Bill Donohue comments on a Religion News Service story today by David Gibson on the Paris murders:
“In finding no justification for the deaths of the Charlie Hebdo editorial staff, [Cardinal Timothy] Dolan seemed to part ways with another prominent New York Catholic, Bill Donohue of the Catholic League, who essentially said the newspaper editors had brought on their own slaughter” (my italics). The verbs dropped by Gibson are telling: he can’t quite state that the New York Archbishop parts ways with me on this subject, so he infers that we have. Moreover, he infers that I blamed the victims. I will offer a more manly rejoinder.
- “Killing in response to insult, no matter how gross, must be unequivocally condemned.” That was the first sentence I wrote on this issue. (January 7)
- The next day I wrote that “the murderers are fully responsible for what they did and should be treated with the full force of the law. Nothing justifies the killing of these people.”
- “The only people who are responsible here are the murderers, the Muslim barbarians.” I said this to Megyn Kelly on January 8 on her Fox News show, “The Kelly File.”
- “Now who is responsible? The Muslim thugs are responsible.” I said this to Don Lemon on his CNN show on January 9.
I could go on and on. Evidently Gibson, and others, have a problem understanding why there is nothing inconsistent about fingering the Muslim murderers as responsible for the crime, and discussing the irresponsible record of those who deliberately and persistently insulted Muslims. That such an unremarkable distinction is greeted as an expression of cognitive dissonance speaks volumes about the thinking processes of my critics.
There is enough controversy over this issue without inventing more of it.
