What is your opinion on a person being prosecuted under a hate crime law for desecrating the Quran?
Follow up question if you will:
What do you think about hate crimes in general?
Answers:
It is a horrible precedence - the government does not have the Constitutional authority to criminilize free speech acts, such as the desecration of a Koran. Every person who cherishes liberty, freedom and individual rights should protest this abrogation of free speech.
The concept of "hate crimes" reeks of the "thought crimes" in Orwell's "1984". It violates the very foundation of the US Constitution.
I think desecrating the Quran is a hate crime and should be severely punished. The same would apply for a bible, a torah, or any other religious text.
Hate crimes are despicable and should be punished severely. I might even go so far as to recommend the death penalty in severe cases.
if someone could be prosecuted for destroying the bible in an act of hate, then they should be prosecuted for doing the same thing with the quran. as for hate crimes, im against them.
i think it is bad.. everyone should love each other no matter what race or how you look. we should all live in a peace world.
A person who desecrates another persons holy book should be prosocuted. No matter what book it is.
well i think its a good thing.
people should be allowed there opinion but not be-able to rubbish other peoples beliefs.
if someone asks me if i believe in religion, then i can say its crap, but i don't have the right to stand out side a church and call them all fools and prats
I believe the punishment befitts the crime. The Quran is the corner stone not only for a particular religion but for the social and cultural laws and rules of a people. In essence to attack the very thing that dictates one's attitudes about, reflections on, actions religious virtues and social actions toward is a blatant crime against the individuals rights and beliefs due to his membership in a particular religious or social group.
What "opinion" is there to be had? It is not a matter of opinion but a matter of law...what, you doubt that the desecration of any faith's holiest text is a hate crime? It's pretty high up there on the list of hatefulness if you ask me, no matter what one's individual feelings may be about that faith or its practitioners (and shame on them for even that).
Legally speaking (since this is law and ethics, and not an opinion forum or blog), hate crime is a designation that is placed on a serious crime in order to enhance the punishment and further deter crimes solely based on bias and hate. I think in order to be prosecuted (in the U.S., at least), there would have to be a serious felony committed to get a hate crime designation, and desecration of a book, however holy it is to a segment of the population, isn't against any law that I know of. If a person who regularly burned Qurans also decided to burn the mosque that held them, or to kill the Muslim that believed it, then those would be hate crimes.
The person wasn't being prosecuted for a "hate crime" in the sense of being prosecuted for their beliefs.
If you're talking about the NY case, the person was prosecuted for harassment for repeatedly attacking and insulting one particular religious group.
And hate crimes are not what most people think they are -- tehy don't punish thoughts. They are enhancements to other crimes based on a different mens rea (criminal intent). Just like premeditated murder has a different intent than accidental homicide, and is more serious based on that different intent.
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