Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, a U.S. organization that "defends the rights of Catholics," issued a statement titled "Muslims are right to be angry." And then goes on to say “what happened in Paris cannot be tolerated, but neither should we tolerate the kind of intolerance that provoked this violent reaction." http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
There it is, the dangerous hallmark of fundamentalist religion, Muslim or Christian: We cannot/should not tolerate anyone satirizing a deity. And if that means killing the offenders, well, they’ve been warned. How small and feeble these gods must be, that human beings have to defend them.
[more below the golden free speech symbol]
In Federalist 63, James Madison argues for a more deliberate senate to counter-balance the passions of a house of representatives. But Donohue takes the conclusion Madison reaches there and contorts it into a blow against the very constitution Madison was helping create. And there's more. In a speech to the First Congress, June 8, 1789, Madison proposed several amendments in response to concerns of Anti-Federalists that the Constitution was not strong enough in protecting certain rights. The first right Madison proposed protecting was freedom of speech. And below are Madison's exact words.
The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, to write, or to publish their sentiments; and the freedom of the press, one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable. No state shall violate the equal rights of conscience, or of the press.
Madison’s position seems pretty firm to me. No
except for intolerable speech. In fact no except phrases at all. How rich, that Donohue tries to refute the Father of the First Amendment by quoting him out of context!