Two weeks ago, South Park's 200th episode created controversy when the series once again threatened to display images of the Muslim prophet, Muhammad. Earlier this week, there was news that a radical Muslim website had threatened the creators of the series, Matt Stone and Trey Parker. The threats made reference to the slaying of Dutch filmmaker and cartoonist, Theo Van Gogh. The site declared that if Stone and Parker kept up with their shenanigans, they had better watch their backs.
Not being the show to back down from controversy, the production of a follow-up to episode 200, simply called "201," went on as planned. Stone and Parker made an episode that they were comfortable with, and it was assuredly one that wouldn't back down due to radical threats. They delivered the episode to Comedy Central Wednesday night before it hit the air and...that's when things took a strange turn. The episode aired as planned in the 10PM time slot on Wednesday night, but as fans tuned in, they realized they weren't watching their typical South Park episode. The show was there, but it was filled with blurred images and bleeps for every reference that was made to Muhammad. As you can imagine, for an episode that centered around the religious figure, this started to get quite annoying. Many fans assumed it was a play by Stone and Parker, an attempt to show how ridiculous the world would be if we had to censor the smallest things. It wasn't until the duo released the following statement that we all realized what happened:
"In the 14 years we've been doing 'South Park,' we have never done a show that we couldn't stand behind. We delivered our version of the show to Comedy Central, and they made a determination to alter the episode. It wasn't some meta-joke on our part."
So there you have your explanation. The episode was delivered to Comedy Central, and it was the network who decided to heavily censor it. They blurred every image of Muhammad, bleeped out any reference to his name, and also bleeped and edited his dialogue in the episode. Fans were hoping to be able to see the episode online in an unedited form, but as of right now it hasn't been posted, and the statement above is posted in its place. Lucky for us, we will eventually see the episode when the season releases on DVD, as the South Park DVDs have recently made the switch to using the uncensored versions of episodes.
What are your thoughts on this? I personally find it a little aggravating that this is turning into such a large issue. I understand the protests by Muslims and why they're against the episodes showing Muhammad. That's not an issue for me. The issue for me lies with the network. In the past, they've gotten protests and threats for more issues than I could list here. In season six they featured Jesus being gunned down by terrorists. They've had whole episodes dedicated to telling us how stupid it is to be a Scientologist or a Mormon. But whenever they bring up Muhammad, the world watching seems to think it'll bring about another September 11th. The whole point of running these episodes is to show how afraid we've become over the smallest, tiniest things. They're proving this point exactly, and also proving that we've turned into a country that's suddenly afraid of it's right to free speech.
the truth lies within you..ask yourself is it ur in right path..lets ur heart answer it..i hope you can see what muslims and me can see..don't have to ask around..just think…because the best sign is the creation of ur self,.i hope my words don't bring hate to you..as i just a human being that created by Him same as you..peace
I dont quite understand why we have freedom of speech, if society can take words right out of our vocabulary. In The USA, the KKK can have a protected protest, and the same for any minority protest, however we can not say Mohammed? Terror has struck a blow to the hearts of the whole world, that we live in such fear as to sanctify an icon of some religion? What is ironic, is that we live in a western judeo-christian nation, and we have lifted an islamic symbol higher than that of our forefathers and politicians. I am completely against all religions, but this is just a joke right? What have we become? PC to the point of destroying ourselves, and our heritage. I thought we were fighting to protect freedom? While soldiers fight to protect our way of life abroad have we surrendered our ideals here at home?
I am not debating the righteousness of your beliefs. This is America everyone is entitled to have their belief's. On the same note, our nation is built on the fundamental principle of freedom of speech. It is a constitutional right of the people. If you are saying that The USA should change, or amend the constitution, in favor of one religion over another, than your asking for something that violates the principles and laws of our nation. Your belief is not at issue here, but your right as a free American citizen, to have Life! Liberty! and The pursuit of Happiness! The constitution provides protection for all religions, creeds, and races.
This is a reply to muslimah
Comedy Central's action to censor this particular episode, while allowing so much else to stand untouched sends a clear message to all would-be censors of the world. It is this: "we negotiate with terrorists. We will not respond to boycotts, complaints, etc., but if you make death threats against us, you will get your way".
Muslims are entitled to no greater protection than anyone else from what they find offensive. As the media always allow uncensored offensive disparagement of Christians and Jews (as we see almost daily), it MUST allow the same as to Muslims. So understanding what Muslima and other Muslims find offensive is not the issue, the issue is the double standard: The media bans what will offend Muslims yet lauds (and profits from) what will offend Christians and Jews. So, to quote Muslima: "i hope you can see what [Judeo-Christians] and me can see..don't have to ask around..just think." It's about equality of faiths.
This is just scary. And I don't even like South Park.
Freedom as in freedom to express whatever you want.To ridicule popular culture is one of those freedoms, there should be no limits.If you can Insult Jesus, if you can insult Buddha, if you can insult Moses, you can insult Muhammad. It is a dark, dark world we live in, where people are threatened for speaking.
I agree with the writer of this article. Comedy Central has ridiculed all types’ religious groups, all in the name of COMEDY. Why is this group so different? You empower them by letting them think we are afraid. In the Words of Aasif Mandvi from Comedy Central's The Jon Steward Show “That is so 12th Century” get over it.
I can't believe Comedy Central let the terrorists win. That's exactly what they did. This is an example of successful terrorism – make threats of violence to force others to do what you want. Well, the group wanted the episode censored, and Comedy Central obliged them. The terrorists win, and it makes me sick.
Somehow the country I have been proud to call my home, that I have loved and supported in its darkest times and who has nurtured and instilled in me the "never give up, never back down spirit," has become so frightened of cowards and neanderthals with bombs that spoken words have been stricken from our language. What happened America? You used to be cool.
There are over 1.5 billion Muslims all over the world out of 6 billion people in the world. It means every 5th person in the world is a Muslim. If one abuses your mother, you will not say sure call her bi*ch as many times as you wish because you are practising free speech. No, you would rather act emotionally. The same goes for Muslims because they love their prophet more than their mother, father, family, wealth or anything you can think of. So kindly respect 1/5 of the people of the world.
There are over 1.5 billion Muslims in the world out of 6 billion population. It means every 5th person in the world is a Muslim. If someone abuses your mother, you will not say call her whatever you feel like because you are practising freedom of expression. No, you would rather react in an emotional manner. And when Muslims do the same, they are terrorists all of a sudden, not keeping in mind what media has done. Muslims love prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) more then their mother, father, family, wealth and anything worthy you can think of. So kindly respect 1,5 billion people of the world.secondly, why cant you call racist words and why is it prohibited to ask someone to kill or rob or destroy? Is it not also freedom of expression. There are limits to everything and when one crosses the limit, one should be ready to face its consequences.Peace :)
A very sorry condition…free speech at the cost of harming others' philosophical/ religious values? There should be some ethical rules guarding the use of the tongue/ hand…absolute freedom, no boundary whatsoever is to regard disrespect of other's life, property & honor as one's right – a very sorry state.
Unfortunately, just showing muhammad is not hate speech (though the way in which its done could be) nor is it a call to violence. In the instance of these episodes it was meant to show how ridiculous a double standard there are on poking fun of the craziness in each of the religions. And considering neither of the writers are muslim, showing a depiction of muhammad is perfectly fine for them to do. Soooo, I'm going to side with freedom of speech and rationality on this one >_>
Why not try Jews for a real change instead of Muslims. Try testing your freedom og thought, speech and expression by denying the "holocaust' or criticising Jews? Anti-Muslim is Ok, but anti-Semetic is not!
Why are people so afraid of an imaginary threat? If everyone would open up their eyes and actually look beyond what their greedy little minds would rather see, they would notice that most of what they are told is an absolute lie. If we put aside our religions and our beliefs and made everyone the same color and learn a common language, we would discover how similar we all really are. Our freedoms are slowly being stripped away from us and all anyone can ever think of is what new style is in and who died and what celebrity is in what new movie. The material world isn't even important. Wake the fuck up, people.
i understand how important muhammed is to the muslim religion, but seriously, when muhammed is (not even insulted) portrayed in their show, not even directly, just mentioned, muslims are outraged and parker and stone actually receive death threats. that's fucking ridiculous, it's not like you're more special than any other religion! (talking about numbers, Christianity has over 2 billion members, so suck it) and all they do is MENTION muhammed and portray him, not doing anything offensive, but on the other hand for example JESUS, the savior of all christians, is portrayed and mocked nearly every season. they ridicule his powers, they ridicule his religion, they have him being gunned down by terrorists, hell they even have one of the characters slice his throat. In fact, and i'll compare this to portraying muhammed, they even made a picture of god, which is forbidden by the ten commandments. but strangely one little reference to muhammed and BANG news, massive controversy, death threats, and finally, censorship. seriously, and i'm using MY freedom of speech here, forming it on my opinions, based on what i have seen from muslims. muslims are cybabies.
Not everyone has the same opinion as you do. Are you willing to accept that? If so, then you shouldn't have a problem with others poking fun at your religion. In the same sense, nobody should be overly offended at you poking fun at their religion. Correct? Unfortunately, things can't be that simple. Humans are just selfish, opinionated, and closed-minded creatures who have forgotten who and what they really are.I have no true religion that I follow, so I do not completely agree on anyone's beliefs but my own. Though every religion has some good points, not all of it is something I'm comfortable with. I believe in myself, simple as that. People try to get me to convert all the time and it ticks me off because I feel like I'm being pushed into things that either don't make sense or just feel completely wrong. However, I respect other people's personal opinions whether they are positive or negative. Nobody is really "evil" or "good". That's what I believe.
Can I have the FREEDOM to deny that 6 million jews were not killed? I dont think so, because ITS ILLEGAL!! The book "Did 6 million really die" is banned. So, What freedom do you want.. to insult Muslims? Double Standard. Why can south park get away mocking other religion and not Islam? Because Islam is the truth, the fastest growing religion and is serious matter. Its time for you to get away from illusions and really inquire about IslamCan I go around on the street and mock people, just because of freedom of speech? I do believe in freedom of speech as long as we dont abuse others. I'm sure if you go around insulting people on the street, you will end up beating punch!
Muslims find it a major sin and insult if you draw their prophet or insult his honor in any way, it depends on the religion in my opinion….Muslims respect their prophet and it is part of their religion to defend the prophet if he slandered in any way. i am majoring in religion and i am in the process of studying Islam…and honestly i respect the fact that they love their prophet and this shows me how strong and dedicated they are to their religion. i also noticed that they are not willing to watch and laugh at their prophet . and by the way i for one wasn't laughing when the terrorists gunned down jesus
All religions are big fat lies that are used to control us. That's all I really have to say.
"we've turned into a country that's suddenly afraid of it's right to free speech" It is not the term free speech that I have problem with, it is only the empty meaning it become. I agree that you are afraid of practicing your right to free speech but never suddenly, it has been there for longer than you Imagen, if you could speak of the Jews then may be suddenly you lost your right, I don't hate Jews but I am proving how cheep media had become, what you lost is your credibility to honesty.
i was outraged when i heard of the sites retaliation on only Muhammad ( peace may be upon him) being portrayed on South Park. we also believe in Jesus as a prophet and we also respect him. therefore if the person that posted the threat was really a Muslim and understood what he/she was talking about then he/she would post a plead ( not a threat) and that plead will include the censorship of Jesus, Muhammad, and God. Now i understand freedom of speech and i understand that the site ( which posted the threat) has absolutely no right to defect the show ( but has the right to post a plead). But like mohammad stated to everything there is a limit. I understand you guys want to laugh. also i understand that you like the show.( i am also a big fan of that show , and family guy, and similar tv shows). yet if someone is getting offended by the satire; and we still want to laugh and have a good time then there is definitely something wrong going on. Muslims have the highest respect for all the prophets, therefore they get offended by South park's satire of Muhammad ( peace may be upon him). South Park producers have the choice whether to censor that kind of satire or not to. And i totally disagree with your comment about Muslims. its clear that you have not been around true Muslims.
i agree that it should be censored. there are somethings that are forbidden in islam such as showing the image of prohet mohammed. Some of you where making references to christainty and the jesus episodes. but in christainty it is not foribben to show jesus, it is not forbidden to mock jesus.and there is a limit to freedom of speech which you need to get your head across. Would be be accetable for me to create a political party that whats to persucte minoritys? no.would it be alright to call every black person i met a slave? nowould it be alright to mention the holocast in every conv with a jew? noyet according to your arguement these are all acceptable because we have 'freedom of speech'
It is against the religion for a Muslim to portray an image of Muhammad, not an outsider…
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