Hate Crimes Law opponents find a new ally, an Anti-Semitic Imam

It’s not only the religious right that’s telling tall tales about a proposed new federal hate crimes law.

Amir Abdel Malik Ali, a Muslim cleric who frequently speaks on California campuses, falsely claimed last week that the law would prevent Americans from expressing negative views about Israel or Jews. As Ali tells it, none other than “the Zionists” are behind this attempt to crush free speech.

“Y’all know Rahm Emanuel, the Zionist Jew?” Ali asked a crowd of roughly 70 during his May 14 speech at the University of California, Irvine. “He’s the chief of staff for President Obama. For our non-Muslim friends, when President Obama chose Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff, the Muslims knew just what was happening. As soon as he chose Rahm Emanuel, we said ‘Uh-oh, oh, Barack is owned. He’s owned by the Zionists.’”

Ali contends it’s Emanuel who’s pushing the hate crimes bill, which is chock full of perks for Jews. “Since it’s Rahm Emanuel, if this bill is passed — listen to me! — if this bill is passed, it will be a crime to criticize Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, it will be a crime to report the extraordinary influence of AIPAC (the pro-Israel lobby), it will be a crime to doubt any aspects of the Holocaust.”

In fact, Ali asserted that those who question that 6 million Jews died in the Holocaust could go to prison under the proposed law. What’s more, “If you talk about the disproportionate numbers of Jews, Zionist Jews, in the media, in finance and foreign policy, that’s a crime. That’s a crime! So what you’re talking about, if this bill is passed, is that you can criticize any country in the world except the apartheid state of Israel. That’s under the Hate Prevention Act of 2009 (sic).”

http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2009/05/21/strange-bedfellows-like-christian-right-groups-anti-semitic-imam-lies-about-hate-crime-bill/

Sorry, wrong answer.

The idea of creating more and more "protected classes" which just serves to balkanize our country is simply wrong. We have laws, use them.

Why not for sexual orientation?

Sorry, not wrong. But feel free to try again.

My welfare is neither more nor less important than yours. Is it?

You want violence to be wrong? Fine. Then prosecute the people in minority groups that are disenfranchised as well as the groups that get positive attention from authorities. That's what hate crime legislation is about - minority groups are all too often left high and dry by society. But of course you're paying attention to the way things work in this country, so you already know that.

It's about protecting people from bigots. The only thing that makes the a target is the way they are born.

At least that's the way it ought to be.

If you get beat up because of how you were born is worse than just getting beaten up. It's violence due to racism, sexism, religious bigotry, and/or homophobia that they're trying to control.

as if God forbid we have a rational discussion about the irrationaly of any religous movement.

As far as I am concerned, no group is "off limits"