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No freak-out over South Park

This article is more than 13 years old
A couple of misfits have managed to stir up controversy over Muhammad in South Park. For the majority, it's just not an issue

One of the images seared in my mind from recent cinema is not from any high brow foreign language film, but from 1999's South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut. In it, the dying words of a surly, atheist French boy called The Mole are "Fuck you, God, you fucking pussy". I don't know what messed with my head more – the actual words he uttered (horrifying to any religiously-minded person) or the fact that this character was acknowledging the existence of God on his deathbed after a short lifetime denying it.

If that kind of humour isn't your cup of tea, it hasn't bothered South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone much. Parker and Stone have made an industry of (and garnered a huge following for) their brand of equal opportunity satire with their TV show South Park, now into its 14th season. To commemorate the 200th episode, they gathered all the subjects of their mockery to star in the 201st – everyone from Jesus to Buddha, and everything from Scientology to Hinduism. But if you believe what the media is telling you now, only one group of people have a problem with this. Muslims.

A group (a duo, actually) in New York calling themselves "Revolution Muslim" put out a YouTube video warning Parker and Stone of the fate of Theo Van Gogh in response to rumours about the show's impending subject matter. Comedy Central, which airs South Park, took it seriously enough to censor the broadcast against Parker and Stone's wishes.

But has there really been any Muslim outrage? The characterisation of Muhammad in a July 2001 episode entitled "Super Best Friends", where he teams up with Jesus, Moses, and Buddha to defeat evil (even though Buddha "doesn't really believe in evil"), has been available for viewing online (if not on a spooked Comedy Central) for nine years without censorship, more than enough time to spark another cartoon crisis if Muslims really cared. As should be obvious by now, they don't.

There's also the issue of the satire itself. For example, in the South Park song "Merry Fucking Christmas", you may hear some lines that may be offensive to Muslims and loads of other faiths. But I heard a not-too-unsubtle commentary on holier-than-thou Christian proselytisation. Most of my Muslim friends who were fans of the show at the time loved it and emailed clips of the song to each other endlessly.

I am not at all insensitive to the strong feelings most Muslims, including myself, have of depictions of Muhammed. And yet, we are seeing this issue exploited to absurdity. The traditional aversion to show the likeness of Muhammad has its roots in avoiding idolatry, which is explicitly prohibited. For many Muslims, pointing to a cartoon, a teddy bear, or a voodoo doll and saying it's the prophet, doesn't make it so. We know better than to worship them.

Artwork respectfully depicting the prophet from Muslim societies, particularly in Shia tradition, have existed from the 7th century through to modern day Iraq. A historical frieze of Muhammad on the walls of the US supreme court was investigated recently by a group of Muslim lawyers who found themselves "pleased that Islamic contributions to law are recognised in the highest court of our land", even after consulting Islamic scholars.

And yet, all of this is beside the point. This crisis is being manufactured by two Muslim converts who have been reduced to sidewalk rants because they are not welcome in any mosque in New York City. By taking a page out of the Islam4UK media-agitation book, they have gained the attention of mainstream media, particularly CNN, who dutifully treat them as representative of Muslim opinion. Claims that they are issuing a "warning, not a threat" is the sort of wiggly language Islam4UK's Anjem Choudary would be proud of. For Revolution Muslim, that is no accident. It worked here, and they hope it will work there.

Despite heavy censoring, episode 201 of South Park, which aired on Wednesday in the US, showed what first was thought to be Muhammad in a teddy bear costume. The person in that bear turned out to be Santa Claus. The joke is not only on Revolution Muslim. The joke is on all of us.

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