Full Disclosure : I am not a Christian, Muslim, Jew, Shintoist, Buddhist or adherent of any religion whatsoever (unless beer is a religion?).

     Are we extending the term "hate crime" to include inanimate objects? More importantly are we extening it to include only non-christian inanimate objects? Mary covered in dung and surrounded by porn is not only O.K. it is state sponsored "art". Same goes for "Piss Christ". Someone throws a Koran in the toilet though and bingo! Hate crime.

     Would it be a "hate crime" if it was a Bible, or a Christian icon? Not very likely. The ACLU would be on that like stick on shit is my bet. They would defend it to the last breath as "freedom of expression" and they would be right to do so. I support people like the revolting artists who mock Christianity and other religions because I beleive in freedom of speech. "Should the State be sponsoring it?" is of course another issue.

     Of course what really brought the Koran bit to the fore was this :

"January 9, 2007 -- Pace University administrators threatened to sic the cops on a Jewish-student club if it went ahead with plans to screen a critically acclaimed film about radical Islam, the head of the group charged yesterday."

...

"The school stepped in after receiving complaints from Muslim students that the film negatively portrayed Islam."

     You will also note that there isn't a shred of evidence that the members of this student group were actually responsible for the Korans in the toilet even if damaging books should be considered to be a hate crime.

     I additionally find it a bit sad that Pace University caved to pressure on this as well. You can certainly bet that they wouldn't apply this sort of pressure if the film being shown was "The Last Temptation of Christ" or a documentary on the brutal excesses of the Crusades. It seems that only non-Christian religions are subjectable to "hate crimes" committed against inanimate objects or privileged to not have their religions shown in a negative light. Is there a double standard when it comes to sensitivity?

Disclaimer:

      Of course this is just me being a "hateful, racist, fearmonger" and I should be silenced. In fact I am the root cause of Terrorism, War, and Bad Television because I point things out. Thats probably why people have urged for death fatwas to be issued against me and my family. (I would link to it but it has been deleted by the author here so believe it or don't.)