Bill Donohue: Charlie Hebdo Shows Western Values ‘Morally Destitute’

Bill Donohue, President of the Catholic League, argued that the cartoons published by French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo showed that “Western values are becoming morally destitute” on a special “Hannity” on the Fox News Channel on Saturday.

Although Donohue said he didn’t want to prevent Charlie Hebdo from publishing their cartoons, he added “we’re not talking here about inoffensive depictions such as the Danish cartoons. We’re talking about toilet speech, we’re talking about anal sex, we’re talking about scatological commentary, we’re talking about the kinds of things which I don’t think we should put on TV, although I do agree that the Danish cartoons we should put on there, just because the Muslims don’t like it, who cares? But I think when it comes to a level of indecency, and if we can’t agree that if you show people having oral sex and the pope, and I don’t care if it’s Muslims, Jews, it doesn’t make any difference to me, then we our[selves] are making a statement that Western values are becoming morally destitute.” And “the idea that freedom of speech is an absolute is the problem,” a position he defended by citing laws against obscenity, assault, and slander.

Donohue also had harsh words for Bill Maher, denouncing him as a “phony” who “contributes to the hate speech in this country, against Catholics in particular, I have nothing but contempt for him. He’s the enemy of freedom, because he’s the one, the kind of person who people then cry out and say ‘let’s get some censorship,’ I don’t want the government to censor anything, I want people to censor themselves.” He also stated “liberty is an important value, but it also runs up against justice and equality, that’s why one can’t trump the other constantly, you’ve got to have some moderation.”

Donohue wasn’t the only one who weighed in on free speech, as former Navy SEAL Carl Higbie argued “we should start criminalizing any verbal support for ISIS or support for terrorism or anything like that.”

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