MUSLIMS ARE RIGHT TO BE ANGRY

 

Catholic League President Bill Donohue comments on the killing of 12 people at the Paris office of the newspaper Charlie Hebdo:

Killing 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 againstCharlie 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.

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.

Below is just one small example of the double standards that is at work: "freedom of speech" will always be cited when disrespecting Islam and Muslims, but the same "freedom of speech" is then discarded and placed in the trash receptacle when dealing with "Anti-Semitism."

Charlie Hebdo doesn't pull its punches. But some critics say it goes too far, specifically with Muslims. 

The newspaper, after all, fired a cartoonist who published an article deemed anti-Semitic in 2008. 

But when it comes to depicting Islam, writes the Financial Times' Tony Barber, the publication has no qualms specifically "mocking, baiting and needling French Muslims."