No mohammed discussion?

[KillerGremlin]

So I'm amazed...but here's the chain of events.

South Park is going to air controversial episode with Mohammed. Angry radical Muslims make threats involving airplanes or something, Comedy Central airs censored version of episode:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN...pe=marketsNews

Satirical animated TV show "South Park" beeped out the words Prophet Muhammad and plastered its Wednesday episode with the word "CENSORED" after being issued a grim warning by a U.S. Muslim group.

The irreverent comedy show on Comedy Central also substituted a controversial image seen last week of the Prophet Muhammad in a bear outfit with one of Santa Claus in the same costume.

Pissed off radical Muslims still decide they are going to target Comedy Central after airing censored version:

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/04/19...on-south-park/

The posting on Revolutionmuslim.com says: “We have to warn Matt and Trey that what they are doing is stupid and they will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh for airing this show. This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them.”

Matt Stone and Trey Parker respond:
http://www.southparkstudios.com/news/3878

A Statement from Matt and Trey

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. Comedy Central added the bleeps. In fact, Kyle's customary final speech was about intimidation and fear. It didn't mention Muhammad at all but it got bleeped too. We'll be back next week with a whole new show about something completely different and we'll see what happens to it.

John Stewart responds:
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/20...of-south-park/

Mr. Stewart said Comedy Central had probably censored the “South Park” episode to protect its employees “from possible harmful repercussions.” “Although,” he added, “after forcing many of these same employees to work on ‘Mind of Mencia’ and ‘Krod Mandoon,’ damage done. But again, they sign the checks.”

And today, on Digg:

http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0424/sea...-mohammed-day/

As a snarky response to Muslim bloggers who "warned" Comedy Central about an episode of South Park showing the Prophet Mohammed wearing a bear suit, one Seattle cartoonist, who calls laughter her form of "prayer," is asking artists all over the world to create depictions of Mohammed on May 20, then submit the images to a Facebook page she set up.

SERIOUSLY PEOPLE, this is America. Why are we letting radical Muslims win?

[Vampyr]

We have to warn Matt and Trey that what they are doing is stupid and they will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh for airing this show. This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them.

Right. How some people's minds work really astounds me.

[Angrist]

Yay, Theo van Gogh, the most famous Dutchman in America.

[Typhoid]

SERIOUSLY PEOPLE, this is America. Why are we letting radical Muslims win?

Yeah, because no Muslims live in any other country than the "Middle East".

Maybe it's because there are 1.7 billion of them, being roughly a quarter of the entire world population.


And regardless - it's worth pulling because it's blasphemous to their religion.
Does the fact that "This is America" change blasphemy? Fuck no.
I'm pretty sure if an Islamic show depicted Jesus as part rabbit, and half chocolate, and giving a thumbs up on the cross while being depicted as being a brown Jew, there would be a little bit of a huff over it.

The main problem is nobody chooses to understand other religions. Showing Mohammad is blasphemous to Islam, and Muslims. It doesn't get much simpler than that.

The problem with this specific scenario isn't that it's getting attention. It's that it's getting attention for them doing it now. 9 years ago they had Mohammad on an episode called "Super Best Friends" and depicted the shit out of him.

[DarkMaster]

South Park always does extremely controversial and offensive stuff and then backs it all up with an intelligent message at the end of the episode. Kind of a way of saying "the jokes on you", in a sense it's only offensive because we've let it become offensive, or something to that extent. Anyways, maybe some topics are best left untouched... and then maybe that's the point they were trying to make. I don't know.

[Teuthida]

Not going to participate. Why offend over a billion people to get at a handful of extremists?

Now if I knew who these fellows were I'd gladly draw them in a conga line of sodomization boozing it up with a very happy pig bringing up the rear.

Although I am tempted to draw a dude who could pass for Mohammed and have a word balloon saying something like "Hi, my name's Bob. Not really sure what I'm doing here. I got in this long line and wasn't clear what it was for. Are we going to watch Avatar?"

[manasecret]

Originally Posted by Typhoid

Yeah, because no Muslims live in any other country than the "Middle East".

Maybe it's because there are 1.7 billion of them, being roughly a quarter of the entire world population.


And regardless - it's worth pulling because it's blasphemous to their religion.
Does the fact that "This is America" change blasphemy? Fuck no.
I'm pretty sure if an Islamic show depicted Jesus as part rabbit, and half chocolate, and giving a thumbs up on the cross while being depicted as being a brown Jew, there would be a little bit of a huff over it.

The main problem is nobody chooses to understand other religions. Showing Mohammad is blasphemous to Islam, and Muslims. It doesn't get much simpler than that.

The problem with this specific scenario isn't that it's getting attention. It's that it's getting attention for them doing it now. 9 years ago they had Mohammad on an episode called "Super Best Friends" and depicted the shit out of him.

Are you being honest or kidding again? South Park rips on Jesus all the time.

[Teuthida]

The difference is in Islam you aren't allowed to depict Mohammed whereas in Christianity this is perfectly fine:



Since you're allowed to show Jesus doing whatever who's to say what's blasphemous or not?

[manasecret]

Yeah, I consider showing Jesus at all to be blasphemous. So therefore, it's ok for me to threaten you with violence.

I guess we shouldn't make fun of Tom Cruise and Scientology, because they consider it blasphemous.

I guess no one should say anything bad about the flying spaghetti monsters, because that would be blasphemy.

I mean, what a shit ton of bullshit. Free speech is free speech.

EDIT: And I'm not talking about South Park simply showing Jesus. I mean, South Park full on rips on Jesus, and pretty much every episode with him I think most devout Christians would consider blasphemous.

[Teuthida]

Since every church (that I'm aware of) has a image of Jesus in some form then you would be an exception to the rule.

Scientology is different since it's the actual organized religion that does horrible things.

Again, this case is a group of extremists.

Is every Christian part of the Westboro Baptist Church and should be treated as such?

EDIT in response to your edit: Are there any hard and fast rules on what is considered blasphemous regarding the depiction of Jesus? I honestly don't know very much about either religion. I know in Judaism you aren't suppose to depict the human form (actually learned this in book parodying the life of Jesus which I only read the beginning of) and Jesus was upset by the Roman statues. Not having idols and whatnot.

[manasecret]

Originally Posted by Teuthida

Since every church (that I'm aware of) has a image of Jesus in some form then you would be an exception to the rule.

Scientology is different since it's the actual organized religion that does horrible things.

Again, this case is a group of extremists.

Is every Christian part of the Westboro Baptist Church and should be treated as such?

Scientology is different because it does horrible things? Can I refer you to the Pope? And, I dunno, 2000 years of history?

I am not saying be hateful of Muslims, but poking fun at them is legitimate free speech, and silencing free speech with the threat of violence should be completely condemned. I think the only thing that would make the violence go away is to make images of Mohammad so common that it no longer is a big deal.

[Teuthida]

There you go. Catholicism as well.

Just was trying to make a point that there isn't some head of Islam instigating these attacks.

Do whatever. I try to be respectful.

[manasecret]

As far as what is considered blasphemy, I think it's completely subjective. Which means every single person could have their own definition of what is blasphemy or not. Which is also why I think it's bullshit to use the blasphemy excuse to censor things. Anyone at any time could consider anything blasphemy. Does that mean we shouldn't say or do what they consider blasphemy? Obviously not.

[Teuthida]

Originally Posted by manasecret

As far as what is considered blasphemy, I think it's completely subjective. Which means every single person could have their own definition of what is blasphemy or not. Which is also why I think it's bullshit to use the blasphemy excuse to censor things. Anyone at any time could consider anything blasphemy. Does that mean we shouldn't say or do what they consider blasphemy? Obviously not.

Subjective in Christianity maybe. But there is a strict rule of not depicting the human form in Islam.

I don't agree with Comedy Central censoring South Park. Nobody should ever be censored. South Park aims to insult everyone and Islam shouldn't be excluded. They usually have a message behind it anyway.

I was disagreeing with the blogger cartoonist. That just seemed like an attack gathering a bunch of non-Muslims to draw pictures and tell a whole religion to shove it. Feels like hate crime.

[manasecret]

My opinion is that, strict rule or not, what is blasphemy is or was made up by someone somewhere out of the blue.

And I see what you're saying, but I think the blogger et al have a message, too. Free speech and freedom from threat of violence and against censorship and all that.