Loading ...In the article Who’s Afraid of South Park. Frida is very condeming of the execs over at Comedy Central.
Background Story: Basically there is a extreme Muslim website that said if SouthPark aired a show that depicted Muhammed in a comedic way thay would suffer the fate of Theo Van Gogh, who was almost decapitated for a film he made about the Koran.
Frida’s editorial say’s that Comedy Central allowed fear to make them give up their 1st amendment rights. Now some would argue that it’s just a cartoon that isn’t worth risking your life over. So which side are you on? Is it something deeper? Or is it just a cartoon not worth dying over?
http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2010/apr/29/columnists-whos-afraid-south-park-20100429/
Who’s afraid of South Park?
By BY FRIDA GHITIS MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — Despite much-quoted claims to the contrary, evidence abounds that the sword frequently defeats the pen. If you don’t believe me, come to Amsterdam, to the bustling street where, in plain daylight four years ago, a man called Mohammed Bouyeri cut the throat of Theo Van Gogh, almost severing his head off.
By way of explanation, the Dutch-born Bouyeri plunged a knife into Van Gogh’s body, skewering into him a letter threatening to also kill Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a fierce critic of Islam, whohad collaborated with Van Gogh on a film about the Koran. The killer, it seems, did not like the film.
Another similarly disposed art critic brought up Van Gogh’s name a few days ago in the United States. Writing on the website Revolution-Muslim.com, he threatened a fate equal to what befell Van Gogh’s for the creators of South Park, the animated cartoon that makes it a pointto offend just about everyone. According to Revolution Muslim, a South Park episode depicting the Prophet Mohammed (in a bear suit) along with figures from other religions is a crime punishable by death.
Quoting Islamic scholars, Revolution Muslim explains that, “Whoever curses the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessing of Allah be upon him)-a Muslim or a non-Muslim-he must be killed and this is the opinion of the general body of Islamic scholars.”
While most Muslims would not shed blood over a comedy show, we have known for a good many years that among the followers of Islam there are those who would kill anyone-even other Muslims-who offends their religious sensibilities. That is not news. What we learned from the South Park event, however, is just as troubling. In the face of threats, the bosses at Comedy Central folded like cheap TV trays. Comedy Central heavily censored the cartoon, granting the blackmailer exactly what he wanted. Forget Land of the Free, etc. They gave up without even considering a fight.
Jon Stewart, the Comedy Central faux anchorman, regaled viewers with a musical number carrying a message to Revolution Muslim. Marveling at the extremists’ chutzpah for living in New York-home of the world’s best Jewish delis-and enjoying American freedoms only to threaten South Park’s Matt Stone and TreyParker and their freedom of expression, Stewart sang a feverish, and profane, song telling the blackmailers exactly where to go, complete with backup gospel choir.
But Stewart went curiously easy on Comedy Central’s spinelessness. “It’s their right,” he allowed. “The censorship is a decision Comedy Central made to protect their employees.”
Yes, they can do it. But that doesn’t make it any less scandalous. Comedy Central should have hired bodyguards for Stone and Parker and aired the episode uncut. That way the rich and powerful corporation (Viacom) could have really protected them-protected their safetyand their freedom of speech and their ability to do their work and to give Americans their often-hilarious and frequently cringe-worthy material. It goes without saying, but let’s say it anyway, that nobody is required to watch the show. Not Muslims, not Mormons-whose theology South Park mercilessly mocks. Not Jews, not Christians, not anybody.
The show often goes over theline. Those who find it offensive can change the channel. They can write letters, start boycotts, picket the studios. Death threats are simply not acceptable. Caving in to them is shameful.
Too many times in the West we have seen powerful media empires behave like craven weaklings. It was Bart Simpson, aptly, who put it best, writing a hundred times on the blackboard “South Park-We’d stand beside you if we weren’t so scared.”
A few years ago, after extremists threatened (and later attempted) to kill a Danish cartoonist for depicting Mohammed in his work, I saw the artist interviewed on CNN, my once-proud home. When the cartoonist tried to hold up a page with the drawings, CNN almost tackled the camera to the ground to keep the pictures from airing. Cowardice was never so pathetically hilarious.
Theo Van Gogh, whose antics occasionally resembled South Park’s in their tastelessness, discovered that his pen was no match for a killer’s sword. And yet, the pen, the keyboard, the comedian, the editorial cartoon, Bart Simpson, Cartman, Kyle and Kenny actually hold enormous power. To win, however, they need their backers to show backbone. Too bad South Park’s bosses have none.
