http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2015/02/can-a-liberal-commit-a-hate-crime.phpPosted on February 12, 2015 by John Hinderaker in Crime, Liberals, Media Bias
Can A Liberal Commit a Hate Crime?
In North Carolina, a middle-aged man named Craig Hicks murdered three young Muslim students who lived in his apartment complex. Hicks was known as an angry man who had frequent confrontations with his neighbors. Local police initially said that the murders appeared to have arisen out of a dispute about parking spaces at the complex. But inevitably, given that the victims were Muslims, the question was raised: was this a hate crime? CNN, for example, tweeted early yesterday morning:
CNN International ✔ @cnni
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3 Muslim students shot to death in Chapel Hill, NC. Did their faith play a role in the killing? http://cnn.it/1KLB6bS #ChapelHillShooting
5:05 AM - 11 Feb 2015
The New York Times headlines rather cautiously, “In Chapel Hill Shooting of 3 Muslims, a Question of Motive,” while the Los Angeles Times headlines, “North Carolina triple slaying arouses fear of hate crimes against Muslims.” Must be that dreaded Islamophobia that is always threatening to break out.
Certainly various Islamic groups are lobbying for the murders to be labeled a hate crime:
Barakat’s sister, Suzanne Barakat, spoke Wednesday of “execution-style murders” and demanded that authorities “investigate these senseless and heinous murders as a hate crime.” National Muslim activist groups also called for a hate crime investigation as photos of the three victims — with the two women wearing head scarves — went viral worldwide on social media under the hashtag #muslimlivesmatter.
So far, the news media have been more cautious than might have been expected about labeling the murders an anti-Islamic hate crime. They have publicized the fact that Hicks is an aggressive atheist; the main theme of his Facebook page is a contempt for religion. There is little, however, that is specifically anti-Muslim. The overwhelming majority of his comments on religion, to the extent they identify a specific faith, are anti-Christian. If his victims had happened to be Christians, would the murders make national news, and would anyone be talking about hate crimes?
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