When the Maryam Khatoon
Mosque was destroyed in Iraq last year, this wasn’t a crime against property.
It was a crime against Muslims who worship there. The same is true for an 1,800
year old Christian church that was destroyed in 2014 in Iraq. There are no
Jewish temples of significance in Iraq—when the last temples were destroyed in
a 1949 pogrom, surviving Jews were forced to leave.
For the third time in less
than a year, a menorah has been desecrated at our community Jewish Center. The
scale of destruction differs— but then, this is the U.S., where freedom to
worship is so deeply rooted that lesser forms of destruction feel intensely
violating to Americans. This is why graffiti
spray-painted on an American mosque or a fire at an African-American church
pose a fundamental threat to our core democratic values. These constitute attacks
against the American people.
To date, the criminal justice
system has been lenient in dealing with destruction of our community menorah.
But that is because this crime has been mischaracterized as “vandalism.” A
menorah is not a thing; nor is its destruction akin to tearing down a stop sign
as a prank. Its destruction is a
desecration, and our courts must treat this as a threatening act against a
people. Hopefully, the offenders will be caught, and our courts will impose a
penalty that sends a strong message of deterrence.
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