According to the Christian Science Monitor:
Of all religious hate crimes in 2007, hate crimes directed at Catholics constituted 4 percent, down from 5 percent in 2006. The report also showed religiously based hate crime statistics for Protestants (4 percent), other religions (9.5 percent), followers of multiple religions (4.3 percent), and Atheists/Agnostics (0.4 percent).
Hate crimes against Jews were up with Jews accounting for 68.4 percent of religiously based hate crimes in 2007, more than four points higher than the 64.3 in 2006.
Hate crimes for Muslims, meanwhile, declined. Muslims accounted for 9 percent of all hate crimes motivated by religious bias in 2007, down from 12 to percent the previous year.
OK, I loathe the words “hate crime” and their mind-probing implications (punish the crime, not the thought, and all that), but I’m forced to wonder why this doesn’t fit the bill.
Oh, here’s why (from the LA Times):
…Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials said the mannequin sporting a beehive hairdo, glasses and a red coat does not rise to the level of a hate crime because it was part of a Halloween display.
Honestly, would they say the same thing were it a President-elect Obama effigy hanging by a noose?
