Angry Clegg's Powerful Response On Paris Shooting

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Thursday 8th January 2015

An angry Nick Clegg insisted society must be free to offend people as he slapped down a caller to LBC.

It follows an attack at the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris yesterday which left 12 people dead.

Omar in Croydon claimed that focussing on the cartoons as the reason was superficial as there were many other reasons for the attack. But the Deputy Prime Minister was forced to interrupt to dismiss the caller.

He said: "I cannot express to you how strongly I disagree with you."

Mr Clegg continued: "There can be no excuse, no reason, no explanation - they have killed cartoonists who have done nothing more than draw drawings which they so happen to find offensive.

"Here's the bottom line Omar: at the end of the day, in a free society people have to be free to offend each other.

"You cannot have freedom unless people are free to offend each other. We have no right not be offended. That fundamental principle of being free to offend people…is exactly what was under threat by these murderous barbarians."

"To even suggest Omar, that there is a rationale, an explanation, a motivation that some absolves them or sheds greater light on such a horrific, cold-hearted, cowardly act I find that -"

At this point, Omar cut across the Deputy PM to say he agreed that the attacks were horrific, but "why is the rest of the discussion not brought in? If they feel that America was complicit in torture globally, Iraq being invaded -"

Mr Clegg interrupted once again: "Omar, for heaven's sake, don't mix things. Of course it is utterly wrong the way in which it now appears that the American intelligence agencies and others according to that report were doing things which are totally unacceptable in a law-abiding society.

"But to somehow mix that in any way with the perverted things that must have been going on in the heads of these individuals, to go into a newspaper office and shoot cartoonists - that you're even drawing the link, I find so inexplicable."

There is no link which can in any way seek to explain such a random, such a cruel, such a cowardly act as what we saw in Paris yesterday."

Full Transcript

Omar:
By purely just saying based on the cartoons this incident happened isn’t it treating it quite superficially? The cartoons, you could look at it, were the straw that broke the camel’s back. When ministers etc. start talking about what’s happened there, why do they never talk about everything else that’s going on? And then this happens at the end of it.

I’m sure when you look into these people, they claim to be defending the honour of the Prophet… was their lifestyle commensurate with people who the love of the prophet, peace be on him? You’ll find it wasn’t. It’s not just the love of the Prophet which caused this action. It’s a lot more. This is always taken out of the discussion and they just focus on the cartoons and it’s just doing a disservice to the reality of how 1.4bn Muslims around the world feel.

Clegg:
I’m sorry, Omar, I’ve got to interrupt. I think if I understand you correctly, I cannot express to you how strongly I disagree with you. There can be no excuse, no reason, no explanation… They have killed cartoonists who have done nothing more than drawings which they so happen to find offensive.

Here’s the bottom line, Omar, at the end of the day in a free society people have to be free to offend each other. You cannot have freedom unless people are free to offend each other. We have no right not to be offended. That fundamental principle of being free to offend people - and not saying somehow that you have a right not be offended in a democratic, open society such as ours is exactly what was under threat by these murderous barbarians. To even suggest, Omar, that there is a rationale, an explanation, a motive that somehow absolves them or sheds greater light on such a horrific, cold hearted, cowardly act, I find outrageous.

Omar:
You’re absolutely right… But why is the rest of discussion not brought in? If they [the attackers] feel that - look - America, they were complicit in torture globally. It’s all of these things together, Iraq being invaded.

Clegg:
Omar for heaven’s sake don’t mix things. Of course it is utterly wrong the way in which it now appears that the American intelligence agencies and others according to that report were doing things which are totally unacceptable in a law abiding society. But to somehow mix that in any way with the perverted things that must have been going on in the heads of these individuals? To go into a newspaper office and shoot cartoonists, I mean, that you’re even drawing the link I find so inexplicable. There is no link which can in anyway seek to explain such a random, such a cruel, such a cowardly act as what we saw in Paris yesterday.