23-year-old Stanislav Shmulevich of Brooklyn was arrested on July 27 on hate crimes charges after allegedly tossing Korans into toilets in two incidents at Pace University last fall.

Although this case raises troubling questions about freedom of speech, the mainstream media mostly ignored it.  Newsday, the Associated Press, the New York Post and the New York Daily News were the only major sources to pick up the story.       

According to the AP, Pace University originally reported the incidents as vandalism.  Muslim students protested that Pace was not taking the incident “seriously enough,” prompting the university to report the incidents to the New York City Police Department’s Hate Crimes Unit.  The university also said it would offer sensitivity training to students.

Shmulevich has been charged with criminal mischief and aggravated harassment, both as hate crimes, police told AP. 

David Niedrauer is an intern at the Culture and Media Institute, a division of the Media Research Center.