Why do 'purebloods' hate Muggles?

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 47357

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Emily F" <mn_emily at h...> wrote:

> That's what I thought at first.  But then I realized that the only 
> people harmed by Muggles during the witch persecution times were
> the Muggles who were falsely accused.  (And wouldn't some in the
> WW be pleased with that?) We know that true witches (and wizards,
> of course) could protect themselves from burning, and I'm sure it's
> not a stretch to think they could protect themselves from other 
> means of executions.  Finally, what was the result of this 
> persecution?  Witches and wizards were forced to use magic in 
> secret?  Weren't they already doing that???  Dumbledore talks
> about keeping magic hidden from Muggles so that Muggles don't seek
> out magical answers to their problems.  There's no mention of fear
> of persecution.

No, it was HAGRID who said that wizards keep secret to avoid being 
pestered by Muggles wanting magical help. When it comes to Magical 
History, I have more faith in Professor Binns's accuracy than in 
Hagrid's. In CoS, Binns said: "You all know, of course, that Hogwarts 
was founded over a thousand years ago - the precise date is uncertain 
- by the four greatest witches and wizards of the age. The four 
school Houses are named after them: Godric Gryffindor, Helga 
Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. They built this 
castle together, far from prying Muggle eyes, for it was an age when 
magic was feared by common people, and witches and wizards suffered 
much persecution." Let me repeat: "witches and wizards suffered much 
persecution." 

It seems to me that wizarding schools are just as good as Muggle 
schools at teaching self-flattering lies to children. In this case, 
that the reason for hiding from Muggles is to avoid being pestered 
when it really is fear of persecution. That Muggle persecution of 
magical people is useless because the magical people have the 
Flame-Freezing Charm, when it is really quite dangerous if the 
Muggles get hold of a mage without his wand, sneak up on him and jump 
him with more numbers of assailants than he can Curse before they get 
his wand away from him, and then tie him up, THEN burn him.

While I have the notion firmly in my head that Salazar Slytherin was 
a bad guy and surely at least partly a racist, Binns's statement was:
"He disliked taking students of Muggle parentage, believing them to 
be untrustworthy." Simply a security precaution, fear that the 
Muggleborn students might let information about Hogwarts and wizards 
leak to their Muggle relatives, who would then spread the info to 
other Muggles, some of whom would lead mobs of peasants with torches 
to kill the wizards.