USA Today addressed reader criticism Thursday night after publishing an inflammatory op-ed on the Charlie Hebdo shooting from Muslim imam Anjem Choudary.
The 285-word op-ed, which bore the headline “people know the consequences,” blamed the French government for “placing the sanctity of its citizens at risk” by allowing satirical magazine Charlie Hedbo to publish the likeness of the Prophet Muhammad. It also argued for the preservation of the “sanctity of a Prophet” and pointed out perceived hypocrisy among Western governments:
The truth is that Western governments are content to sacrifice liberties and freedoms when being complicit to torture and rendition — or when restricting the freedom of movement of Muslims, under the guise of protecting national security.
USA Today and Choudary quickly took blowback on social media for the column:
Climate skeptics can't get published in MSM.. but things are different if you support Islamic terror. http://t.co/Nf2ZDRmQ4f
— JunkScience.com (@JunkScience) January 8, 2015
‘Whoever insults a Prophet, kill him.’ In other words, France had it coming. Flabbergasted to see this in USA Today. http://t.co/4ffOxp4aUY
— Tom Goodman Ù† (@TomisAnchored) January 9, 2015
http://t.co/dw9U5I28XP "Kill all those who would dare question my methods and motives." It's a political edict, not a religious one. #fools
— Mr. Joshua (@smithjosh) January 9, 2015
People know the consequences: http://t.co/xhhZhwSGiD via @USATODAY
Summary?
Don't insult Muhammad because then it's okay to kill you.
— Priest (@PriestDeSanko) January 9, 2015
Looking forward to Anjem Choudary's Counterpoint on grocery shopping in the next @USATODAY http://t.co/GBMJ4SzfT3
— Yoni Appelbaum (@YAppelbaum) January 9, 2015
Editorial page editor Brian Gallagher defended USA Today’s decision to publish the column by Choudary, calling him “a natural choice” to give the other side due to his “influence and insight.”
His argument is neither an incitement to violence nor a defense of the murders. Both of those would have been unacceptable. Rather, it is a tempered analysis of the motivations behind tragedies like the Charlie Hebdo attack: Nothing is more central to Islam, he points out, than the sanctity of the religion’s founder, the prophet Mohammed. So Muslims, passionate in their faith, are duty-bound to reject Western standards of free speech that tolerate blasphemy to the prophet.
USA Today’s editorial board ran an editorial titled “Paris slaughter can’t silence free expression” calling the cartoonists from Charlie Hebdo heroes.
Choudary is known for his controversial views surrounding acts of violence committed in the name of Islam. He sparred with CNN’s Brian Stelter and Sean Hannity over the execution of journalist James Foley. Choudary also described the attackers behind 9/11 as “magnificent martyrs.”
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