First the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, now South Park

We learn the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution at a very young age. When a teacher scolds us for saying something inappropriate, we hiss back “Hey, have you ever heard of freedom of speech?” It is a right we all know, and when someone tries to take it away from us, we are deeply offended. Why then, is that right being taken away from one of the most influential television shows in this country? The answer is simple: Comedy Central fears extremism more than it cares to protect their most successful show's right to freedom of speech.

First off, I would like to distinguish Muslims from Muslim extremists. Muslims are people that adhere to the religion of Islam. They are regular people, and most are very kind and would rather avoid confrontation. But like every religion, Islam has extremists. These are the people that are responsible for the 9/11 attacks, and now for the suspension of a few of the latest South Park episodes. 

During the 200th episode of the popular television series South Park, writers Trey Parker and Matt Stone chose to portray the Muslim prophet Muhammad. In Islam, because of the holiness of Muhammad, it is forbidden to depict him in any sort of way. The irony is that Parker and Stone did not depict Muhammad at all. They showed a bear mascot outfit and called it Muhammad, knowing full well that some extremist Muslims would have a problem with this. If Muhammad's name had never been mentioned and the same bear had been shown as any random person, there would be no outcry. The point of the episode was not to make fun of Muhammad or Islam, but to make fun of the people that would have a problem with such an ambiguous and neutral “depiction” of Muhammad. South Park could have shown anything in the entire world, called it Muhammad, and people would have found it offensive. 

Now in its 14th season, South Park has become a show entirely based on satire. This particular episode satirizes the length that people will go to to avoid taboo issues. 

Episode 201 continues the theme of the Muhammad taboo, except an outrageous amount of the dialogue is censored, along with any attempt to show pictures of what is intended to be Muhammad. After terrorist threats on the lives of the show's creators from Muslim extremists, Comedy Central decided it best to bleep out the name Muhammad each time it was used in the episode, which happened to be a lot. Also censored was the entire ending epiphany speech that frequently appears at the end of episodes bringing to the forefront the irony that the episode deals with. Many who watched the show thought this was a comedic ploy by the writers, going along with the satiric theme of submitting to extremism. But after finding more information about the episode on Southparkstudios.com, I learned that it was not a ploy at all, and the material had actually been censored by Comedy Central. See the irony?

While it is never right to publicly (or privately) disgrace any religion, Islam in no way, shape, or form was being disgraced. The target of the show was not Muslims, but rather Muslim extremists. No Muslim belief was called into question, or even acknowledged throughout either episode. If the show had shown anything that even loosely resembled Muhammad, then a backlash from the Muslim community could be justified. But I'm not sure that you could convince me that Muhammad wore around a bear costume, or even that such costumes existed when he was alive. 

Due to fear of the Muslim extremists, Southparkstudios.com, the site that streams every South Park episode in the series' entirety, will not be showing episode 200 or 201. Muslim extremists 1, U.S. Bill of Rights 0.

It is not clear at this point whether episodes 200 or 201 will be available for viewing any time in the near future. What is clear is that Comedy Central would rather give in to terrorist threats than stand up for something that makes our country so great: freedom of speech. Kudos to Parker and Stone for once again testing the limits of political correctness and revealing ironic situations that make many people uncomfortable. Shame on you Comedy Central for not standing by the men who have transcended your programming, and moreover, for not standing by your country.