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Alan Keyes’ Empty Rhetoric: Alan Keyes has a column at the Worldnutdaily about the Afghani man targeted for the death penalty for converting to Christianity. It sounds very much like something I might write on the subject of liberty and the need to protect it not only from dictators but from democratic majorities as well.

(Via Dispatches from the Culture Wars.)

I don’t want to misrepresent what the main thrust of Ed Brayton’s post was, so just rest assured that he called Alan Keyes on his hypocrisy. Also, go click-through and give Ed the hit.

What I wanted to talk about was the phrase in Keyes’s article that jumped out to me:

It is also why terrorism poses a threat to humanity that goes beyond the destruction of physical life. Terrorists seek to inspire fear by systematically employing violence against the innocent, with the ultimate aim of bending to submission the mind and will of targeted populations.

Why I find this interesting is that this isn’t too different than what I feel is ultimately the reason “hate crimes” laws are a good idea. Not all that long ago, Texas (along with many other states) passed “hate crimes” (I dislike that phrase) legislation. At the time, in a couple of different forums, I would fairly regularly get into discussions as to the relative utility of such laws.

At the risk of emulating our Dear Leader, and forming a “many say” straw-man argument, there are many people who oppose hate crimes legislation on the basis that it criminalizes thought. And this is why I dislike the moniker. While there is certainly a hate component to the phenomenon, the act itself goes beyond a “mere” robbery, or assault, or murder. In a true hate crime, there is an implicit (and sometimes explicit) symbolic undertone. Hate crimes are more about intimidating and terrorizing a certain subpopulation than they are about attacking a specific individual.

The right-wing skinhead that sprays a swastika on a synagogue isn’t seeking to keep away any particular Jew, or even all the Jews from that synagogue. The point, and the underlying symbolic act, is to discourage all Jews away from the area. The racist doesn’t burn a cross in a lawn (just) to scare the black family that moved in, but to discourage any black family from moving into the neighborhood.

And the gay kid in high school isn’t beaten up just because he is gay, but to enforce heterosexual norms of behavior in the entire community.

Now, of course, I don’t think that this was the point Alan Keyes was trying to make. In fact, I’m fairly certain he would find my argument repellant. But if there is a good outcome to to the terrorist attacks of the last few years, then perhaps allowing many more Americans to empathize more directly with those most often targeted by hate crimes is it.

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justice, terror, crime, politics, hate crimes, Alan Keyes