Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Islamist Website Threatens "South Park" Creators Over Muhammad Episode

CNN reports that the radical Islamic website Revolutionmuslim.com on Sunday posted an entry that can be seen as a physical threat to the creators of the television cartoon series South Park . The posting was triggered by an episode of the program that included a satirical discussion of whether the image of the Prophet Muhammad could be shown. In the end, he was portrayed in a bear costume. The website warned that program creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone "will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh," the Dutch filmmaker who was murdered by an Islamic extremist. The website also runs audio of a sermon by radical U.S.-born Muslim preacher Anwar al-Awlaki which justifies assassinating anyone who defames the Prophet Muhammad.

UPDATE: Thursday's New York Times reports that an episode of South Park aired on Wednesday on Comedy Central continued a story line involving the Prophet Muhammad but included a number of audio bleeps and image blocks reading "CENSORED". Many of the audio bleeps were added by Comedy Central. Meanwhile Thursday's Musalman Times ran a long article titled South Park: A Muslim Perspective justifying strong Muslim opposition to the South Park episode.