Not Even in South Park?

The article below by Ross Douthat of the New York Times has got me thinking about freedoms.

Two months before 9/11, Comedy Central aired an episode of “South Park” entitled “Super Best Friends,” in which the cartoon show’s foul-mouthed urchins sought assistance from an unusual team of superheroes. These particular superfriends were all religious figures: Jesus, Krishna, Buddha, Mormonism’s Joseph Smith, Taoism’s Lao-tse — and the Prophet Muhammad, depicted with a turban and a 5 o’clock shadow, and introduced as “the Muslim prophet with the powers of flame.”

That was a more permissive time. You can’t portray Muhammad on American television anymore, as South Park’s creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, discovered in 2006, when they tried to parody the Danish cartoon controversy — in which unflattering caricatures of the prophet prompted worldwide riots — by scripting another animated appearance for Muhammad. The episode aired, but the cameo itself was blacked out, replaced by an announcement that Comedy Central had refused to show an image of the prophet.

Assembly, Association, Movement, Press, Religion, Speech, Information, Thought

I don't think anyone can deny that a person's freedoms and liberties should be the most important thing to them. Therefore, as well as ensuring our safety and providing basic public services, maintaining those freedoms for every person within our society should be top of any government's list of priorities.

When certain people threaten this principle using intimidation and fear to prevent or scare members of our society from using that freedom, we should all stand up and take note. When people use intimidation and fear to scare people from using that freedom in the name of a God. We should all start to be very concerned.

If some omnipotent being really did create the world in all its splendor and majesty, created all the plants and animals, all the planets, stars and solar systems, do you really think they give a fuck if Trey Parker and Matt Stone make a joke or two about them at their expense!?

In the same way I despise the Fox News in America from instilling fear in its people, I think anyone with an ounce of reason is starting to get very tired of these fear mongering extremist assholes.

If someone told me I couldn't show an image of the Easter Bunny because Santa Claus would be angry and wouldn't give us any presents. Or worse that someone threatened me harm for that same reason, they would be locked up for encroaching on my freedom of thought and speech.

So why are we tolerant of these idiots, solely because they do it in the name of religion.

Hopefully, very soon, we as a society can start to use reason and common sense to stop these pillocks in their tracks.

Read the Article