After the shooting at Charlie Hebdo in Paris, Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, issued this statement,
“Had [editor Stephane Charbonnier] not been so narcissistic, he may still be alive. Killing in response to insult, no matter how gross, must be unequivocally condemned. That is why what happened in Paris cannot be tolerated”.
He should have stopped here, but he continued, “But neither should we tolerate the kind of intolerance that provoked this violent reaction.”
Because of the magazine’s history of criticizing religion, according to Donohue the editor “didn’t understand the role he played in his [own] tragic death”.
Some of the cartoons in Charlie Hebdo were admittedly a little over the top, some bordering on the tasteless, but that is no reason to massacre people.
His statement contained such things as
“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”.
“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”.
He goes on to say that he does not condone violence, well, not in so many words anyway, but what he fails to acknowledge and accept, is that some of his statements and those of people who promote a twisted form of the Christian religion have encouraged people to take violent actions against certain people they think is justifiable in the name of religion.
Quite a few GLBT kids have been the victims of violence from their peers based on what the adults have told them was a religious “obligation”, and many GLBT kids have taken violent actions against themselves because they have been led to believe that that is what they deserve.
I guess attempting to be who they are made it so that they “didn’t understand the role [they]played in [their] tragic death”.
I guess what Donohue and his ilk don’t want to accept is that these kids, and GLBT adults for that matter, have been “intentionally insulted over the course of many years”.
Violence as a result of religion is only objectionable in this case because it is not the right religion doing it for the “right” reasons.
What of all those things said by the religious about those they do not like because of Religious Liberty?
Of course Bill Donohue of the Catholic League can admit, “I am in total agreement with them”.
And if those who are tired of being intentionally insulted object, they are accused of persecuting those who insult them, and the self-described victims’ response is to get people into office who will pass laws that will allow the continuance of the intentional insults to person and citizenship.
Maybe he should have simply said, “This was wrong”.