in a nation of 300 million, all of the religious-based hate crimes added together amount to less than a drop in the bucket. This is not to minimize the 964 hate crimes perpetrated against Jews last year, or those carried out against Muslims (128), Catholics (55), or Protestants (40). Some of those attacks were especially shocking or destructive; all of them should be punished. But surely the most obvious takeaway from the FBI’s statistics is not that anti-religious hate crimes are so frequent in America. It is that they are so rare.
via boston.com
Religious bias
http://xrl.us/hatecrime
2009 Of the 1,575 victims of an anti-religious hate crime:
- 71.9 percent were victims because of an offender’s anti-Jewish bias.
- 8.4 percent were victims because of an anti-Islamic bias.
- 3.7 percent were victims because of an anti-Catholic bias.
- 2.7 percent were victims because of an anti-Protestant bias.
- 0.7 percent were victims because of an anti-Atheist/Agnostic bias.
- 8.3 percent were victims because of a bias against other religions
(anti-other religion).- 4.3 percent were victims because of a bias against groups of individuals
of varying religions (anti-multiple religions, group). (Based on Table 1.)(these 2009 stats; from a conglomerate of 14,222 federal agencies, as reported to the FBI)
via www2.fbi.gov
Here's what's interesting.
There are approximately as many Jews as Muslims in the United States
Which mass media outlets will report how much the numbers differ from the perceptions that many of them have worked so hard to promote?
How many mainstream publications will carefully avoid pointing out who the real main victims of hate crimes are in today's America? Note how many mass media outlets cover this story while avoiding the facts laid out above.
Is anyone going to do some soul-searching or change their behavior regarding the bashing of Jews and Israel, especially on campuses?
Will people in academia, media, and government sing the praises of America as a remarkably tolerant society when it comes to religion?
UPDATE: I am told that the CNN coverage explained none of the above points, focused on hate crimes against homosexuals, and blamed an upsurge in "fundamentalist" Christianity for these attacks.
[Note: African-Americans are roughly four to six times more numerous in the American population but suffer only a bit more than twice as many hate crimes.]
Religious bias
There were 1,606 hate crime offenses motivated by religious bias in 2008. A breakdown of these offenses shows:
- 65.7 percent were anti-Jewish.
- 13.2 percent were anti-other religion.
- 7.7 percent were anti-Islamic.
- 4.7 percent were anti-Catholic.
- 4.2 percent were anti-multiple religions, group.
- 3.7 percent were anti-Protestant.
- 0.9 percent were anti-Atheism/Agnosticism/etc. (Based on Table 1.)
via fbi.gov h/t debbieschlussel.com
In 2001 (the year of 9/11), there were twice as many anti-Jewish incidents [in America] as there were anti-Muslim, according to the FBI. In 2002 and pretty much every year since, anti-Jewish incidents have outstripped anti-Muslim incidents by at least 6 to 1.
