Forever Loyal to South Park

Last night I enjoyed the latest episode of South Park. This morning I found out that certain people did not enjoy it as much as I did. In fact they hated it so much that they threatened violence on Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of the amazingly genius South Park. So who are these people that would publicly demand the death of two men who didn't set out to harm anyone? No surprise here. They belong to a group of radical Muslims called Revolution Muslim. A post by Abu Talhah Al-Amrikee  on the group's website threatened the writers with the same fate that met the Dutch filmmaker, Theo Van Gogh. He was fatally shot in Amsterdam in 2004. His crime? Creating a short film that criticized the way Islamic society treats women.  But wait, I take back what I wrote before. This group did not issue a threat.  Al-Amrikee wrote, "This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them." Oh sure it's just a mere warning. So I guess this is supposed to make the writers feel more secure? Yeah, right. All this outrage is over the depiction of the prophet Muhammad in a 2 part episode of South Park. Well not really a depiction since apparently Comedy Central banned Parker and Stone from depicting Muhammad in the show. So part 1 of the show featured Muhammad in a bear suit but  part 2 didn't even show that much. All we got to see was the word  "CENSOR". Even the mere mention of the prophet's name was bleeped out. As was a whole speech by the one of the characters, which by the way, I am dying to hear. I think an uncensored version should be released somewhere. Which brings me to my point. Why does an American show have to censor itself because of a radical religious group that doesn't like the content of the episode? People this is AMERICA! We have the right to free speech. Our writers have the right to channel their creativity without fearing death. We don't place restrictions on art because we're afraid it will offend a certain group. Well apparently we do now. At least when it comes to anything that to do with Islam. Hell, our president won't even call terrorists what they are and can't even bring himself to admit that we are fighting a war on terror with Muslim extremists. (On a side note, who's willing to bet that Obama will inevitably apologize for South Park's "offense?" He's already apologized to everyone for America's "offenses.") I remember one New York City artist created a painting of Jesus or the Virgin Mary (I can't remember which one exactly) covered  in feces. Sure some Christians were upset but they didn't call for violence. We didn't have riots in the streets. That artist wasn't killed for his art.
 Besides the point that this kind of censorship goes against the beliefs our country was founded on, people need to understand what kind of show South Park is. South Park makes fun of EVERYONE!!!!!  Not one group can escape this. And guess what? No other group has threatened violence against the writers. Because while South Park does generate intelligent social commentary it is still a cartoon. Who gets upset over a cartoon? South Park has made fun of my religion many time and I laugh it off each time.  Every South Park episode is based on some aspect of society. The censored episode was just satire of the riots that occurred in Europe after a cartoon depicted Muhammad's image. And speaking of Europe, let's not turn into them. Let's not bend over backwards and change our beliefs just so we don't offend extremists. Back in 2007 a report by the U.K. Department for Education and Skills stated that schools in England were dropping the lessons about the Holocaust to avoid offending Muslim students were taught to deny the Holocaust. Imagine wiping out a crucial chapter in history just because one group does not agree with it. In 2009 I read that Britain denied entry for a controversial Dutch politician, Geert Wilders. The article mentioned banning entry for someone was extremely rare for the British government but the reason they chose to do so in that case was because this particular Dutchman created a short film that blamed Islam for terrorist crimes by Muslim fanatics. He placed images of the crimes side by side with passages from the Koran and or speeches by Muslim clerics that justified the crimes. This film was his interpretation of what he saw but it got him banned from entering Britain because the British were afraid of the Muslim extremists who took up residence in their country. 
I truly hope that America is strong enough to withstand bending over backward to appease extremists. (Of course we probably need stronger leadership but that's for another blog) I don't appreciate this group of Muslim extremists threatening American citizens for voicing their opinions. Don't try to impose your totalitarian rules on us. They won't work here. This is not a country run by Islamic views. If you don't like our culture you are more than welcome to leave and go back to a country that abides by your views.  Don't impose your religious views on us. You might not be allowed to depict Muhammad according to your faith but last time I checked the creators of South Park weren't Muslim. They are free to do what they want. 
One last thing I'm left wondering is how did this extremist group know of South Park and its content if Muslim extremist want nothing to do with Western culture. Could it be that they watched the episode? Shocking.