I know all the conservatives are up in arms over this, but why not the liberals? As one with a foot in each camp, I'm seriously disappointed that, while liberals will champion free speech in other countries (Kareem Amer, for example) they stray away from doing so in the USA (Stanislav Shmulevich, anyone?).
I just think it's sad that what was probably just a stupid prank has gotten blown up into a hate crime. Stanislav Shmulevich, a 23-year-old university student at Pace University threw a couple of Korans into a couple of toilets on two separate occasions. Alright, charge him with vandalism of school property, and if the Korans weren't his, theft/destruction of private property. Whatever. Move on. But calling it a hate crime is just ridiculous. If he attacked Muslims, set the Koran on fire and then threw it at a Muslim, or did something else that actually harmed someone based on their beliefs, race, whatever, then yes, that could be qualified as a hate crime. But throwing a Koran into a toilet is NOT a hate crime. If I threw a Bible into the toilet right now, would that be a hate crime? No. No one would even think of calling it one. There is something very wrong here.