South Park shows Mohammed in bear suit, ‘warned’ of retaliation

So Trey and Matt are at it again, courting controversy as only they can do. The gist of this incident is that RevolutionMuslim.com posted a warning for the show’s creators (apparently), citing ‘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’.

Quite obviously the face of evil.

Wow, how nice of them! Just to help persuade them, they also posted a gory photo of Theo van Gogh (great films, took on Islam’s treatment of women, got dead). But only as a sincere, heartfelt warning, guys!

My particular beef with this incident (be assured, one of many) is the that was used. ‘What they are doing is stupid’. Deliberately setting out to satirise a religion may be offensive, tactless, insensitive, provocative, and insulting (not to mention ballsy, impartial, reasonable, appropriate and hilarious), but it is not stupid. It would be the same as warning people that driving a car is stupid because there is a chance of death. People accept this as a course of nature that death is a part of life.

Perhaps what they should have said to the people who read their site is that it would be stupid for anyone to kill people for making a cartoon. ‘But it’s offensive!’ I hear you say? Simple. Don’t watch it. In a world of diversity, there will always be something to offend you. This is also a fact of life.

But you know what? I am offended. I am offended that people who make a cartoon may have their lives threatened. I am offended that Theo van Gogh was killed for exposing the violence some Muslim women experience. I am offended that there will be otherwise rational, intelligent people that will decry Matt and Trey for being so ‘insensitive’ as to infer that an 1,100 year old man plays dress-ups. I am offended for humanity that in the 21st century this could still be considered a just reason for execution.

It is our turn to be offended, and we MUST let the world hear that rational people will no longer stand idly by while violence and discrimination destroys the greatest parts of our human society.

In the immortal words of George Orwell, ‘if liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear’.

In all its offensive glory.

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,” the posting reads. “This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them.”