The satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which was the victim of a terrorist attack by Muslim extremists in Paris over a week ago, needs to learn that the attack was not entirely unprovoked, the president of the Catholic League tells Newsmax.
"The only people who are truly responsible here are these murdering Muslims," Bill Donohue told J.D. Hayworth and Francesca Page on "America's Forum" Friday on
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"When you look at any event and you look at the totality of the event, the people who were the cartoonists did not deserve this," he explained.
"On the other hand, had they exercised restraint and didn't engage in toilet speech, filthy, obscene statements and portrayals of the prophet, they wouldn't be dead today," he said.
"Something has to be learned about this," he added.
While condemning those who kill in the name of God,
Pope Francis said Thursday that "if my good friend Dr. [Alberto] Gasbarri says a curse word against my mother, he can expect a punch. It's normal.
You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others."
According to Donohue, "what he's simply saying is this: when people needlessly and persistently insult people, don't act like a Casablanca-type virgin and expect people not to be horrified and it may trigger a strong response."
"If I go into a bar and I insult everybody in the bar and tell them what a bunch of jerks they are, should I act shocked if they come and charge at me?" he asked.
"No one is justifying what these Muslims did, but when the founder of Charlie Hebdo, not Bill Donohue or the pope, the founder came out yesterday and he blamed [Stephane Charbonnier], the guy who was killed tragically and needlessly — he blamed him for dragging the others to death because he was a stubborn blockhead and he provoked the Muslims — some lessons need to be learned," he explained.
"In a free society, we have all kinds of exceptions to freedom of speech," he said. "You can't engage in libel, slander, copyright infringement, false advertising, treasonous speech, harassing phone calls — I can go right down the list."
"What the pope is saying is morally, 'It's not proper to insult people, even if it's legal,'" the president of the Catholic league contends.
However, Donohue says that it doesn't mean anyone should "just be intimidated by" Muslim extremists.
"If it's just a matter of a depiction of Muhammad, and it's done inoffensively, go ahead and put it out there," he said.
"The problem is we have, in the western world, an awful lot of people who say we don't want to draw a line at all — 'You can't get too vulgar and obscene when it comes to Muhammad,'" he explained.
"We should respect Muslims and go after the guys who are trying to kill us," he added. "I don't think that's such an unremarkable conclusion."
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