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 | (a) Basic Offense. - Whoever, whether in time of peace or in time of war, in a
circumstance described in subsection (d) and with the specific intent to destroy,
in whole or in substantial part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group as
such -
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(c) Incitement offense. - Whoever... directly and publicly incites another to violate subsection (a) shall be fined not more than $500,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both. |
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Definitions:
The act defines:
| religious group as meaning "a set of individuals whose identity as such is distinctive in terms of common religious creed, beliefs, doctrines, practices, or rituals. |
| incites as meaning to urge "another to engage imminently in conduct in circumstances under which there is a substantial likelihood of imminently causing such conduct. |
Subsection (d) states that the law applies whenever "the offense is committed within the United States"; or "the alleged offender is a national of the United States." Fines of up to 1 million dollars are possible under this act. Imprisonment for life is possible in the case of murder, or up to 20 years otherwise. There is no statute of limitations for this law.
Application of the law:
To our knowledge, no charges have ever been laid under this law.
The law appears applicable to any attempted destruction of any religious group, small or large. It could be argued that physical assaults on members of a group with the intent of forcing them to abandon their religion could be interpreted as a criminal act which falls within this law. Such attacks on small Wiccan, other Neo-Pagan groups, and other faith groups occur from time to time in the United States. We have read reports in which two conservative Christian clergy from Texas allegedly independently advocated the genocide of Wiccans. There are a number of individuals and groups who advocate the execution of individuals who engage in homosexual behavior.
Reference:
- "US code Collection," Legal Information Institute of Cornell University, at: http://www4.law.cornell.edu/
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Site navigation: Home page > Laws & religion > Genocide > here |
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or: Home page > Religious violence > Genocide > here |
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