Radical Muslims Threaten "South Park" Producers With Death
Nigerian Islamist Radicals Threaten Fellow Muslims With Death For Opposing Sharia Law
Eritrean Christian Faces Death Penalty For Sharing His Faith With Muslims In Saudi Arabia
The Trouble With Black Muslims
Does Cluster bomb ban treaty matter with major producers falling out?
Muslim Tory Baroness Warsi pelted with eggs by fellow Muslims
The more you tell someone they can't do something, the more inclined they'll be to go right out and do exactly the opposite, especially when it comes to free speech. Those of us who cherish freedom and freedom of speech, regardless of whether we agree with what is being said or not, are even more liable to challenge those who attempt to shut us up.
I have never watched "South Park", nor do I have the desire to, but everyone knows the TV show is as irreverent and rude as they get. The creators of "South Park", Matt Stone and Trey Parker have skewered just about everyone, every thing and every religion. If you're offended by that kind of thing, then don't watch. Last week, "South Park" targeted Islam; after all they've targeted Christians, Mormons and Jews, why not Muslims? Last week's episode apparently depicted Muhammad in a bear suit and the radical Muslim world has gone ballistic, as expected. So much so, that a radical Muslim website (RevolutionMuslim.com) based out of New York and founded by an ex-orthodox Jew, Joesph Cohen who is now known as Yousef al-Khattab, posted a death threat against Stone and Parker. Although the website is no longer up and running a cached version is still viewable.
The article written by Abu Talhah Al-Amrikee claim the episode "outright insulted" Muhammad and and issued a warning against the pair.
"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," Al-Amrikee wrote. "This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them."The posting listed the addresses of Comedy Central's New York office and Parker and Stone's California production office. It also linked to a Huffington Post article that described a Colorado retreat owned by the two men.
In addition to the written threats, a photo of the murdered Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, knife protruding from his chest, was posted on the website as well. Van Gogh was murdered by a radical Muslim in Holland in 2004 in retaliation for a film he produced regarding women in Islam. If showing a photo of a man that was killed because he offended some overly zealous Muslim isn't an overt death threat, or at least an incitement to cause bodily harm to an individual, I've no idea what is.
RevolutionMuslim.com has often posted outrageous things, including virulently anti-Semitic
, pro-jihad, pro Osama Bin Laden, and anti-West commentary. When asked by the AP, Al-Amrikee said that the blog post was merely a means of making people aware of their dissatisfaction and ensure that people not make the same mistake again. However, when they asked if the two producers should indeed feel threatened, his response was "they should feel threatened by what they did."
Frankly, I find it distasteful to mock anyone's religion, but even more reprehensible is thinking that you have the right to tell someone else they can't, and to go as far as threatening them with death.
Comedy Central, that airs "South park", refused to allow Parker and Stone in 2006, to include an image of Muhammad. This was right after the Danish cartoon brouhaha, and the men wanted to make a commentary regarding that whole firestorm. So rather than skewer Muhammad, they settled for skewering Christianity.
Instead, "South Park" showed an image of Jesus Christ defecating on President Bush and the American flag.
Did Christians threaten them with death? No. Did masses of Christians demonstrate? No.
What I find incredibly sickening is that these same men on RevolutionMuslim.com who threatened two men for depicting Muhammad in a bear suit, find no problem in posting death threats on their website, and videos like the following:
— Video mocking the beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl, entitled "Daniel Pearl I am Happy Your Dead :) ";— Video of a puppet show lampooning U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq;
— The latest speech from Sheikh Abdullah Faisal, an extremist Muslim cleric convicted in the UK and later deported for soliciting the murder of non-Muslims.
We need to stop caving in to the demands of a bunch of fanatics and start jailing people who make death threats against fellow citizens before someone actually follows through with those threats.
There is no room in a civilzed, free society for those who want to place shackles on those freedoms. If something offends you don't look at it. Switch the channel, or throw the newspaper in the trash, but don't expect me or anyone else to make any concessions.
