Converting now a hate crime?

It seems that hate crimes now cover trying to peacefully convert people to your religion. Well it does if this story is anything to go by.

A police officer told two Christian preachers to stop handing out gospel leaflets in a predominantly Muslim area of Birmingham and if they didn’t they would be charged with a hate crime. If they came back the police officer said that they would probably get beaten up. It such a nice thing to know that there are now no go areas where it is the police which are enforcing these unwritten rules.

It seems to me that this police officer was probably Muslim himself especially by reading what he has been quoted as saying and what he did. When he found out the preachers were American he launched into a tirade against President Bush and the wars that they are fighting.