So-called hate-crimes laws could be the textbook case of a slippery slope:
Today, it’s special protections for homosexuals. Tomorrow it’s protections for radical Islamists. And after that, who knows? Rotarians? Sex workers? Abortionists?
Far-fetched? Well, actually that last one has already happened. California has had an “Anti-Reproductive Rights Crimes” law for several years that provides stiff fines and jail time for those who violate the rights of clients or providers of abortion services.
Does that include offensive speech? It depends how you interpret the broader hate-crimes statute, which includes “threats, intimidation and coercion” — all very subjective in the eye of the beholder. So far, most prosecutions have been for things like vandalism of clinics.
The Left likes to claim hate-crimes laws are only for violent crimes and conservative Christians are being alarmists to warn of the muzzling of pastors and religious expression. But there are already plenty of laws dealing with violence. Plus, in other countries that have adopted hate-crimes laws, “hate-speech” bans generally go with the package.
For example:
- Ireland prohibits words or behaviors that are “threatening, abusive or insulting and are intended or … are likely to stir up hatred” on the basis of one’s sexual orientation.
- Iceland forbids “ridiculing, slandering, insulting, threatening” protected classes, including homosexuals.
- Sweden’s hate-speech law bans even expressing “disrespect.”
- In Italy, an atheist is taking a priest to the European Court of Human Rights on a complaint of “religious racism” for teaching that Jesus existed.
Probably the next big battleground after “homophobic” hate speech is “Islamophobic” hate speech.
Canadian Pastor Mark Harding, for example, publicly objected when his local high school began handing out Qurans and making special accommodations for Muslim students to pray at school, while others were denied such privileges. Because the literature he distributed attributed violence to Islam, Harding was prosecuted under a Canadian hate-crimes law for “willfully promoting hatred” against a religious group.
His sentence was two years’ probation and 340 hours of community service at Ontario’s Islamic Society of North America under supervision of a Muslim imam.
“Under the threat of jail, Harding was forced to undergo Islamic ‘re-education,’ including readings that impugn the ‘kafir’ (an infidel or non-Muslim),” the Family Research Council (FRC) recently reported. “A gag order restrained Harding from criticizing Islam or Muhammad or speaking about his case. His attorney is now asking the court to allow Harding, who has suffered four heart attacks during the past 10 years, to complete his sentence at an Islamic Center closer to home than his assigned center, three hours away.”
FRC President Tony Perkins wrote of hate speech in a recent article at HumanEvents.com, “By punishing thoughts as well as actions, it sets us on the slippery slope toward that day when the thoughts alone will be punished. In the long run, homosexual activists will be satisfied with nothing less. … Anyone who thinks that pastors will not be muzzled on the moral issues of our day is ignoring the testimony of experience.”
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