South Park turns censorship into satire and gets death threats

South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are undoubtedly two of the most compelling satirists of our time. To them, almost nothing is off limits, and rightfully so.

But in a "post-9/11 world," there are apparently some things that we can't criticize. One of them is the Islamic faith.

Of course, Parker and Stone could care less about this notion. They are still unapologetically casting a critical eye toward all religions. They don't pause before pointing out the hypocrisies of believers and dogmatic demagogues. Hell, they've even gone after the non-believers.

In the 200th episode of the show, the duo revisited the "Super Best Friends," a group of superheroes made up of religious figures like Jesus, Buddha, and the Prophet Muhammad. This time, Comedy Central demanded that they not depict the prophet—which the Islamic faith forbids—fearing an outcry from offended Muslims, or, even worse, a terrorist act.

So instead, the duo chose to focus on this very issue in the episode. The storyline was about the dilemma of depicting Muhammad in public. Parker and Stone still didn't depict Muhammad in "humanly form." He was shown as a sketched stick figure, inside a U-Haul van, and wearing a bear costume (if you've seen the sequel, then you know that the prophet in the bear suit turned out to be Santa Claus).

Nevertheless, Revolutionmuslim.com posted a "warning" aimed at Stone and Parker. It claimed that they would meet the same fate as Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, who was murdered in 2004 for his film Submission. The website even posted Parker and Stone's home and work addresses, along with a picture of the dead filmmaker.

In defense, Younes Abdullah Mohammad, founder of revolutionmuslim.com, told CNN that the Quran explicitly tells Muslims to intimidate the infidels.

"We're commanded to terrorize the disbelievers," Abdullah Muhammad told CNN. "It is a command from Allah."

Aside from creating a website that propagates Islamic fundamentalism, Abdullah Muhammad preaches his faith on street corners and publically proclaims that the 9/11 attacks were justified. In a perfect world, someone like him would just be seen as the babbling idiot that he is, and not a true threat. However, Somali-born Dutch intellectual Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who wrote Van Gogh's film and was also interviewed on CNN, said that the man who assassinated Van Gogh was also a marginal figure. So the threat is still something to take seriously.

However, it's important to remember a few things when faced with threats like this. One would be to not equate all Muslim peoples with this kind of absurdity. As Ali went on to say, most Muslims don't interpret this aspect of their religious text literally and act on it. So if non-believers assume that they all do, we then stoop to the lows of bigots like former Congressman Tom Tancredo. As you may remember, he advocated for annihilating Mecca and Medina in response to a nuclear terrorist attack.

But this doesn't mean that we have to be complacent when it comes to religious issues. If we succumb to such intimidation, then we are only proving that "freedom of speech" is an empty principle.

If this right is truly something worthwhile, then Parker and Stone cannot be isolated when dealing with threats to it. The satirists should be commended for their courageousness, whether or not they conveyed a message that's agreeable to most. Yes, they knew what they were getting into, and like anyone, they are responsible for what they do and say. But as a society that relies on the free flow of ideas, we can't set false standards on what can and cannot be criticized, let alone satirized. It's grossly hypocritical to do so.

And if you are someone who thinks that your spiritual beliefs or ideology is above such scrutiny, then hear this: Grow up. This is America—fuck yeah.