JOHN HINDERAKER: Desperately Seeking Islamophobia.

There are four lines on the graph: African-American, Sexual Orientation, Islamic/Muslim and Other. Remarkably, the number of hate crimes against Muslims is the lowest on the chart, despite having “risen sharply” to a grand total of nine through October 24.

The largest number of reported hate crimes–30–is against the “other” group. Therein, perhaps, lies a story. “Other” includes White, Arab, Jewish, Asian and Hispanic/Latino. Nationally, according to FBI data, there are around four times as many hate crimes against Jews as against Muslims. What is the ratio in Minnesota? The Star Tribune must know, since it says, later in the article, that the “other” category includes eight hate crimes against Arabs (a new category added last year). That leaves 22–more than double the number alleged against Muslims–unaccounted for. Is anti-Semitism a bigger problem in Minnesota than anti-Muslim sentiment? I suspect so.

The Star Tribune quotes the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center, itself a hate group, as though it were an authority on the subject.

The SPLC is awful. Back in 1995, right after the Oklahoma City Bombing, I was on the PBS Newshour with Morris Dees and had to call him out for lumping all gun owners and government critics together with Timothy McVeigh. It’s gotten worse since.