Sam: You are wrong, and for two reasons. First, you should not be critical of this position (if indeed anyone is taking it). Second, even if it is wrong, it is certainly not sinaah, and calling it that is harmful.
First: It is entirely natural that if you disagree about something important enough, you would not want to lend any stamp of approval to it. For example, I am confident that the Gra would not have gone to a siyum hashas where the Besht was speaking.
Part of having an opinion, is that you think the other side is wrong. And if you think they are wrong on something which is important, then you would want to make sure that people don’t think what they are doing is legitimate.
Second: It simply is not sinaah. They don’t hate them. They aren’t really motivated by some inner hatred for Rabbi Lau. To suggest that is ridiculous, and is motzi shem ra.
It is also harmful in that when you tag everything you don’t like with the term “sinaas chinam”, you cheapen real sinaas chinam, similar to what the liberals have done to terms like racism.
And Zdad: You always seem to assume that I will take a hypocritical position. Have you ever seen me do so? Of course I would think the same way if Rabbi Lau were to refuse to come.