The liberal Interfaith Alliance is backing a hate-crimes bill that adds "sexual orientation" to its list of protected list.
The legislation, reintroduced by two Democrats and two Republicans in Congress, would expand federal jurisdiction to cover
violent hate crimes committed "because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender or disability" of the victim.
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The Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2005 is sponsored by
Reps. John Conyers, D-Mich., Barney Frank, D-Mass., Lleana Ros-Lehiten, R-Fla., and Christopher Shays, R-Conn.
As WorldNetDaily reported, Conyers, responding to the Middle East riots allegedly sparked by the retracted Newsweek Quran-in-toilet story, also has proposed a congressional resolution that condemns defamation of Islam's book.
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Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance, said, "Legislation alone cannot remove hatred from the hearts and minds of individuals, but legislation can help to create a society where hate-motivated violence is deemed intolerable."
Gaddy said "sacred scriptures of many different faith traditions speak with one voice on the subject of intolerance."
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"If we aspire to be true to the core of our religious traditions, we cannot condemn hate and then sit idly by while it destroys our communities," Gaddy said. "We believe that religious and civil rights groups, law enforcement, and government must work to ensure that all people are safe as well as free."
Gaddy complained that "a few religious voices, wrongly claiming to represent the view of all religious people," continue to attempt to defeat the hate-crimes legislation.
Current law permits federal prosecution of a hate crime only if the crime was motivated by bias based on race, religion, national origin, or ethnicity, and the assailant intended to prevent the victim from exercising a "federally protected right."
The alliance said a broader federal law will "help make up for the inadequacy and absence of inclusive hate crimes laws in many states and municipalities."
The Interfaith Alliance, which says it has more than 150,000 members from 75 faith traditions, aims to challenge "those who manipulate religion to promote a narrow, divisive agenda."
