Everybody Draw Mohammed Day?

In light of Comedy Central chickening out on the South Park episode, you just knew somebody was going to suggest something like Everybody Draw Mohammed Day. 

From Hit & Run: Via Dan Savage's blog at The Stranger, some clever chappie (I don't know who) has declared May 20, 2010 "Everybody Draw Mohammad Day," in support of Matt Stone and Trey Parker and in opposition to religious thuggery. Why May 20? I haven't a clue, though it could have something to do with Otto ascending the throne of Greece. Or, more likely, King Sancho IV of Castile's founding of the Study of General Schools of Alcalá.

I will be employing my tremendous skill as an illustrator, of course, and expect that my colleagues will do the same. If they refuse, they will be declared weak-kneed, namby-pamby, quisling infidels and will be shamed on this blog (Though such idle threats rarely work these days; perhaps I could threaten them with a painful death, which seems to do the trick). If readers would like to show their solidarity, please email your Mohammad masterpieces to me here: mmoynihan at reason.com. The best ones will be published on Hit & Run, which, along with the concomitant death threat, is reward enough. 

If this catches on, it will be very interesting to see how the MSM reacts to it. Anyone want to bet they fail to support freedom of speech?

Via: Memeorandum

Via: Hit & Run  

Comedy Central (aka Cowardly Central) censors South Park’s Mohammed episode

Any South Park fans here? For those who are not, let me bring you up to speed. South Park was supposed to do a two-part episode that contained depictions of the Prophet Mohammed. While the first one aired with the creator’s, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, own censorship, Comedy Central heavily censored the second one. Comedy Central caved after receiving threats from a Muslim group. 

The New York Times: An episode of “South Park” that continued a story line involving the Prophet Muhammad was shown Wednesday night on Comedy Central with audio bleeps and image blocks reading “CENSORED” after a Muslim group warnedthe show’s creators that they could face violence for depicting that holy Islamic prophet. Revolution Muslim, a group based in New York, wrote on its Web site that the “South Park” creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker “will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh” for an episode shown last week in which a character said to be the Prophet Muhammad was seen wearing a bear costume. Mr. Van Gogh was slain in Amsterdam in 2004 after making a film that discussed the abuse of Muslim women in some Islamic societies. 

SouthParkStudios.com posted this message on their website today:

South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone issued this statement as well: 

In the 14 years we’ve been doing South Park we have never done a show that we couldn’t stand behind. We delivered our version of the show to Comedy Central and they made a determination to alter the episode. It wasn’t some meta-joke on our part. Comedy Central added the bleeps. In fact, Kyle’s customary final speech was about intimidation and fear. It didn’t mention Muhammad at all but it got bleeped too. We’ll be back next week with a whole new show about something completely different and we’ll see what happens to it.

This is pathetic. Comedy Central has no problem running South Park’s jokes against other religions under the guise of artistic freedom of expression, but when faced with bully tactics and intimidation from the religion of peace, Comedy Central throws all of that high minded talk right out window and folds like a cheap house of cards.

Welcome to Cowardly Central; Where we only poke fun at religions that don’t fight back.

Via: Memeorandum

Via: The New York Times