, the hate crime shall be deemed to be one category higher than the specified offense the defendant committed, or one category higher than the offense level applicable to the defendant’s conviction for an attempt or conspiracy to commit a specified offense, whichever is applicable."
Presumably, Shmulevich is looking at two Class E felonies now instead of misdemeanors. What’s the penalty for a Class E felony in New York? If the judge is feeling uncharitable, four years. At a minimum, per the same statute, one year.
Ok, so now that they're treading on such thin ice with this case as an infringement on the First Amendment, should we not ask for a defined list of what constitutes a 'hate crime"?
As most have hearc this morning, Dallas talk show host Mike Gallagher has taken the side of the lawsuit and said that defacing someone's holy book on purpose in public is a hate crime. He compared it to burning a cross in a black families front yard. I disagree, but that's my opinion. Burning a cross in someones yard is not only distruction of property, but had the intention of instilling fear into the bodies of the property owner. Putting a korham in the toilet and pooping on it in a public toilet may be a statement toward a particular group, but it is NOT a deliberate attempt to instill fear or threaten a person or group. It is simply a, albeit slightly warped, way to tell someone 'I think your beliefs are a bunch of crap'....
HOWEVER, since the document states that the defendant in this case 'damaged property of another', are they saying that he STOLE the korham from one of the opposing groups members and defiled it?
IF he is then convicted of a hate crime and the book was NOT stolen, what's to say that we cannot start aresting all the 'peach marches' that are put on by the sheehag clan that posts all the hate speech against the Bush administration? They are defacing the likeness of Bush and Cheney in a similar hateful manner.
I just really think that this one is better left alone. A can of worms, so to speak.
What a perversion of justice! As many others have pointed out, desecration of other religions sacred texts have been hailed as art. Desecration of the koran is a felony? Should I pay my dhimmi fund now or convert? I hope this gets thrown out of court as a hate crime. And I hope the DA and NYPD Shield #1710 (notice the last name) get reprimanded. The DA must have gone to school with Nifong.
This was no hate crime.
It was a symbolic act, and a magnifcent gesture of defiance.
It beautifully expresses the contempt for Islamofascism which so many of us feel. As a piece of performance art which captures the mood of the silent majority, it could hardly be bettered.
A Koran in a toilet - how eloquent.
If he had taken a poloroid of the act then put it on a wall it would have been art instead...
If it had been a bible then it would have been free speech...
The hypocrisy is amazing.
Mindcrime! Apparently now we don't even have the right to feel anger towards Muslims.
Our culture is being relentlessly eroded by these merciless aggressors. What's to be done about it?
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