Bill Donohue won't back down on his condemnation of the French cartoonists executed in Paris — repeating to
Newsmax TV's Steve Malzberg on Friday that the slain artists were indeed "pornographers who disguise themselves as satirists."
Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, sparked a firestorm Wednesday
by declaring on Fox News that the killings at Charlie Hebdo magazine were wrong, but sparked by "libertines" who insist on continually insulting Muslims.
He also called the magazine's cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, which sparked the bloodbath, scatological, adding he's "sick and tired of the narcissism of the artists in this country and abroad who say the only right is my right to do whatever I want."
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And Donohue was just as adamant at pointing the finger of blame on "The Steve Malzberg Show."
"[One of the cartoonists] said Muhammad is not sacred to me. He’s not sacred to me, either. I’m a Catholic, but I don’t go around insulting Muslims intentionally by trashing the Prophet," he said.
"They do it and they do it all the time and they’ve been warned about it. These are pornographers who disguise themselves as satirists. Does it justify this barbarism on the part of Muslims? Of course it doesn’t.
"What I am saying is this, though.... Couldn’t [there] be some degree of restraint, exercise by people in the artistic community both in the United and States and abroad. Wouldn’t that make for a more civil society?"
Donohue, who is a Newsmax contributor, also said he believes said people should act in a respectful manner to another person’s religion "based on ethics, not on the basis of fear."
"The problem with the elite in this country and abroad, particularly those on the left, is that they’re only going to decide to treat Muslims with some degree of equanimity because they’re fearful that Muhammad may want to take off their head," he said.
"You should treat Muslims with degree of respect.... Why is it that all of a sudden because we have fear as the motivator?"
Donohue he has no problem with edginess and irreverence in poking fun, but does object to "toilet speech."
"When you show pictures of religious figures having anal sex — that has crossed the line. That’s not Mel Brooks, okay? That’s not edgy. That’s filth and it needs to stop," Donohue said.
"Now, when I say it should stop, do I want the government to stop them? No, I don’t that’s the wrong remedy."
"I hope I give a green light to the artistic community to grow up and be mature and exercise restraint and show respect for people on a motive other than fear."
The wave of terror in France began Wednesday when two masked gunmen stormed the offices of the Charlie Hebdo, killing 12. A day later, a female cop in a southern Paris district was shot dead by a third gunman. And on Friday, hostages were taken at a Jewish supermarket.
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