This is absurd.  The FBI offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person responsible for placing bacon on the doors of a mosque.  They are investigating the desecration as a hate crime.  Hate crime legislation was intended to add penalties to violent crimes committed on account of the victim’s race, gender, identity or sexual orientation.  In this case the crime is littering!  The DA could try to argue an implied threat, but it is doubtful that it could be upheld in court.  Instead this is grandstanding and an attempt to warn off more serious crimes against Muslims that are violent, such as the firebombing of a mosque in Tracy, California.  At least offer the reward for crimes that aren’t misdemeanors.

There is no place for religious intolerance in the United States.  Religious pluralism has characterized the United States since its founding, albeit, until the late 19th Century a pluralism of Christian denominations and a few Sephardic Jews.  Patriotic Americans who think they are doing good by terrorizing Muslims, need to leave it to the FBI to penetrate those mosques that are being used to incite terrorism.  Not every Muslim is a member of some fifth column.  This is the same “dual loyalty” libel leveled against Jews, even by the Obama administration.