Radical Muslim Website Threatens South Park Creators

Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the co-creators of South Park, have been threatened on a Muslim website following the airing of the 200th episode of South Park last Wednesday.

Revolution Muslim, a group based Brooklyn, objected to the depiction of the Prophet Mohammed in the episode. Their website posted an image of the mutilated body of Theo van Gogh and suggested Parker and Stone would probably end up like him. The Dutch filmmaker collaborated with Ayaan Hirsi Ali on the ten minute film Submission which addressed the issue of violence against Muslim women. In November 2004, Van Gogh was shot and stabbed in broad daylight by Mohammed Bouyeri.

In addition to posting the gruesome photo of van Gogh, Revolution Muslim also published the address of Comedy Central in New York as well as the address of Parker and Stone's production studio in Los Angeles. A website in the U.K. devoted to South Park has returned the favor.

Ironicially, Mohammed is never actually seen in the episode. He is dressed up in a bear suit. Consider what Douglas Murray wrote in The Daily Telegraph:

All of which of course just confirms the point that the South Park boys were making. The anniversary show figured the inventors of all the major world religions. They showed Buddha snorting drugs. They did not even show Mohammed, as their broadcast network wouldn’t allow them to. Noticeably, no death threats have emanated from Buddhists for showing their founder as a drug-addict. But for not even showing Mohammed, and for pointedly demonstrating that they could not, an extremist Muslim group has threatened them.

In another twist of irony when Mohammed was physically depicted in an episode called "Super Best Friends" which originally aired in July 2001 never heard was a discouraging word. But when Parker and Stone did an episode in April 2006 called "Cartoon Wars" which was a commentary on the Danish cartoon controversy Comedy Central refused to show an image of Mohammed.

For his part, Stone said in an interview with Boing Boing, "It matters to me when I talk about Mohammed that I can say we did this, we did this and we did this and I can stand behind it. Me. Just me. I don't think it's going to change the world. But for us it's this has got to be the way it is for our show. So it does matter to me. Those kind of discussions matter."

Yes these discussions do matter. But when President Obama orders all words referring to Islam be removed from national security documents it does not create a climate conducive to candid conversation. It also creates a climate where organizations like Revolution Muslim can operate with impunity. We are not far removed from being prohibited from stating that al Qaeda attacked American soil on September 11, 2001.