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Something smells fishy about this “crime”
There are estimated to be about 20,000 Muslims in Nashville, who are distraught that,
A Muslim holy book was found yesterday covered with flies, with a torn-out page mashed into what appeared to be feces and burned around the edges.
The Koran was discovered on a doorstep about noon by an Islamic man who lives nearby in the LeNore Garden Apartments complex. He was walking to his home in the community, largely populated by Islamic immigrants from Somalia. A neighbor told police the book had been on the steps since at least 5 p.m. Tuesday. [from today’s Tennessean]
Muslim men interviewed by WSMV TV News yesterday espressed anger and shock, but there have been no overt acts of passion in response to the incident. Abdulhakim Ali Mohamed, imam of the Islamic Center of Nashville, “asked his community to show their concerns through peaceful means.”
Here’s the kicker:
Police are investigating the incident as a hate crime and are consulting the FBI. A suspect could be charged with misdemeanor desecration of a venerated object or civil rights intimidation, which can be a felony or misdemeanor charge, said Metro police Capt. Mike Hagar. The district attorney would make a decision whether to pursue criminal charges.
Note well: no one was injured. No Muslim has reported a stolen Quran. No one even knew what the object was for at least an overnight period. Yet whomever defaced this book might be sent to prison for hurting some people’s feelings.
Ah, America: you can burn the American flag - that’s Constitutionally protected speech - but not a Quran - it’s a “venerated object.” (BTW, I oppose the flag-burning amendment.)
The whole thing smells fishy to me. The partially-burnt Quran stayed on the step at least from Tuesday afternoon to Wednesday noon. The neighborhood is mostly Muslim, though not exclusively. Who would have a spare copy of the Quran but, ISTM, a Muslim? My prediction, based on not much more than gut instinct and serving two years on the staff of a federal law-enforcement agency, is that this deed was done by a Nashville Muslim and was part of small but deliberate effort to self-victimize the Nashville Muslim community, sort of like this. This strikes me as a publicity stunt on the part of a few Muslim youth, I am going to guess in their mid- to late teens.
But the fact that the DA’s office is seriously discussing sending someone to prison - not jail, prison - for this incident is very disturbing and illustrates the bankruptcy of the whole idea of “hate crimes.”
Update: The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is laready on the case, now picked up by the Iranian Quran News Agency. Needless to say, the awful plight of Muslims in America is being trotted out by CAIR and Iran, who claim there is: “growing anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. following an apparently intentional desecration of the Qur’an in Nashville.”
Update: Gordon, commenting at LGF, has apparently obtained the transcript of the 911 call. Really!
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June 23rd, 2005 at 10:27 am
TO: Donald Sensing
RE: Hate Crimes
“But the fact that the DA’s office is seriously discussing sending someone to prison - not jail, prison - for this incident is very disturbing and illustrates the bankruptcy of the whole idea of “hate crimes.””—Donald Sensing
This is akin to the comment I made up the hall from here, about “fighting words” and “conduct unbecoming an officer”. They, as well as “hate crime” are too vague. And, for that matter, taking it one step further, God could be considered a perpetrator of ‘hate crimes’. Why? Because despite the fact that He does not hate people, He does hate ‘sin’, which is what people do…ALL THE TIME. Therefore, someone could make a case that God should be outlawed because His beliefs are the source of ‘hate’.
RE: Desecration of Venerated Objects
If you find yourself in a ‘discussion’ with someone over this reported incident, remember the “Piss Christ”. We were upset. But I don’t recall any DA talking about throwing the artist in prison. Maybe someone should. That would likely put things into a number of interesting perspectives.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[Death - To stop sinning.]
June 23rd, 2005 at 12:20 pm
This May Offend You
A case of Koran “desecration” in Nashville. The Tennessean reports:”It’s in the heart of every Muslim. We respect and we love (the Koran) more than our families,” said Ab-dishakur Ibrahim, imam of the Al-Farooq mosque. “I don’t know why anyone w…
June 23rd, 2005 at 8:57 pm
Heretofore, I have adamantly opposed legislation proclaiming the desecration of the flag a crime. However, the increasing instances of the kind of lunacy referenced above are beginning to change my mind.
Where in the Constitution does it state that only non-whites can be considered victims of hate crimes? That only non-Christians are protected? That the so-called victims and their advocates/puppet masters get to decide what is and is not a hate crime?
(Your Honor, that unclean infidel breathed on my Holy Koran after eating pork, and my life has been irreparable damaged. I demand you lock this vicious criminal away so that he can’t “rape” another innocent Koran. Oh, and by the way, I’m burning this American flag to show the depth of my outrage. Can you hear me shouting, “Death to all Americans who refuse to accept the laws of Allah?” I am, of course, deadly serious, although, Praise be to Allah, those decadent and lazy Americans will refuse to believe it until they see the blade I have hidden so well.)
Sheesh, the hypocrisy is mind-blowing. Haven’t liberals been screaming ad nauseum about the separtion of church and state as mandated by the Constitution? And yet, because the Muslims revere this one certain book—this RELIGIOUS TOME—We the People of the United States of America must do likewise. And if We don’t, We are to be locked up? Sounds a lot like religious prosecution to me, but, hey, in the new normal according to PCSpeak, CAIR has superseded the Consitution and SCOTUS as the ultimate authority.
As much as I dislike the idea of altering the Constitution, this citizen of the U.S.A. is becoming more and more convinced that the enemy is among us and using our open-hearted generosity and sense of fair play against us. Unless we wise up, we may well be the next Netherlands.
And I really, really HATE feeling this way.
June 23rd, 2005 at 9:57 pm
Had this been a Bible, the whole thing would be a non-sequitur and the MSM/CAIR/police, as usual,
wouldn’t care less.
If the pages of my dog-eared and very dirty Jerusalem Bible were destroyed,
I wouldn’t be happy (mainly because I’d lose years of notes) but, since the object of my worship
is more substantial than tree pulp, it wouldn’t be enough to send me into a fit
of rage. Understanding why veneration of a physical object such as the Quran generates
madness in an entire society totally escapes me.
June 23rd, 2005 at 10:28 pm
I think it is remarkable how rare this sort of thing is. Nearly 4 years after 9/11, after Bali and Madrid, after kidnappings and beheadings and countless foiled attacks Americans have not lashed out at local Muslims in their neighborhoods.
The whole hate crime angle is silliness. At most this is a form of littering.
June 25th, 2005 at 11:37 am
In an e-mail exchange with Darian Trotter of WSMV on the desecration story in which he stated that “the Pentagon had confirmed that a Koran had been flushed down the toilet” he has now told me that “the group we talked to argue that Muslim detainees would never commit such an act.” So that’s that then.
He also didn’t think much of my spelling of the Koran.
June 27th, 2005 at 6:57 am
If this is, as you suspect, a Tawana Brawley rerun, it will be very difficult to demonstrate that. A mangled book, unlike Al Sharpton’s failed pupil, can’t crack under questioning or say too much.
So we will always have to live with the possibility that some American was honestly exercising his Constitutionally protected right to free expression. How will we bear it?
July 5th, 2005 at 10:47 am
The FBI? Don’t they have more important things to do? Crime is crime
and there are written laws to combat it. Hate crime legislation is
a step towards THOUGHT CRIME. THis is ridiculous.
August 13th, 2005 at 6:06 pm
Hate crimes are in fact punishable crimes. This was a horrible thing to do. It was a crime. If this had happened to a christian bible here in Nashville, many christians would be out in the streets to bring about their own justice. I am not saying violence is right. I am saying that this is what would happen though. Christians would be enraged! The Quran is holy to a Muslim and has nothing to do with what country you come from or the flag that you are proud to wave around. However, to burn a flag is also a crime.