Those of us in the 18-25 year old bracket have grown up with South Park, and through the years have watched as Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of the hit TV show, have maneuvered countless celebrities, religions, political figures and pop culture icons into the cross-hairs. South Park can be amazingly smart and clever, and can also be disgustingly vulgar and lewd. But those of us that have grown up with South Park have always known one thing about the show: anything goes.

A couple of weeks ago, however, Comedy Central censored a South Park episode making fun of the Prophet Muhammad after the creators were threatened by a Muslim extremist website (the site is now, consequently, shut down) which said that Stone and Parker would “wind up like Theo Van Gogh for airing this show.” Theo Van Gogh, for those of you that don’t know, was a political figure who was later assassinated for his anti-Islam stance.

What kind of message is this teaching the general public, specifically those in a younger age bracket? In the same episode that was censored (the word “Muhammad” was bleeped out and a giant “censored” block was placed over Muhammad’s likeness in the show), Jesus Christ was depicted watching pornography and Buddha was using cocaine. Did this offend Christians and Buddhists? Sure it did! But the Islamic religion gets special treatment because Muslims will actually follow through and kill somebody for making fun of their religion; thus terrorism is achieved.

Because Comedy Central caved under pressure (for the record, Matt Stone and Trey Parker did not censor their work, nor did the FCC) they have continued to set the standard for Islam as a “superior religion” and an “untouchable” topic. All that this does is foster the kind of behavior that we see out of radical Muslims all of the time!

We shouldn’t be bending over backward as a society to try and not offend them, lest we do the same for every other religion, group of people, celebrity, etc. Instead, Comedy Central should stand up and not allow themselves to be bullied.

Just like on the playground in elementary school, the best way to solve a problem with a bully is to stand up to him and let him know that you aren’t going to be pushed around. The only difference between the playground and the real world? The bully on the playground usually isn’t willing to blow up himself and a whole crowd of infidels just to prove a point. It’s a shame that we have to worry about that, and more of a shame that we’ll allow that kind of terrorism to dictate our lives.

Originally written for and published in the Northwest Indiana Times May 10th, 2010