by Daniel Greenfield
Senator Saddam Azlan Salim, D-Faircax, claims that Virginia is in the middle of an ‘Islamophobia’ crisis. The second Muslim selected for the state senate, after Ghazala Hashmi who is now Virginia’s Lt. Governor, the Bangladeshi immigrant, from a country where non-Muslims are being murdered in the streets, has made complaining about “Islamophobia” in his new home his signature issue.
Salim’s first priority has been a bill to define “Islamophobia.” The most notable thing about his bill — SB 624 “assault and battery; definition of ‘Islamophobia’ penalty” — is how completely unnecessary it is. Virginia already has multiple layers of hate crimes enhancements for assaults motivated by race, ethnicity and religion. During Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s term, the legislature passed SB 7 (Senate Bill 7) and its HB counterpart enhancing the assault charge for anyone who “intentionally selects the person against whom a simple assault is committed because of his race, religious conviction, gender, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, color, or ethnic or national origin.”
That should cover Islam and Muslims. And yet Salim introduced a three-page bill with 10 clauses in its first section, a whole lot of which do nothing more than add “(including Islam)” where it isn’t remotely needed or useful. For example, “because of his race, religious conviction (including Islam), gender, disability, gender identity” or “because of his race, religious conviction (including Islam).” Islam appears to be the only religion being singled out this way.
(SB 624, which had 15 Democratic co-sponsors, was referred to the Courts of Justice Committee and continued to the next session. — JAB)
Why provide Islam with this privileged status? Because it makes Islam distinct, which is a step towards making it superior, and making Islam distinct and superior is the religious mission of all believing Muslims.
(more…)
