Will Christian hatemonger be prosecuted

PROSECUTORS HAVE OPTIONS IN MOSQUE CASE - TOP DAVID HENCH, Portland Press Herald, 7/12/06
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/060712lewiston.shtml
When Vincent Hallowell burned a cross near the Augusta home of a black man and a family with biracial children in 1996, federal prosecution led to eight years in prison.Three years earlier, a Portland jeweler had been the first person in Maine found guilty of a racially motivated federal civil rights crime. Thore Aalto was sentenced to six months for harassing a black woman at a restaurant and threatening to burn her house down.The FBI is now investigating last week's incident in which Brent Matthews, 33, of Lewiston allegedly tossed a frozen pig's head into a mosque where men were praying, and the U.S. attorney will decide whether federal charges are warranted.Federal hate crimes prosecutions in Maine are rare, reserved for cases of the most serious behavior. Bringing federal charges would send a strong message that bigotry will not be tolerated, a leading Maine civil rights advocate said."We need to respond firmly and aggressively to efforts to intimidate Muslims not to practice the rights everyone else in Maine has the right to practice - their religion," said Stephen Wessler, director of the University of Southern Maine's Center for the Prevention of Hate Violence."Where people are able to engage in some of the most important, intimate and spiritual parts of their life, to have to do that in an atmosphere of fear, that's not what this country is about."Matthews, charged with the misdemeanor of desecrating a church, could face legal action locally, at the state level and by the U.S. Attorney's Office if investigators determine he was motivated by bias against a religion, race or national origin. Matthews is charged with throwing the frozen pig's head into the Lewiston-Auburn Islamic Center on July 3 while 40 men knelt in prayer. (MORE)