Catholic League’s Bill Donohue Sympathizes With Paris Terrorists
Catholic League president Bill Donohue was quick to issue a statement on the terror attack against the office of French satirical journal Charlie Hebdo today; Donohue says this kind of mass murder “must be unequivocally condemned.”
Then he proceeds to equivocate.
Catholic League president Bill DonohueKilling in response to insult, no matter how gross, must be unequivocally condemned. That is why what happened in Paris cannot be tolerated. BUT neither should we tolerate the kind of intolerance that provoked this violent reaction.
Those who work at this newspaper have a long and disgusting record of going way beyond the mere lampooning of public figures, and this is especially true of their depictions of religious figures. For example, they have shown nuns masturbating and popes wearing condoms. They have also shown Muhammad in pornographic poses.
While some Muslims today object to any depiction of the Prophet, others do not. Moreover, visual representations of him are not proscribed by the Koran. What unites Muslims in their anger against Charlie Hebdo is the vulgar manner in which Muhammad has been portrayed. What they object to is being intentionally insulted over the course of many years. On this aspect, I am in total agreement with them.
Donohue makes it very plain that he believes the journalists at Charlie Hebdo brought this on themselves, accusing the publisher of “narcissism.”
Stephane Charbonnier, the paper’s publisher, was killed today in the slaughter. It is too bad that he didn’t understand the role he played in his tragic death. In 2012, when asked why he insults Muslims, he said, “Muhammad isn’t sacred to me.” Had he not been so narcissistic, he may still be alive. Muhammad isn’t sacred to me, either, but it would never occur to me to deliberately insult Muslims by trashing him.
Wow. It’s not often that an American religious figure comes right out and expresses sympathy with the murderous grievances of radical Islamists (even if he does make a half-hearted attempt to condemn them at the same time). Donohue seems to be gloating over the death of a long-time foe.