U.S. Department
of Justice
Blog Post
Protecting the Right to Worship and Practice in Peace
Yesterday, Attorney General Eric Holder met with leaders of the interfaith community. The meeting was closed to the press, to better enable a candid dialogue between the Attorney General and these representatives. Following the meeting, Matthew Miller, the Director of the Office of Public Affairs, released the following statement:
"The Attorney General met today with leaders of the interfaith community to discuss the Department’s commitment to preventing and prosecuting acts of bias-motivated violence. The Attorney General reiterated the Department’s strong commitment to prosecuting hate crimes, and noted several successes the Department has achieved in recent months. Over the past eighteen months, the Department has prosecuted three men who burned a mosque in Tennessee, two others who burned an African-American church in Massachusetts, and another who spray-painted threats on a synagogue in Alabama, among other cases.
"As the Attorney General has noted on previous occasions, violence against individuals or institutions based on religious bias is intolerable and the Department will bring anyone who commits such crimes to justice. Americans of every faith have the right to worship and practice their religion in peace, and the Department will continue to work with its state and local partners to ensure that this right is upheld."
Updated April 7, 2017
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