FOX 2 (WJBK) - After a rise in hate crimes in Michigan --several lawmakers are introducing legislation to expand some current laws.
"We had an isolated incident a few years ago, where a gentleman disguised as a woman, covering his face, walked into the mosque," said Rexhinaldo Nazarko. "Fortunately he was stopped, he was halted in his tracks before anything could happen. Fortunately, no violence occurred."
Nazarko is with EMGAGE a Muslim-American voter mobilization and issue advocacy organization that supports the effort by Democrats in the State House to expand hate crime laws.
FOX 2: "What have you seen, are hate crimes on the rise?"
"I can speak to the hate crimes faced by the Muslim community in Michigan," he said. "Especially after the advent of Christchurch (New Zealand) we saw a rise of incidents across our places of worship, and a lot of our mosques developed a sense of paranoia, especially during our holy month of Ramadan."
"Hopefully this legislation can provide some peace of mind for people who need it."
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The language in the Michigan Hate Crime Act as it’s written, would expand which categories would be protected under Michigan’s Ethnic Intimidation Statute – that would now include things like sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, physical or mental disability, ethnicity, and age.
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