Mostly everyone is familiar with this story. Parker and Stone, the creators of South Park, recently had some fun when it came to the question of whether or not they should depict the Muslim Prophet Mohammad in an episode. To me, it’s pretty irrelevant how they even portrayed him. (Mohammad was in a bear costume at first…which turned out not to be the prophet anyway).
To me, this episode wasn’t even really so much about Muslims or Islam. It was about our bizarre society — and how we hold back from poking fun at certain people or groups…and that in itself is a form of prejudice!….at least that was my interpretation. I would think it should be more offensive to Muslims to exclude them from ridicule and criticism, and from being the subjects of humor. To me, that’s segregation, and not treating people equally.
According to revolutionmuslim.com, the South Park episode depicting the prophet Muhammad is a crime punishable by death. The website said that violent retaliation “will likely happen” to the show’s creators, Matt Stone and Trey Parker. The site provided the addresses of both Comedy Central’s New York office, and Stone and Parker’s production office in Los Angeles.
Oh, and also this site thinks it’s swell to post photos of the violent murder of Theo Van Gogh, a captured filmmaker/prominent critic of radical Islam. The maniac running the site also tweeted prayers for Allah to kill the show’s creators and “burn them in hell for all eternity.” Sweet. Way to use free speech to condemn free speech!
In addition, this radical group characterized all of this as a warning rather than a threat. Yeah, none of this seems at all threatening…..
“When South Park got threatened last week by Islamists incensed at their depiction of Muhammad, it served — or should serve — as a reminder that our culture isn’t just different than one that makes death threats to cartoonists. It’s better.” – Bill Maher
I agree, and with this blog post, I just want to formally offer my support for Parker and Stone. I can’t tell you how much respect I have for those guys as artists. And although this is a blog read by maybe 6 people, compared to a successful TV show seen by millions, we all should do our part to condemn stupidity.
Disclaimer ——- I’m not equating all Muslims to those responsible for the website Revolution Muslim, and of course all Muslims don’t share every viewpoint….
….but to any people who support Revolution Muslim, or believe that violence, or threatening violence is an appropriate response when your sensibilities are offended — well, you can kiss my ass, lick my balls, and kill yourself via a method that doesn’t take others with you.
Tags: freedom of speech, Islam, Matt Stone, Mohammad, murder, muslim, radicalism, revolution muslim, south park, Theo Van Gogh, Trey Parker
