From THE INDEPENDENT:
In a statement released yesterday headlined “Muslims are right to be angry”, Bill Donohue, the president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, accused Charlie Hebdo of “intolerance” and its journalists’ “disgusting record” of playing a role in causing their own death.
“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.”
The Catholic League president described the newspaper’s publisher, who was killed in the violence, as “narcissistic”, criticising him by name.
“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.
“Had he not been so narcissistic, he may still be alive,” he said.
…snip…
The tone of the comments by the League is in stark contrast to those of the Catholic Church’s international leadership.
A spokesperson for Pope Francis yesterday condemned the slaughter at the satirical magazine as “abominable” and called for unity.
“The Holy Father expresses his firmest condemnation of the horrible attack,” the spokesperson said.
“Whatever its motivation might be, homicidal violence is abominable [and] is never justified.”
HYSTERICAL RAISINS 
VERY NICE.
Sent from my iPhone
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shhhhhh!!! nice to see you, curtis, but i have to lay low. according to bill donohue, i have just signed my death warrant by posting this! 😉
I think my two uber-left daughters agree with Donohue. Rather than stand up for freedom of speech and sympathize with the deceased they have elected to align themselves with the rage by Muslims.
Jerry Coyne (U.C. Chicago) speaks for me:
“By claiming that Charlie Hebdo committed an “abuse of liberty,” Donohue aligns himself with every fascist and tyrant who would stifle the criticism of authority. And he’s made himself irrelevant. The proper response to this tragedy by any enlightened person is to defend the right of free speech and condemn those who kill to prevent it.”
elizabeth! long time, no see! i agree with jerry coyne, too. if you don’t like what someone has to say or with what he has written or drawn, don’t listen to him, and don’t look at his work. donohue and others of his ilk want us to live by his rules and by what he thinks is moral. i’ll pass.
good to see you, elizabeth! 😀
I agree – But, what in the hell has this to do with political positions? This has only to do with religious extremism.
I agree! Basically they are saying it is a leftist position to take the side of extremists since they were ‘offended’ by the ‘racist’ cartoons. I see the cartoons as an assault on BELIEF and not racist. Islam is not a race! If you can convert into or out of it then it is not a race. I’ll bet all of those who perished would have warmly welcomed a Muslim into their home (as would I).
i don’t give a shit who was offended, it’s no excuse for mass murder! are we supposed to walk on eggshells, not saying anything that is not approved by bill donohue and tv news talking heads for fear we might insult someone? if i tell someone that their mother wears army boots, is that am excuse for justifiable homicide? the owner of the redskins refuses to change the name of his team even though it is offensive to a lot of people. should we murder him, or is he excused because he is in the top 1%? i really don’t care if someone is pissed off because he considers something racist or anti-whatever religion. if you want to make a change, then vote for better people or live your life as an example to others. do NOT pick up a gun. that solves nothing. and, yes, islam is a religion, not a race. rant over.
Like!! 🙂
agree,absolutely. gun censorship WTF.
hi jim! what happened is not political, it is murder, plain and simple. however, it will be turned into something political, and that’s why we never seem to make any progress when it comes to terrorism. lindseypoo graham is already blaming obama. i’m sure others will follow. then the media will go with that unimportant thread of the story, and people will become just as complacent as they were before.
Ummmm, I’m probably considered uber-left and I oppose what Donohue said with every fiber of my body. It is an issue of tolerance and intolerance, and belief in the freedom of speech. Although I must say that I find today’s powerful Catholics (Scalia, Ryan, Santorum) among the most intollerant of any free speech that doesn’t agree with their own.
Thank you, Elyse. You make perfect sense. 🙂
excellent point, elyse! i would add some of the other supremes–alito, thomas, and roberts. on the other hand, we have stephen colbert, joe biden, chris mathews and andrew sullivan. you could say the same of other religions as well. i guess that religion is not an indication of the tolerance of a person. only the person’s character and moral compass defines how they conduct themselves and how much they respect others.
I just saw this.
http://crooksandliars.com/2015/01/catholic-leagues-bill-donahue-gets-his
even a really shitty broken clock is correct twice a day! 😉
heck, you are a woman who reads and stands for her beliefs, that right there would get you shot.
let ’em shoot me. then i can be holeyer-than-thou, too (didja see what i did there?) 😉
🙂
Author Salman Rushdie who earned a fatwa for writing The Satanic Verses said it best:
Religion, a medieval form of unreason, when combined with modern weaponry becomes a real threat to our freedoms. This religious totalitarianism has caused a deadly mutation in the heart of Islam and we see the tragic consequences in Paris today.
I stand with Charlie Hebdo, as we all must, to defend the art of satire, which has always been a force for liberty and against tyranny, dishonesty and stupidity.
Respect for religion’ has become a code phrase meaning ‘fear of religion’. Religions, like all other ideas, deserve criticism, satire, and, yes, our fearless disrespect.
hi apples! 😀
the hypocrites in this world do not want respect for their religions. instead, they want everyone to live by their guidelines and set of beliefs. there is no and never was a “war on xmas,” there are just people who do not worship like billOreilly or sean insanity. people need to live and let live. practice your religion where it is appropriate, and leave everyone else the hell alone to practice what they believe in. i can’t believe that, in the 21st century, we would still be struggling over this crap.
🙂 Agree
Simply brilliant, nonnie. Would it be okay to share this on DKos? Miss you. Sherry Shirk
thank you, sherry! i was so pissed off when i heard about donohue that i had to crack open the photoshop. i would be thrilled if you shared it at the big orange.
oh, and i have been remiss in not wishing all the raisinettes a very happy new year. too bad it started off this way, but hopefully, it will get better.
p.s. miss you, too!
I didn’t hear about this comment. Then again, the downside is that you were initially made aware of the idiot. … so cheers your rebuttal.
Did you see this from The Onion? http://www.theonion.com/articles/it-sadly-unclear-whether-this-article-will-put,37715/
hi frank!
i can’t stand these people who screech at every tragedy just so they can get some attention. what exactly was the purpose of donohue saying what he did other than for him to get some media attention? he offered nothing helpful. does he think other people are going to shake in their shoes for even thinking of criticizing him?
as always, the onion is spot-on.
by the way, did you hear that linseypoo graham is blaming what happened in france on obama? oh, geez, i despise these people! 😦
Did you know that the Oklahoma Dust Bowl of the 1930s was Obama’s fault? Yep … absolutely, no doubt about it.
lindseypoo is saying that the president is just not macho enough. why, he’s so angry, he just might slap obama with his purse!!
He’ll get over it.
no drought about it. Grandpa lost the place in Nebraska because Obama
Thanks for verifying.
Hi Nonnie, very nicely done! And you’re right, regression never seems to go out of style, in fact it’s now quite fashionable…
thanks, cynical one without equal. actually, i wanted to have g-d giving donohue the finger, but it just wouldn’t come out looking right, so i went in a different direction.
That would have worked well actually, but good call… 🙂
it took me too long, to get the “oh me”, my brain needs training wheels. “oh, my me”
😆 i was wondering if anyone was going to get my little “oh my me” joke.
it is very funny. liked the “holeier than thou”, as well.
If there had been no murder, then he would have had a good point. It’s not right to just go around insulting other people’s religion.
But now people’s emotions are all riled up. Muslims ruin their own cause by making themselves look bad.
hi Mathew! 😀
welcome to the raisin!
even if there had been no murder, donohue doesn’t have a good point. people have to learn to accept that not everyone believes what they believe in. why should religion be above criticism? why does it deserve it’s own category in the criticism department?
there are many muslims who have spoken up against what the animals in france did. of course, they get very little coverage. the media is more interested in drama, and muslims decrying the senseless violence does not sell a lot of newspapers.
i’ll add this at the risk of being called a bigot–while i do not blame all muslims for the actions of the very, very few, i do recognize that the only people cheering the dirtbags on are muslim (again, a very, very small percentage). i don’t think that it is really about religion at all. i think there are people who have been brainwashed into thinking that muslims and their prophet are being attacked unfairly, and they must seek revenge. those doing the brainwashing, for the most part, are just using religion as a tool so that they can gain power. there are a select few crazies who might believe the venom they spew from the pulpit (i don’t know what the equivalent is in mosques, but the point i am trying to make is true for all extremists of all religions, so i won’t change pulpit to another word.), but i think the majority of them are in it for power and wealth.