When did vegan become synonymous with terrorist?

As I was whiling away my morning at work with a bit of snarky celeb gossip via Jezebel.com I happened upon a post discussing this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/dining/13incompatible.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
I especially like the Anthony Bourdain book quote: “vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter faction, the vegans ... are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit.” WHAT?!?!
The topic of the post immediately piqued my interest--er, after I read all about some celebutard's new clothing line--and I wanted to see what the commenters were thinking. Bad idea. When did vegetarians become the enemy? I had no idea we had such a bad rap, but from the comments it's pretty evident that lots of people are insensitive, ill-informed, and just plain mean. I guess I've just never really cared enough about other people's dietary choices to even say something. I'm not going to make fun of someone who's kosher--I'll probably ask a zillion questions and google it so I know more about it. I may have a huge personal problem with diets that consist solely of Doritos and Mountain Dew, but I'm not going to berate those who choose to eat that way. And though I might make tease my friends who find black pepper to be "too spicy," they know it's all in fun. I think my point is, that it surprised me, and sort of hurt my feelings, to learn that people have such harsh thoughts on vegetarianism. That's all.