Abbott says cartoon contest had First Amendment right to mock Muhammad
The morning after two men were killed by police in Garland when they opened fire at a contest of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, Gov. Greg Abbott defended the free speech rights of the sponsors of the event.
“We live in a country where the First Amendment is one of the paramount promises of this nation and that provides people with the ability to speak out, to say what they want, just as people draw cartoons mocking the governor and people may draw cartoons mocking others,” Abbott told reporters following Monday morning’s Texas State Prayer Breakfast at the Doubletree Hotel in Northeast Austin, where he talked about the need to defend religious liberty from attack, including “the legal assault on marriage as defined by God.”
Asked whether the cartoon contest could be criticized as a breach of sensitivity and respect if not law, Abbott said, “Well, let’s kind of go back in history if you don’t mind. Think of Jesus’s final days. He was one of the most mocked men in the world, mocked and ridiculed and spit upon. So part of what Jesus is all about is showing how a person is mocked but is elevated to being the savior”.
“So I think that in America people are free to express themselves about any kind of figure or religious figures,” Abbott said. “People have mocked Christians over the past few years and what Christians believe is that we need to protect our religious liberties, but that doesn’t mean engaging gun battles to do so.”
Read more: http://www.statesman.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/abbott-says-cartoon-contest-had-first-amendment-ri/nk8W7/
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