The Big But

There have been condemnations around the world of the Charlie Hebdo attack.  But every now and then, you get someone to add "on the other hand." A classic, and all-too-expected example is William Donohue's of the Catholic League. For years he's been going on the offensive against slights--real and imagined--on religion, so this is classic Donohue.

From his latest "Muslims Are Right To Be Angry":

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.

I'm not even going to explain why I disagree with this, but let me just note, in addition to everything else, it's hypocritical.  Donohue's career is, in essence, attacking and insulting people who disagree with him--often explicitly religious people and often in the harshest terms.  Apparently, though, only those who attack the things Donohue cares about are narcissistic, and responsible for whatever happens to them.  (Even if he were more soft-spoken, he still would be in the position of "trashing" Muhammad by stating his own views--he believes, after all, that Islam is a false religion and Muhammad is not a Messenger of anything except lies.  Not putting that in cartoon form doesn't make it any better.)