Muslims Threaten South Park

It's well established that the best way to gain respect for your religion is to present a credible threat of violence. Now Muslims are threatening the lives of South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

“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.”

Theo van Gogh was a Dutch filmmaker who was murdered by an Islamic extremist in 2004 after making a short documentary on violence against women in some Islamic societies. The posting on Revolutionmuslim.com features a graphic photograph of Van Gogh with his throat cut and a dagger in his chest.

I fully expect the courageous left to stand bravely alongside Stone and Parker against this threat. Hah!

More here and here.

Update: Cowardly Central.

Needless to say, Voltaire is not in charge of Viacom. So if you're interested in working as a part-time censor for Comedy Central, all you need is a violent temperament, a demented ideology and a poorly constructed website.

The popular animated show "South Park" -- gloriously vulgar, sharply satirical and, one suspects, offensive to vast swaths of the viewing public -- is, if nothing else, impressive in its evenhandedness.

Yet in this week's episode, a depiction of the Prophet Muhammad in a bear costume (don't ask) was blocked with the word "censored" so the channel could avoid hurting the feelings of a few virtual New York City jihadists.

This homegrown radical group, called Revolution Muslim (no thanks), warned the show's architects, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, that they would "probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh" because of the depiction in the episode.

Van Gogh, for those unaware, was a Dutch filmmaker who documented (along with feminist Ayaan Hirsi Ali) the abuse of women in the Islamic world. Consequently, Ali now lives in hiding and Van Gogh was last seen dead in the middle of an Amsterdam street -- a thoughtful dissertation on Islamic tolerance affixed to his chest with a knife. (If only the Dutch were less warlike, obviously, this never would have happened.)