To Love is Human, to Hate Divine?

 Pre-Hamas invasion statistics from the DOJ : How US hate-crimes break down

“We have definitely seen an uptick in threats across the country. It is focused on Jewish people and people from the Muslim community… We have to be forward-leaning with communicating with our partners and making sure that things don’t slip through the cracks.” 

Robert J. Contee III, the FBI’s assistant director of partner engagement

“Many women use abortion as a form of birth control, you know, in certain segments of society, and it’s just shocking and sad, but this is where we are. When you break up the nuclear family, when you tell a generation of people that life has no value, no meaning, that it’s expendable, then you do wind up with school shooters.”

Mike Johnson, recently elected GOP House Speaker

The above FBI quote is an understatement of alarming proportions. But even before the October 7th Hamas terrorist assault on Israel, the MAGA legitimization of blame and angry labels applied to various ethnic, religious groups, races and sexual preferences has produced a steady year-by-year increase in US hate crimes – from mass shootings, vulgar graffiti and physical assaults to political rantings by extremist politicians intended to incite and thus target many very innocent people. Before that legitimization, we all know that these biases were there… but not so openly expressed and deemed socially acceptable.

The charts above only show the escalation from 2021 to 2022, but as Statista (August 31, 2021) notes, we are experiencing the highest number of hate crimes in a decade: “Among hate crimes motivated by race, ethnicity and ancestry, Anti-Black hate crime was the most common at 2,755 out of 4,939 incidents. The number was up by almost 40 percent in a year that was marked by racial justice protests after the death of George Floyd. Offenses against Asians - often tied to the coronavirus pandemic - were also up from 161 in 2019 to 274 in 2020, meaning they increased by 70 percent while remaining a smaller type of incident.” After October 7th, those biases erupted to new depths.

“Federal officials have not released data showing how many threats or incidents have been reported since Hamas first attacked Israeli civilians and military installations on Oct. 7, triggering a massive and ongoing Israeli response. But reporting on specific incidents and early data from nongovernment experts who study hate crimes suggest that the spike is significant.

“On Oct. 14, an Illinois man fatally stabbed a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy and injured his mother in an apartment they were renting from him, authorities said. The Justice Department is investigating the killing as a hate crime. Over the weekend, a series of threats posted online targeted a Jewish student center at Cornell University and called for the killing of Jewish students. The FBI is investigating the incident.’… On Friday [10/27], Contee and other top FBI officials held a nearly 45-minute call Friday with more than 2,400 local police department heads — including leaders of university police forces — to urge them to share with one another information about threats and to take each reported threat seriously.” Washington Post, October 30th. Conflicts pitting pro-Muslim and pro-Jewish protestors have erupted across the US, particularly at larger universities.

The world is on edge, and this steady, usually politically incited rise, in hate crimes is a global phenomenon. The poster “democracy” for hate crimes may focus on the United States, but the clearest example of a political party amplifying, encouraging and legitimizing hate focus on a religious or ethnic group has to be India. Writing for the October 31st Los Angeles Times, journalist Parth N.M. reminds us that: ‘Since Narendra Modi, leader of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party [Literally the Hindu Nationalist Party – the BJP], became the prime minister of India in 2014, hate speech and hate crimes against India’s religious minorities — particularly Muslims [who make up 14% of India’s population] — have increased at an alarming rate…

“In September, Hindutva Watch [a Washington, DC organization dedicated to tracking anti-Muslim hate crimes in India] reported that in the first six months of this year ‘nearly 80% of the hate speech events were held in Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states or territories controlled by the BJP-led central government. This statistic is particularly striking, considering that only 45 % of India’s population falls under BJP rule… ‘The BJP has sent a message that it’s OK to go after Muslims,’ Aakar Patel, chair of Amnesty International India, said last year. ‘This is why we’re seeing attacks and persecution.’…

“Much of the mainstream media [in India generally describes such incidents, even murders] simply as ‘clashes’ between the two communities, but one news organization had a detailed account of the Hindu-on-Muslim violence: ‘The right-wing outfits, claiming that the Hindu sentiments had been hurt, called for a shutdown of [one particularly violent] district... The demonstrators became aggressive and a mob entered Muslim-dominated localities, resorting to stone-pelting, destroying shop facades and overturning handcarts.’” Hindu nationalists often resort to conspiracy theories and fabricated incidents to justify even out-and-out lynchings. Modi may utter some placating words, but with a virtual wink-wink, the BJP seldom tracks down and punishes the perpetrators. Even obvious lynchings based on false rumors.

The sustained rule of India by Modi and his BJP is an excellent example of what happens in a country when its most senior leadership, referencing religious beliefs, support the underlying biases, apply blame to minorities for ills they most certainly did not cause and turn a blind eye to the resulting violence. If there is a lesson in this for Americans, it is the growing use of religion to justify blame and physical attacks on minorities. I call that the MAGA way, where white Christian nationalists, including their prelates, goad their followers into blaming Jews, Muslims and immigrants for anything and everything they see wrong with the United States. The justification for that blame (and any resulting violence) is most frequently a reference to their belief in Christianity, even though that very concept is profoundly contrary to everything the New Testament stands for. They just don’t see it that way. This proclivity is about as un-American as you can get!

I’m Peter Dekom, and a nation which is guided by blind faith to an extreme religious interpretation that suggests religious and racial superiority is simply inviting chaos, polarization and perhaps an unraveling of the country itself.