During a discussion broadcasted on Sun TV that was dedicated to the interreligious conference that took place in Montreal on September 7, 2011, Michael Coren reasserted that he is a devout Catholic and a true advocate of freedom of expression. He mentioned that it may not be pleasing for him when others make fun of his religion but “now I am a big boy” and “I can take it”.

Asked to comment on whether or not all religions were to blame for violence, Coren answered as follows:

“Stop bombing people, stop blowing up planes, stop committing suicide bomb(ing)s, stop cutting the throats of children, stop murdering innocent people. When Mormons do that, when Mennonites do that, we can talk about all religions”.

“At the moment, almost exclusively, the religion that produces people, not all Muslims, but the religion that produces these attacks is Islam. And we have here an Islamic scholar who pretends to be a moderate but is quite extreme, and I think the Dalai Lama, the man… There’s a supreme calmness about him and a decency, but I think that there’s naiveté too.”

“He knows what extremism can do and he is playing it to their hands.”

(…) “What he’s done, I don’t think he meant to do this, is to say to people who are extreme in nature ‘you’re ok’. They are not ok”.

h/t Vlad