Normally I’d update the other Dreaded Ham of Hate post instead of doing a new one, but this quote from the director of the Orwellian Center for Prevention of Hate Violence is the jaw-dropper of the day: ‘Hate incident’ in city. (Hat tip: Alan.)

Placing ham where Muslim students were eating was “an awful thing,” said Stephen Wessler, executive director of the Center for Prevention of Hate Violence. “It’s extraordinarily hurtful and degrading” to Muslims, whose religion prohibits them from being around ham. It’s important to respond swiftly, Wessler said.

“Incidents like this that involve degrading language or conduct are often said by the perpetrator as a joke. I know that conduct is never static,” he said. “It’s part of a process of escalation.”

If people think insulting Muslims with ham is OK, “More degrading acts will follow, until at some point we’ll end up having violence,” Wessler said.

And this article at the Sun Journal has a complete minute-by-minute description of the hate atrocity as it unfolded:

A 14-year-old Somali boy, whose mother asked that his name not be published, said he was eating lunch with four other Somali students on April 11. He noticed many others in the cafeteria “standing up, looking at us.”

One boy came near, began laughing and threw a bag on the table while other students laughed and said, ‘Good job.’“

”We didn’t know what was in this bag,“ the boy said. ”One of my friends reached inside it. It was a big ham steak. There were five of us at the table, all Somali. It was intended for us.“

The boy said he looked up at students he thought were his friends. ”I felt angered, offended.“

He suddenly felt like he was alone. ”At the school the next day, I didn’t feel safe. I felt like everybody was against me. Before I felt like I fit in, and everything was normal.“

He began to think white students didn’t like him, and the act was their way of letting him know. On Thursday, several students came up to him and said, ”Those guys who did it were jerks. I apologize for them, and I hope you feel better.“

The boy said they did make him feel better. ”But for the rest of my life when I remember middle school, this will pop up right away.“

This matter is currently under police investigation. (Not a joke.)

UPDATE at 4/19/07 9:10:21 pm:

Goldstein is appalled at the porcine insenstivity of it all: The Case of the Logistically Pernicious Ham Steak:  Tales of Heroic Intervention by the Nannystate.