Proponents of the hate crime theory also claim the murder of three Muslims is being ignored by the media–a claim that requires highly selective reading and viewing. They say that three victims of another group would have been presumed to be victims of a hate crime. An immediate counter-example springs to mind: the triple-murder of three Jews near Boston on Sep. 11, 2011, which was not (then) considered a hate crime–though one suspect later turned out to be a Muslim terrorist.

One can certainly understand the anguish of the family and friends of the victims, who seem to have been wonderful people and proud Americans with bright futures ahead of them. Yet an appropriate response to the question of whether this was a hate crime, especially in the absence of evidence, would be to leave that question to the authorities, not to accuse society in general of complicity. Such accusations, repeated in the absence of further evidence, begin to appear hateful themselves.