Catholic League President Attacks Murdered Cartoonists: Charlie Hebdo ‘Perverts Freedom’ [View all]
Source: Think Progress
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While journalists and free speech advocates across the country rally in support of free press following the murder of twelve French journalists at Charlie Hebdo this week, the leader of a U.S. Catholic group is blaming the satirical newspaper’s staff for “the kind of intolerance that provoked this violent reaction.”
In a blog post Wednesday and then a follow-up post Thursday, Catholic League President Bill Donohue said the cartoonists’ “obscene portrayal of religious figures” represents an “abuse of freedom” — missing the fact that the First Amendment to the Constitution in the U.S and a similar law in France both guarantee freedom of speech and of the press.
“Freedom of speech is not an end—it is a means to an end,” Donohue wrote on the Catholic League website. “For Americans, the end is nicely spelled out in the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution… No fair-minded reading of the Preamble suggests that it was written to facilitate the right to intentionally and persistently insult people of faith with scatological commentary.”
Donohue also specifically singles out the paper’s publisher Stephane Charbonnier, who was killed by the two shooters on Wednesday. “It is too bad that he didn’t understand the role he played in his tragic death,” Donohue said.
Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/world/2015/01/08/3609637/donohue-charlie-hebdo/
The one-man, hackneyed Catholic League, who gets the vapors every time David Bowie or a musician pokes fun of Catholicism or people accurately point out the sex abuse scandals of the church, but gives his friend Rush Limbaugh a pass and defends him for calling Pope Francis a communist.
Naturally, Bill would side with the rightwing fundie murderers. Thank God the church is taking steps to move away from his conservative ilk under the current pope.
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