Well only you are mentioning empathy, but that's because you have a partisan narrative like ksuw
Oh I could mention lots of things, but that's the first thing that comes to mind.
If Christians had unleashed a killing rampage on, oh, let's say that "Piss Christ" guy, Mapplethorpe (sp?) and killed him and people who associated with him. I'm sure the secular ProgLib community at some base level, would have understood why they did what they did.