Freedom of Speech in Jeopary: Mohammed and South Park

Last night, I took the time to watch the two most recent episodes of South Park.  The episodes, titled “200” and “201” are a two episode story with two major stories taking place [You can easily find the episodes around the Internet].  One of the storylines features Cartman trying to find the true identity of his father.  The second story, which is noteworthy for this site, is about a group of celebrities, led by Tom Cruise, threatening to sue the town of South Park if they cannot bring the Muslim Prophet Mohammed to them.

Why would Tom Cruise want Mohammed?  The media, and people around the world, can’t make fun of Mohammed.  Without directly making any references to crazy Islamists who murder cartoonists, the cartoon celebrity group comes up with a method to extract Mohammed’s “goo” and inject it into themselves, making them immune to any sort of joking.

Of course, the townspeople do not want to take Mohammed out into public for fear of being blown up by terrorists.  It is not long, though, before the red heads of the world unite to try to take Mohammed for the same reason.

Now that you know what the episode is about, you can see the major statement South Park is making by dedicating two episodes to Mohammed, and why he cannot be depicted in any media form.  Throughout the entire episode, any time he is present, he is covered up with a black “censored” label.  He does not speak.  The only time he comes out, he is in a bear costume. [SPOLIER: it turns out to be someone else in the costume anyway]

After the first episode came out, Comedy Central decided to bleep out the name of Mohammed every time it is said in the second episode.  That was done against the wishes of the show’s creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone.  The network did so to avoid offending Muslims and avoid any violent threats, which were, of course, made anyway.

The episode also brings out a sad truth today.  The episode made fun of Jesus, depicting him as a ninja superhero.  It made fun of the Buddha.  Nearly every Buddha reference in the show included Buddha snorting lines of cocaine.  Krishna was a shape shifter that can turn into Neil Diamond.  I don’t think any Christian or Buddhist group made death threats against Parker and Stone.  Mohammed was not directly shown and did not speak any audible lines, but the reference alone drew many threats to the two comedians.  Just for the record, Matt Stone is Jewish.

So why are the Muslims different from everyone else?  Christian groups have criticized the show since its inception over a decade ago, but I have never heard about wide scale death threats from the Catholic Church.  Most of them just choose not to watch the show.  Muslims seem to constantly threaten anyone who attempts to make any depiction of Mohammed.  Not long ago, Danish cartoonists were violently attacked for drawing Mohammed.

I think it is horrible that anyone would think of murdering someone for making any sort of political statement.  In the Arabic speaking world, it is common to depict Jews as animals, the devil, and many other horrible ways.  However, I have never felt a need to kill the person who drew the cartoons.  I am saddened by it and wish it would end, but it does not turn me violent.  To use the common phrase: It seems the Muslims can dish it out, but they can’t take it.

The result of these constant threats is self censorship in the media.  The radical Muslims have successfully ended a form of free speech through a threat of violence.  What they have done in Netherlands and on Comedy Central in the United States is not very far off from what they are doing in Iran.  The government in that country controls the media and has given the death penalty for dissent.  The de-facto Muslim powers of the world have given followers a free pass to make their own judgments and give out the death penalty outside of recognized democratic legal systems.

If one of the least censored media outlets in the world has given in, freedom of speech might be a battle we have already lost.