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Robert Spencer in FrontPage: Doonesbury for Sharia

Apr 28, 2015 10:45 pm By Robert Spencer

Garry-TrudeauIn FrontPage I discuss yet another hypocritical Left-fascist foe of the freedom of speech, Doonesbury’s Garry Trudeau:

There have been a lot of people since the jihad massacre of Charlie Hebdo Muhammad cartoonists who have said or strongly implied that they had it coming and deserved what they got. Most of them have been Islamic jihadists and supremacists at anti-Charlie Hebdo demonstrations. No one expected that one of the murdered cartoonists’ harshest critics would be a fellow cartoonist, as well as a fellow iconoclast and slayer of sacred cows: Doonesbury’s Garry Trudeau.

Speaking at the George Polk journalism awards on April 9 as he received a lifetime achievement award, Trudeau charged that the cartoonists had “wandered into the realm of hate speech.” He called for self-censorship in the face of violent intimidation, saying that “free speech … becomes its own kind of fanaticism.”

Trudeau’s words, understandably, incited controversy, and so on Meet the Press last week he attempted to clarify his earlier remarks and dispel the impression that he was blaming the victims for the massacre. However, he only ended up digging the hole deeper and affirming his submission to violent intimidation and implicit acceptance of Sharia blasphemy laws.

In an interview with a fawning and obsequious Chuck Todd, Trudeau assured the world that the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists were “not at all to blame,” but then immediately relapsed into blaming them for their own murders, saying: “I didn’t agree with the decisions they made that brought a world of pain to France.”

Yet it was the jihad mass murderers, not Charlie Hebdo, that brought a world of pain to France. If they had not been willing to commit mass murder in the service of Sharia blasphemy laws, France would not have experienced any pain at all. On Meet the Press, Trudeau was saying that the proper response to a thug who threatens to kill you unless you shut up was to submit and obey. That would in effect install a thugocracy, allowing those who will kill the most people the most ruthlessly the right to rule.

Trudeau also hastened to avow that he would never follow in the blasphemous footsteps of the slain Charlie Hebdo cartoonists: “I wouldn’t draw pictures of the prophet….” This was presumably because, he said, he didn’t “have the right to decide what is sacred and holy and profane for someone else.”

But that is not what is at issue regarding cartoons of Muhammad. There is no question that Muhammad is sacred and holy to Muslims. The question is whether or not that fact obligates anyone else. If I believe something is sacred and holy, does that oblige you also to respect it? Trudeau would apparently say yes. I doubt, however, that he would say the same thing when it came to Piss Christ or the dung-encrusted painting of the Virgin Mary that was exhibited in New York a few years ago. But Christians won’t kill him for offending them.

Since he began Doonesbury in the late 1960s, Garry Trudeau has always been an unreflective, sloganeering Leftist, and in his remarks on the Charlie Hebdo massacre he here shows his dark little authoritarian heart. The Left is increasingly preoccupied with “hate speech,” and insisting ever more loudly that First Amendment protections do not apply to it – and that is nothing short of ominous. “Hate speech” is a subjective judgment. If it becomes criminalized, then those who are in power can use “hate speech” laws to silence the powerless.

Trudeau would likely recoil at such an assessment and deny that he had anything like that in mind, but nonetheless, tyranny is the inescapable result of the combination of their concern with their narcissism and solipsism. Leftists like Trudeau generally assume that their positions are so self-evident that those whom they excoriate as “right-wing” are fully aware that they’re trafficking in “hate speech” — I remember Ground Zero Mosque developer Sharif El-Gamal’s obvious surprise when I answered “Of course” to his question, “Do you really believe that what you are doing is right?” In reality, I myself think much of what not I, but Trudeau (and El-Gamal) says is hateful, but I would never want them forcibly silenced. The same cannot be said the other way around.

It is particularly shameful that someone like Garry Trudeau, who has preened for over forty years over being “controversial” (although actually he has just reflected standard Leftist establishment opinions), would not stand up for the freedom of speech against violent thuggery, and realize that “controversial” voices need protection if any free society is going to remain free.

Indeed, it shows the fix we’re in.

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Filed Under: free speech, Muhammad cartoons, Useful idiots Tagged With: Doonesbury, Garry Trudeau


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Comments

  1. Linde Barrera says

    Apr 28, 2015 at 10:56 pm

    Garry Trudeau is as phony as a $3 bill. And I always thought Doonesbury was redundantly stupid.

    • mortimer says

      Apr 29, 2015 at 1:08 am

      Trudeau knows nothing about Islam. His egregious blather would be exposed as emptiness in the first few minutes of a debate with an informed person like Robert Spencer.

      No doubt, Trudeau would run from such a debate in horrified fear…as do mullahs and Islamic experts. They all know that the facts are on the side of those who justly deplore and critique Islam.

      Islam cannot be defended intellectually.

      • Linde Barrera says

        Apr 29, 2015 at 10:01 am

        To Mortimer- Thank you for your acknowledgement of my comment and for always being succinctly honest and on target. I really enjoy reading your posts.

      • Shane says

        Apr 29, 2015 at 10:12 am

        Trudeau is another gutless liberal dhimmi who will not stand up for our freedom of speech to criticize or make fun of Islam and Muhammad. Why should Islam be the only religion that is above criticism?

        • mortimer says

          Apr 29, 2015 at 6:26 pm

          He spits on the graves of those who stood up for freedom and were executed by the censors.

          GARRY TRUDEAU STANDS ON THE SIDE OF THE CENSORS.

  2. profitsbeard says

    Apr 28, 2015 at 11:27 pm

    Sure wouldn’t want to make fun of a religion whose ‘prophet’ was a pedophile, slave holder, mass-murderer, rapist, plagiarist and assassin of satirists (poets, specifically).

    What could be funny about that?

  3. RonW says

    Apr 28, 2015 at 11:47 pm

    As said in the comic strip ‘Pogo’:

    “We have met the enemy and he is us”

    As far as Trudeau can be considered ‘one of us’, that is.

  4. Dan says

    Apr 29, 2015 at 12:13 am

    Gary,

    it’s easy to be controversial when you have 100% absolute protection from the people you disagree with.

    As a political cartoonist, you probably HAVE received threatening correspondence from people who’s views differ from yours.

    The difference here though, is that you probably only dealt a few lone wolf nuts who, as far as I know, never gave you any cause to believe they would act upon their threats. (Unless there are some issues you went to the police over, and they, or our legal system “dealt” with the matter.

    The difference here is, by conservative estimates, 1% of of a world wide organization has proven they will commit very violent acts upon those who they even THINK slighted them.

    I have more respect for an Islamict terrorist than I do you, because they at least seem to HAVE courage of conviction.

    You, on the other hand, If political cartoonism were the physical battlefield, would be charged with “Cowardice in the Face of the Enemy,” and probably “Desertion,” both High Crimes in times of war.

    Please just…

    Go away and let the adults talk.

    • Dan says

      Apr 29, 2015 at 12:15 am

      Please pardon the spelling errors.

      Dang. This site needs an edit button.

    • Keith says

      Apr 29, 2015 at 6:57 am

      Hi Dan, I think your statement that 1 percent of muslims will commit violent against those that criticise them. After all that is still 16 million muslims world wide willing to kill for Islam.
      A ComRes poll for the BBC Radio 4 Today program in Feb 2015 showed 24 percent of muslims in the UK believe violence against those criticising Islam, their prophet or Allah whilst another 8 percent didn’t agree with the statement but didn’t disagree with it either. So that is a massive 32 percent of muslims who dont think that killing in the name of Islam is unacceptable.
      Extrapolate that 24 percent figure world wide and that is approximately 384 million muslims believe violence is acceptable against those who criticise Islam. Not a figure to be taken lightly

      • Dan says

        Apr 29, 2015 at 1:31 pm

        Kieth,

        I was trying to really, really, really be conservative on the numbers.

        Cause 1% of a billion is still 10 million world wide.

        Truth is, I’ve heard radical Islamists are closer to 10% in number.

        And here’s another scary stat.

        In 2009 I was in Wilmington NC for several months, and a local tv station broadcast, (Can’t remember which) had a poll question asking ONLY Muslims: “If you knew of an Islamic terrorist plot, would you report it?”

        I just about fell off my chair when I heard the answer.

        3 out of 4, that’s 75%, said “No.”

        And this was an ordinary cable tv station.

        Not some streaming live “Deepdarkconspiracies.com” website.

        And here’s one more thing.

        I spent several years sailing through the Middle East and I ain’t going back. Survived three separate pirate attacks, and one only because the U.S. Navy showed up in the nick of time.

        That was in 1999-2000.

        Except for witnessing some mass slaughter, everything else I’ve seen on tv here is 100% accurate

        And I’ve tried to tell people.

        And I’ve been called I’ve been called a misogynist, islamophobic, pro-communist, pro-totalitarian, Nazi, khmer Rouge supporter for my efforts

        Go figure that combination out.

  5. Papa Whiskey says

    Apr 29, 2015 at 1:00 am

    That this nasty little intellectual goose-stepper should have received a George Polk award is nothing less than obscene. George Polk was murdered for doing his job as a CBS correspondent during the Greek civil war in 1948, and the award in his name was intended for journalists who have taken risks for the people’s right to know. The Charlie Hebdo cartoonists took risks and paid the ultimate price for doing so. Garry Trudeau, who attended a posh prep school, graduated from Yale, and has spent a well-compensated career peddling leftist bromides to the well-indoctrinated, has taken none.And though he has declared that a cartoonist’s role is to “punch up” rather than down, he himself has punched down — on the graves of his murdered colleagues. He is deserving of nothing more than scorn.

  6. mortimer says

    Apr 29, 2015 at 1:04 am

    Garry Trudeau blamed the victims…clearly. He blamed them for using their free speech. He exonerated the killers thereby. They were just doing what comes naturally to the noble savages!

    In so blaming the French and exonerating the Muslims he admits they are barbarians and must behave as barbarians. Muslims have no choice, no self-control, no ethics. They are savages who must be expected to behave badly. That is Trudeau’s argument.

    Garry Trudeau is a blurting, unthoughtful useful idiot for the supremacists. They know that their Bronze-Age savagery will be defended by the likes of Garry Trudeau

  7. mortimer says

    Apr 29, 2015 at 1:11 am

    Spencer wrote: “Hate speech” is a subjective judgment. If it becomes criminalized, then those who are in power can use “hate speech” laws to silence the powerless.”

    ‘Hate speech’ would be defined as all disagreement with the Leftist agenda.

    • particolor says

      Apr 29, 2015 at 6:26 am

      Exactly !!

    • Keith says

      Apr 29, 2015 at 7:00 am

      Eventually the Leftist agenda would have to come up against the Islamic agenda, a fight well worth watching if we could sit on the sidelines and look in without being affected ourselves of course

  8. Champ says

    Apr 29, 2015 at 2:22 am

    Trudeau charged that the cartoonists had “wandered into the realm of hate speech.”

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    What he really objects to is the Truth about muhammad being expressed because it upsets muslims. But the end game is what matters and the Truth will set them free!

    • boakai ngombu says

      Apr 29, 2015 at 5:30 pm

      certainly the Allah god of islam (unknowable; the best of all deceivers) must be absolutely gay and very delighted that news about Muhammad (lately contrived; full of lusts) is made to be more loved than the saving knowledge about Jesus, Savior and Lord.

  9. Shmooviyet says

    Apr 29, 2015 at 4:50 am

    Again and again these idiotic, willing kuffars must ‘walk back’ or ‘clarify’ their previous comments, which amounts to nothing new…
    They also insist on referring to the precious Mo as “The Prophet Mohammed”.
    It comes across as nothing more than craven apple-polishing ( to be polite ) to the fiends who just might blow up his office, or murder him in the street, if he doesn’t speak with the respect he expects -and knows- they demand.
    A gutless punk and shame to his profession. Come to the Draw Mo contest and see some REAL art, Mr. Trudeau!

  10. duh_swami says

    Apr 29, 2015 at 4:52 am

    “free speech … becomes its own kind of fanaticism.”

    Then you are a fanatic because you just exercised free speech by running your pathetic mouth off…Hypocrite…

  11. Laura says

    Apr 29, 2015 at 5:57 am

    The problem in standing up to Islam is the fact that anyone who does so is immediately a marked man, or woman and has to live under armed guard 24/7. The inflammatory muslim clerics however, are always flanked by a team of heavies wherever they go (the heavies are obviously welfare recipients) and are, therefore, harder to get to.
    Until we start to ‘fight dirty’ like the muslims we will always be on the back foot.

  12. sidney penny says

    Apr 29, 2015 at 7:25 am

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/05/video-robert-spencer-at-cal-poly-may-13-2014

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/05/cal-poly-free-speech-under-attack-in-academia

    Are you going to feel sorry for the young who asked Robert Spencer that hate speech is not free speech?

    Short 8 minutes at the end-watch it and enjoy

    Who is the arbitrator of determining hate speech.?

    158.23 RS- demonizing of the opposition in all spheres that is a huge threat the society that has been a source of great prosperity and great human flowering for a couple of centuries now.

    158.42 RS -only one view is allowed I know that and only one perspective is acceptable and that is a symptom of the problem I am discussing.

    158.55 RS-ponder what might happen if you have appoint of view, that is one that is not allowed. Do you really want to be in that situation?

    15.10 RS-or all points of view were not allowed and ideas would live and die on the basis of their truth not on one who found it acceptable of or not acceptable.
    99.9% certain that none of the views I represent are discussed or even considered acceptable to be discussed at this or any other university in this country

    200.40 RS-and I do not believe that any one of who have read my books would honestly be able to say that there is anything hateful or inaccurate.

    200.28 RS-in the mean time I know that the ideas I represent are not acceptable at universities and the ideas I represent are true. That is a bad ??(could not catch the word)

    200.37 -great question-

    She: we came to the conclusion that there is a difference between free speech and hate speech
    She: hate speech is not freedom of speech

    RS: what is hate speech?

    She: one that harms or threatens without any factual content, without expressing any valuable idea

    RS: who decides?
    Who is the arbiter?

    Concept of hate speech is a tool in the hands of the powerful to silence the powerless.

  13. Bezelel says

    Apr 29, 2015 at 9:01 am

    The koran is full of hate speech. That is where this problem starts and the people who act on it is where it manifests. trudeau is not part of the solution.

  14. eric says

    Apr 29, 2015 at 11:52 am

    For me the point is that of course Christians will not murder artists who make fun of Christ, but Muslims WILL murder anyone, including other Muslims who make fun of the Prophet Muhammad. Doing so invites, unnecessarily, attacks such as the one at CH. There was no thug with a gun making threats, or trying to suppress free speech in France. This was a decision by CH, made over and over again to continue the pieces making fun of, or insulting the Prophet. Then, there was an attempt at violence. Then threats of violence. How many times to you wave a pice of meat in front of a mad dog’s face before it attacks?

    So, CH wasn’t going to let anyone deprive them of their free speech. But, it was no long speech freely made, was it? Now, they HAD to continue the assault on Islam. Yes, it was a matter of principle in a war of words and cartoons. However, that is not how Islam viewed it – a war of words. In the world of radical Islam, CH’s words and cartoons were crimes encoded in Sharia punishable by death. We know this because people are executed in the middle east and other areas where Sharia is woven into Constitutions or municipal codes. These are primitive people who might kill you for saying “your momma wears Army boots”.

    Why not exercise freedom of speech AND discernmeent at the same time? Theere was no issue untill CH made one and then continued on and on and on. Might as well be walking down a particular street and get robbed, only to continue walking down the same street because “it is a public road and I have a right to use it”. Most of us, after filing a police report, discern it is just stupid to invite attacks and will use another road next time.

    • Carlos Danger says

      Apr 29, 2015 at 7:23 pm

      Would you invite someone into your home and then allow them to tell YOU how to live?
      I am not a CH fan, but I do like south Park.
      I’ve never read Salman Rushdie, but I will fight to preserve MY freedom to read and think what I like in the face of primitive, violent despotism.

  15. Carlos Danger says

    Apr 29, 2015 at 7:19 pm

    A coward as well as a hypocrite.

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