I know this doesn't sound like it belongs here by the title, but I think it has some important points to make. Last night, South Park was censored by Comedy Central (Viacom) for attempting to depict Muhammad (the prophet of Islam forbidden to be shown). His image was censored as well as any his name being bleeped out and the end message (ironically the end message was supposed to refer to what fear and terror does to our freedom). Do we really have free speech in this country? The episode was censored beyond what the creators allowed due to threats from one Muslim group. Also ironic is the fact that the show depicted Muhammad once before prior to 9/11, but now it's not allowed?
During the episode, Muhammad is censored while other deities are made fun of (Jesus is shown watching porn and Buddha snorts coke). They make fun of all the other deities but Muhammad isn't allowed to be seen or heard. There is even a point when someone says "Jesus doesn't matter when Muhammad is involved." I think there might be some truth to this. Other religions are free game but everyone is afraid to say anything about Muslims due to a threat of violence? No disrespect to any other religions and maybe it isn't appropriate but why is Muhammad the only one censored?
I think fear has caused us to constrain our rights. You can say whatever you want, but only if it doesn't provoke the possibility of terrorism. Viacom apparently thinks it's okay to show drunk idiots and degrade normal people on MTV while depicting Blacks in a stereotypical fashion, slowly making the mainstream culture dumber by the second but Muhammad is a big no no? Who decides what can and can't be censored? If this is really how it's going to be, we should change the constitution to state that we have a right to free speech as long as those in control deem that it's appropriate by whatever ambiguous rule is set in place at any given time. Would the same thing happen with threats from a White supremacists or some other radical group? I think not...
Leave a comment