THE THING ABOUT IT IS.
Investigations · January 1 to July 20, 2026

A sitting lieutenant governor said he hates Islam and called on others to hate it too.

SeverityHatefulTreats a whole group as lesser, dangerous, or not fully human. Everything at this level.
Who said itMicah Beckwith, Lieutenant Governor of Indiana
Who it targetsMuslims in Indiana and beyond
TrackProtected groupsProtected-group hate and political-opponent extremism are counted apart, and neither total is presented as a score against the other. Everything on this track.
What was said

On a Christian talk program, Beckwith said: “I am going to call on others to hate it, because I hate Islam. It is a death cult. Now I love Muslims, because they make great Christians when Jesus gets a hold of them, but I hate Islam. And we need to be okay with hating again.” At the close of Eid he posted that he wished all Muslims in Indiana the best, “and by best I mean I hope you all become Christian.”

Why it counts

Believing your own faith is true and others aren't is ordinary religious conviction and no monitor should be counting it.

The distance between that and this is the instruction. He isn't stating a belief, he's asking an audience to hate, and he holds statewide office in a state where the people he's describing live.

The receipts

Every quote, checked against its source.

Micah Beckwith, Lieutenant Governor of Indiana

"I am going to call on others to hate it, because I hate Islam. It is a death cult… And we need to be okay with hating again."

Said on the FlashPoint program on May 23 and reported on May 28, alongside the response from Muslim advocacy groups.

2026-05-23 · source

One of 59 confirmed items from a six-month pass across 925 accounts, plus the legislatures, courts, and agencies around them. Nine of the 59 are on this site, picked on a stated rule rather than by feel. The rest are in the full report.

Go deeper

Religious hate across 925 accounts

The full six-month pass across three lanes, with per-narrative scoring and the roster hit rates. This page is the plain-language cut; that one is the whole thing, including the hate methodology that defines every score here.