The Joplin Globe has a good article placing the recent suspected arson attack on the Islamic Society of Joplin’s mosque in the context of a general rise in anti-Muslim bigotry and hate crime.

The report quotes an ACLU spokeswoman as stating that the fact that the incident took place on 4 July is particularly troubling: “On Independence Day, we should be celebrating all of our freedoms, including freedom of religion.”

Why the attacker should have chosen that date is as yet unclear. Perhaps they’d been fired up by reading Robert Spencer.