Oh No - Not 10!

The Christian Science Monitor shines a light on the wave of anti-Muslim hysteria sweeping NYC that the opposition to the Ground Zero Mosque is surely stirring up. They find some alarming data in the official police statistics:

Ten hate crimes against Muslims have been reported so far this year in New York City, says Kelly. In 2009, there were 6 for the entire year. Since 2001, an average of 10 hate crimes against Muslims have been reported annually.

That's pretty scary,huh - 10 hate crimes! And in a city of only about 8 million people - the fear these poor people must endure. For those of you who are numerically challenged and have trouble comprehending numbers of a certain magnitude, that's ten, as in a 1 with a whole zero after it. And note that there were six(6) in all of 2009 - so this represents - let's see if I can handle the math: 10 this year, but the year is only 2/3 in, so upping it by a third, that's 15, and 15 divided by 6 minus 1...Good Lord - that's on pace for a 150% increase over last year!

I'm going to have to do some serious soul searching and maybe try to avoid any posts that could further fan the flames of intolerance lest I contribute to the bloodbath running through the streets of New York.