The melting pot is an idyllic concept, but in practice, blending cultures, races and religions can get messy. Things don't always melt together smoothly and clashes occur.

Sometimes they're simple misunderstandings. Sometimes, they're bigger - and uglier. As a recent incident involving a man rolling a pig's head into a Lewiston mosque demonstrates, Maine is not immune from the latter.

Brent Matthews, 33, who told police he thought of the act as a joke, has been charged with desecrating a place of worship, a misdemeanor.

The story is far from over. Members of the local Islamic community and others are calling the incident a hate crime. Gov. John Baldacci has created a new Office of Multicultural Affairs in response. The FBI and the state Attorney General's Office are looking into whether the incident constitutes a civil rights violation. And at MaineToday.com, people haven't stopped talking about it.

Back to the whole melting pot thing: Remember the messy part? The comments about the mosque incident were just that - messy. But the debate was healthy. Most people speaking up condemned the act outright. Many, like Andrew, didn't get the joke and called for a strong reaction:

"A joke, a misunderstanding. Rolling a pig's head is supposed to be a joke huh? Kinda like a burning a cross on someone's front porch I guess, or a giant spray-painted swastika on the side of someone's house. I hope they do pursue this as a hate crime."

Others were just as quick to condemn the act, but not so quick to support what they saw as an overreaction to an isolated incident.

Rick was one such person, saying, that while Matthews is in the wrong, "one has to wonder what purpose is served by trying to turn this into an international incident, calling in the FBI and the attorney general's office, and putting the guy in jail for a long time. He should be required to buy them a new carpet, apologize and be done with it."

As one user, Keith, tried to demonstrate, if the tables were turned and another religious group was so targeted, people might be singing a very different tune:

"Imagine the horror if a Muslim tossed the severed head of a plastic Santa Claus into a Christian house of worship on Christmas Eve. We'd be put on Code Orange and the whole state would be locked down."

Of course, as another user was quick to point out, Santa Claus isn't so much a Christian symbol as a commercial one. Choice of symbols aside, Keith does have a point: Would the people toeing the "get over it" line feel the same way if, say, a Catholic church was targeted in a such a vile way? Replace the Santa Claus head with the Virgin Mary's or Jesus'.

Still no big deal?

There was yet another facet of the "get over it" camp, those saying that people's outrage is directed at the wrong incident. Stephanie, for example, said that many people are angry because America is involved in a war with terrorists who commit atrocities in the name of Islam.

People are understandably angry about the terrorist acts being carried out against Americans and others in the name of Islam, here and abroad. But that anger can never justify targeting innocent Muslims here.

If we applied Stephanie's logic more broadly, any time someone abroad mistreats an American abroad, it would be open season on people of that nationality here.

Besides anger, something else is driving the anti-Islamic sentiment: ignorance. Conrad Beauregard had a plea for the Islamic community:

"The things going on in the world now and the bitterness of some of us is due to not being able to understand the two sides of the Muslim religion. Have patience and help us to understand your people."

Of course, one doesn't have to fully understand a religion to know that doing something like rolling an animal's head into a place of worship is an offensive action, but a little education about Islam can't hurt.

And neither can a little more religion. Joan explains:

"I don't think I need to learn more about another religion as I need to just practice my own. The majority of religions ask us to be understanding and respectful of our fellow man."

Easier said than done, for sure. But if more people embraced that philosophy, this melting pot thing might be a little less messy.