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...but a hate crime law as understood in the American legal system is a law that increases the sentence for something that is already a crime, due to the motivation of hate for a group protected by the statute.

I understand the distinction, but increasing penalties for actions because you don't like what someone was thinking when they did them is dangerous and unAmerican in my opinion. Moreover, these enhanced penalties are only applied for politically-correct victims. Ever hear of a homosexual being charged with a "hate crime" for actions against Christians? Or blacks for crimes against whites?

I agree with you myself, but that doesn't make the notion that Muslims are conspiring to pass "hate crime" statutes in order to terminate America's freedom of speech any less ridiculous.

For one, most "hate crime" statutes (perhaps all of them, at least all the ones I've read) already cover religion and ethnicity. Second, we should be so lucky as for the Islamists to be so stupid that they wouldn't realize that, unlike in Britain, a hate speech law would be struck down by the courts before it even went into effect.

Like I said, there are many reasons to oppose "hate crime" statutes, but the ridiculous notion that they're the lynchpin of some grand Muslim conspiracy to conquer America isn't one of them.