What a difference a religion makes

A Danish periodical publishes cartoons which insult the prophet Muhammed thereby inciting Muslims worldwide to - burn buildings, riot and issue death threats.

Unknown persons behead a marble statue of Jesus and the lop off the hand of a statue of the Virgin Mary inciting Catholics to - place flowers at the base of the statues, pray, and offer words of forgiveness to the perpetrators:

(CBS) WEST, N.Y. Police in West, New York are searching for the vandals who destroyed a statue of Jesus outside a local church after worshippers found the five-foot statue lying in pieces.

Students from Our Lady of Libera School helped to pick up the pieces of the desecrated statue of Jesus and laid flowers on the ground by the mess on Monday morning."Father Phil gave me a rose and I put it down next to Jesus," second-grader Alex Contreras, said.

Other second-graders prayed too, overwhelmed by the sheer cruelty that took place at their church over the weekend."I was really sad that they broke his head off and threw him on the floor," said another student, Soraya Salazar.

Alexandra Kehagias agreed with her classmate. "I'm very, very sad and angry, and angry at the people who did this," she said.

Church members believe the person or people who did this beheaded the statue first, then pushed the body to the ground. "The nose would have been crushed. It could have been beheaded first," said Rev. Philip J. Rotunno, the pastor of the 105-year-old church. He says the vandals also took a hand from the statue of Mary, which is in the same courtyard.

"I want to first repair them because they're donated by founding families of the parish and those families are shattered," he said.

Police have been going to stores in the area, looking for possible witnesses.

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The vandalism has broken big and small hearts alike, but parishioners say they forgive the person or people who committed the horrible acts.


Good thing Goober, Floyd the barber, lil Opie and the rest of of Andy's appointed Deputies are on the case:

"Right now, we're investigating this as a criminal mischief case. At this point, there's nothing to indicate a hate crime," West New York Police Director Tim Griffin said.

Am I fuckin nuts to say that spending the time to lop off the head of a marble statue Jesus is, in and of itself, evidence of a hate crime?