Tech Co. Chairman: Blaming Pam Geller For Shooting Like Blaming Rape Victims

Robert Shillman, president and CEO of Cognex Corp., poses for photos at his company in Natick, Mass., Wednesday July 20, 2005. In 1998, Shillman decided to go forward with a lawsuit opposing patent infringement clai... Robert Shillman, president and CEO of Cognex Corp., poses for photos at his company in Natick, Mass., Wednesday July 20, 2005. In 1998, Shillman decided to go forward with a lawsuit opposing patent infringement claims against Cognex by inventor Jerome Lemelson and his lawyers. (AP Photo/Chitose Suzuki) MORE LESS

Robert Shillman, the founder and chairman of technology company Cognex Corp, defended the Muhammad cartoon contest in Texas in an interview with Reuters published Saturday.

He praised the event’s organizer, anti-Muslim activist Pam Geller, for defending freedom of speech, and he condemned the two gunmen who opened fire on officers outside her event in Garland, Texas.

“It was a terrorist attack on the American way of life,” Shillman told Reuters.

He also argued that Geller was not to blame for the shooting.

“Blaming Pamela Geller for inciting violence is like blaming a victim of rape for wearing high heels,” he told Reuters.

Geller herself used the same comparison recently when defending her event.

Shillman, who told Reuters that he isn’t anti-Muslim, is also a director at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, which aims to combat “the efforts of the radical left and its Islamist allies to destroy American values,” according to the group’s website.

The Freedom Center runs numerous websites, including Jihad Watch and FrontPage Magazine. Jihad Watch helped organize the Muhammad cartoon contest in Garland, but Shillman declined to tell Reuters whether he helped fund the event.

Shillman told Reuters that he’s not worried about being more outspoken than the average company chairman.

“Most CEOs are hired guns and their future depends on what their boards think of them. I don’t give a fuck,” he said.

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  1. Shillman, who told Reuters that he isn't anti-Muslim, is also a director at the David Horowitz Freedom Center,

    Oxmoron alert!

  2. Avatar for sfaw sfaw says:

    What is it with wingnuts and rape? Secret desires?

    No, “Dr. Bob” (as you apparently like to be called), it’s more like being a loudmouth asshole who goes up to a stranger and spits in the stranger’s face, while calling him a “pussy,” and daring him do to something about it.

  3. It’s like walking into an IRA pub in Belfast and singing “God Save The Queen” at the top of your lungs?

    Being murdered by the people in the pub would still be wrong, but people are going to blame you for being stupid enough to provoke your own murder.

  4. He just wants to see her in a bikini again

  5. Ummmmm…

    that would be Oxymoran…

    .

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