Someone may be charged with a 'hate crime' for writing on a poster promoting anti-Islamophobia

KSL-  On Friday, someone defaced seven posters advertising a lecture put on by the Hinckley Institute of Politics, O’Mara said. “We had a visiting professor from Duke University who was here to speak about Islamophobia,” she said.

The event was meant to promote peace between America and Islamic nations, but the words scrawled over the top of the posters only promoted hate. The vandal wrote “Islam means death to the west” on several of the posters, and expletives on others.

“This anonymous person with a marker does not reflect the University of Utah’s values,” O’Mara said. “Frankly, it doesn’t reflect American values of religious freedom and inclusivity and diversity. Those are the things that we care about here on campus.”

Still, Imam Muhammed Shoyab Mehtar, a religious leader with the Greater Islamic Society of Salt Lake, said bullying against Muslims is on the rise, especially in the past three months.