That's the quote coming from an initial CNN report on today's meeting between Attorney General Eric Holder and religious liberty advocates including the Baptist Joint Committee's Brent Walker.
[UPDATE: Following the meeting, Holder released a statement through a spokesman
[V]iolence against individuals or institutions based on religious bias is intolerable and the Department will bring anyone who commits such crimes to justice," spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
At the meeting, Miller said, "the Attorney General reiterated the Department's strong commitment to prosecuting hate crimes, and noted several successes the Department has achieved in recent months."
UPDATE 2: Reuters reports on the meeting, adding:
Holder also told the group no one should have to live and pray in fear and that he planned to address the issue publicly soon, the meeting participants said. He also reiterated a commitment to aggressively prosecute hate crimes, they said.
UPDATE 3: The NYTimes has this report on the "extraordinary" interfaith summit at the capital.]
Prior to the meeting, Rabbi David Saperstein of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism spoke with a reporter from Talking Points Memo, which posted the brief interview here. Saperstein emphasized that the Justice Department has been strong in enforcing hate crimes legislation but planned to urge the Attorney General to view this as:
a moment where we need a very clear statement from the Attorney General, from the President, from leaders of each branch of the relevant divisions of the administration about their unwillingness to accept for a moment the kind of intolerance, the kind of hate crimes, the kind of victimization of the Muslim community that we've seen.
The Justice Department is reportedly investigating at least 5 anti-Muslim incidents as possible hate crimes.
Earlier today, a group of religious leaders from many faiths held a news conference decrying the rising "fear and intolerance" being expressed toward Muslim Americans. The group issued a moving statement "to denounce categorically the derision, misinformation and outright bigotry being directed against America’s Muslim community."
