Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Is it OK to even write the word Muhammad?

It's just pathetic that the "religion of peace" is now a sacred cow in our country. The fundamentalists (ie, those who actually live as the Koran says to) have beaten the US and our media into submission. We can no longer discuss Islam, make a parody of Muhammad, or even identify known Muslim terrorists as being Islamic, we have to call them "extremists". It's a sad state of affairs. 

Recently the creators of South Park were threatened with violence and death for depicting Muhammad.....in disguise as a bear. Now, they didn't draw what they thought Muhammad looked like or even a caricature. They drew a bear and said Muhammad was inside. Is that worthy of a death threat? Well, evidently, it's worthy of the episode being pulled by Comedy Central. How's that for freedom of speech and artistic expression? 

Back five or six years ago when a newspaper in Denmark showed a cartoon depicting Muhammad, there was widespread violence and quite a few people were killed. KILLED. OVER. A. CARTOON. And our news networks would show the cartoons with the pixels out of whack, so as not to show Muhammad. What? Really? Yeah, really. What a sad shame, when we, living in the land of freedom, have to resort to censoring the news, parody, or satire. When's the last time anyone cared about making fun of Jesus, Satan, Zeus, Tom Cruise or anyone else? All is fair game......except Muhammad.

Let's ask this; Did any Christians make death threats against Matt Stone and Trey Parker (South Park co-creators) for portraying Jesus? Did any Scientologists threaten violence against them for making fun of Ron Hubbard? Did Mormons take to the streets and beat the piss out of people because Joseph Smith was turned into a cartoon character? You already know the answer to those questions. 

I have nothing against the rank and file religious person. I certainly hold no ill will towards any Muslim who is just going about their lives. But, it is high time that the religious moderates (ie, those who KNOW that the Bible, Koran, Book of Mormon, are not to be taken as literal truth) started calling out the extremists. If you want to be respected and taken seriously, take on the fundamentalists in your religion. There are parts of the Koran and parts of the Bible that simply can't be applied to the modern world and the age we live in. Search your hearts and minds.......does anyone who reads this REALLY believe that God or Allah wants us to kill each other over being apostates, blasphemers, working on the Sabbath, or being gay (just to name a few actions that are considered death worthy by the ancient texts)? It's hard enough to decide what you believe, raise a family, hold down a job, and live a life without having to worry about someone wanting to kill you. Life is hard. Life is tough. Enough with the religious violence already.

By the way, most people don't know, but South Park actually depicted Muhammad as a character back in 2001. If there were uprisings and threats, we sure didn't hear about it. So, now that we have given power to Islamic fundamentalists we can rest assured that our news and our entertainment will be censored and issues will be danced around. I've read that we shouldn't identify the 9/11 hi-jackers as Muslim extremists. They should be called "extremists" only. I guess that would be OK, if a couple of them were Jewish, a couple were Christian, mix in an atheist and maybe a Mormon.....then you could say they were simply extremists. But, they were ALL Muslim. They all were following the orders of the Koran. Muslim extremists? YES. The "Muslim" part is important. That is how you identify who wants to hurt you and your family. 

Here is an excerpt from a Christopher Hitchens article from 2006 (which I will also link....it's a good read);

The question of "offensiveness" is easy to decide. First: Suppose that we all agreed to comport ourselves in order to avoid offending the believers? How could we ever be sure that we had taken enough precautions? On Saturday, I appeared on CNN, which was so terrified of reprisal that it "pixilated" the very cartoons that its viewers needed to see. And this ignoble fear in Atlanta, Ga., arose because of an illustration in a small Scandinavian newspaper of which nobody had ever heard before! Is it not clear, then, that those who are determined to be "offended" will discover a provocation somewhere? We cannot possibly adjust enough to please the fanatics, and it is degrading to make the attempt.

So, the bottom line is, we now live in a country where our media had decided that Islam is off limits as a serious discussion topic and as satire. Let freedom and the 1st Ammendment ring!!!!


 South Park's Muhammad depiction in 2001. No threats or violence that were made public.

    

South Park's Muhammad depiction in 2010 (yep, that's Mo in the bear suit). Threats of violence and censorship follow the airing of the episode.


Is this insane or what? What the hell is happening to us? If we can't trust the media to be honest and report the news as it is, regarding a cartoon or some violent people in a religion, then what can we trust them for? Telling the truth about politicians? Telling the truth about hot topics of the day? I'd have to say "no" would be my answer. 



By the way, in case any extremist Muslims read this, Freddy is on hiatus......I'm ghost writing for him. My name is Charles Manson. Come get me, I dare you.