As a Christian, I've observed the double standard in play for a while now; mocking Jesus and God is openly acceptable and entirely defended by Free Speech advocates, however any form of ridicule of, in this case, Islam isn't tolerated.  We're treading into dangerous waters here, and soon we're going to have a Free Speech battle on our hands. 
The thing that I like about South Park's depictions is that nothing is sacred; Jesus, The Prophet Muhammed, Bishnu, Santa - they're all open to ridicule and are all openly mocked.  They're not singling out one particular faith or peoples - they're giving everyone a serve.  For me, that makes it ok - they're not descriminating.  Is it in bad taste? Sure, some of South Park's jokes I feel are borderline obscene, however I just change the channel rather than kick up a storm.
As people bow to censorship, as in this case, we'll soon have Informally Imposed Censorship; instead of it being illegal to, for example, depict the Prophet Muhammed it'll be inforced at a Industry level voluntarily - books will be censored by the publishers or editors, for example, to avoid controversey.

Censorship is a bit of a big issue at the moment, a lot of people are talking about in different forms.  Australia's Communications Minister has been pushing for a nation wide, mandatory internet filter to block web sites that the Government deems appropriate to be blocked, and it won't annouce what sites are going to be blocked.  This is all under the guise of 'saftey for children on the internet' of course, and luckily from what I've heard from many people, no one is in support of it.  I find it interesting in modern times that Freedom of Speech is facing such adversity.  Have people begun to push the boundaries of Free Speech so much that we need to reel them in a little bit?  Or are people simply afraid of the non-descript 'Terrorists' coming to get us if we don't?

Thanks for the feedback.

In my opinion, the world is really headed for a shitstorm between the Western and Muslim worlds. The West's face of tolerance is starting to break. People are showing backbone by not bowing down to extremist groups by banning Muslim things like face veils. If these laws pass, we'll be seeing cars burn in the street, and people decide that they have had enough of the shit of the Muslims, pull on ski masks, and grab guns and start attacking Muslims. I am in no way in favor of this violence, but it could happen.

Muslims believe that their religion is above all others, meaning that they are absolutely superior over all people and no one can criticize them. And for those saying "Oh, it's just a tiny fraction of muslims doing this." How are millions of Muslims rioting, engaging in terrorist attacks with broad Muslim support, killing non-muslims, and other idiotic acts. Plus, the more Muslims do this stuff, the more will join their ranks.

Jews and Christians make fun of themselves all the time. There are the few uptight jerks, but no one listens to them. Christianity and Judaism (as well as every other religion except Islam) all know how to take criticism. Everyone is pretty much moderate or secular. The silence from the "moderate muslim" community is deafening, making extremists the main source for muslims these days.

I've seen the most disgusting depictions of Jews and Christians, and stupid Youtube videos of Jesus dancing in the street. We don't 

Compared to Islam, you bet your ass it is.

Want to bet?

One of my favourite television shows is "Father Ted". Here in Ireland, "Father Ted" is _the_ television show. Although it ran only for three years (as most sitcoms of that type do here) in the mid-90s, it is still quoted and referred to.

And it makes fun of Christianity and Catholicism.

Try something like that in a Muslim country or even in a western country targeting Islam rather than Catholicism and you won't live long.

I know it is easy to say that Christians are intolerant. But would you bet your life on that "knowledge"? Would you rather be known to Muslims as a fan of "Imam Omar", a hypothetical show that makes fun of Islam, or to Christians as a fan of "Father Ted"? How far do you trust your own beliefs?

(And no, I am not a Christian.)

To Etrius:

As a Muslim born and raised in the UK and former serving soldier in the British army, I've had the benefit of having insight into both western culture and my own identity as a Muslim,and i'm happy that there is a balance between the two (to use a sci-fi analogy its like spock finding a balance between his logic and his human side)

I find many of your comments to be valid but some. I've been watching south park, family guy and other programmes were they take the piss out of everyone and i laugh as much as the next guy.

I'm not a a theologian but having many freinds from different cultures and religons I have found one common ground that is all religion is down to ones interpretaion. I choose to interpret the good parts such as tolerence, kindness and treating your fellow man as you would like to be treated, and to protect and defend what is yours (another commonality between all faiths) the actions of a few narrow minded individuals both muslims and non Muslims has created a bad image which genuinely upsets me but I see it as one persons opinion, and I just get on with my life.

It's not the faiths but a small minority of people that cause the root problems in all faiths they can be priests,imams or normal folks such as me and you. In regards to the shit storm you mention its been going on for over a thousand years and sadly its not going to stop any time soon. Both sides are to blame and as for your comment about Muslims think that their faith is better or superior to everyone else's that is incorrect. I respectfuly ask you how much do you know about Islam as a faith? (not including what you learn or have seen on the news which we all agree is a wealth of unbiased objective fact )

To Xer07

I respectfully ask you,do you believe that all 1 billion Muslims including myself who do what ever they can to make life not just for themselves but for others harmonious and respectful through peaceful means be ashamed of them selves based on the acts of a few mindless zealots?just so you know not all Muslims are mad and hell bent on destruction, as for the weakness you talk about i suggest you take a walk down a street in Basra and speak with a few locals who lost everything at the hands of these zealots and yet continue to carry on and defy them and then come back here and back up your claim of Muslims showing weakness.

To ZehDon

Thank you for your comments, its good to know that there are still some open minded and objective individuals around.

No, they don't, and no, it isn't.

Ironically, Islam isn't even the most extreme example.

Islam teaches that Islam is the true faith but that Judaism and Christianity are also true to an extend and Muslims as well as good Jews and good Christians will go to heaven.

Christianity teaches that only Christianity is the true faith and that one must accept Jesus as the saviour to go to heaven. (This does not mean that Christians are intolerant towards other religions.) Some sects of Christianity teach that Jews alone have a separate path to G-d.

Judaism teaches that Jews have to follow certain law to go to the next world while non-Jews do not. But Judaism does emphatically NOT proclaim that Judaism is the one true faith. In fact Judaism does not concern itself with the question of which religion non-Jews should follow as long as they don't pray to idols (i.e. physical objects).

Buddhism doesn't see itself as the one true faith.

Hinduism makes no such claim either.

Zoroastrianism (the religion of King Cyrus) is even mentioned in the Bible as another true religion.

Nor did most of the pre-Christian and pre-Islamic pagan religions make such claims. People usually accepted that every city had its own god.

The Israelites were one of these peoples and their god was the god worshipped by the people who lived in and around Jerusalem. What made the Israelites special was their belief that their god was also the creator of the world and that others, like Christians and Muslims later claimed that the god of Israel was indeed the god for everyone.

The Bible mentions a few of these other gods and even the Israelites until 2100 or so years ago still worshipped G-d and "Asherath". Prophets in the Bible decry such practices and archaeologists have found shrines to Asherath and other gods and goddesses in Israel.

In the Semitic pantheon Asherath was the wife of El, the creator god, and mother of most of the other gods. Marduk was the city god of Babylon and a son of El. Melqart ("King of the City") was the city god of Tyre. All of these gods were originally Sumerian.

"El" as a word means "supernatural" (or something like that) and it is hence where the Hebrew words for "G-d" derive (Eloah and the more polite Elohim) and the Arabic Al-Ilah (-> Allah) with "al" being the definite article ("the god"). (Note that vowels would not normally be written and hence all these words look pretty much the same.)

It is a typical assumption of people coming from a Christian background that religions are usually about proclaiming themselves the one true faith, whereas that is really only true for Christianity (and Islam to a lesser degree).

So, no, all religions do not proclaim that their faith is the one true faith.

And no, it is not unfair to attack Islam (or Christianity) over this particularly unpleasant attribute which Islam (and Christianity) has and other religions do not.

Chancellor:  Sorry, I was referring to the population of Muslims overall. That was my bad for being stereotypical.    I was saying that THOSE particular muslims should be ashamed of themselves, not only for being barbaric, but also for disgracing those around them by acting as such.  I'm aware that not all muslims are terrorists; my uncle is one, but IMO, The Middle East is sorta condemning itself to be isolated from the rest of the world.  Once the oil there is gone, the world will stop caring, and all this should stop...

Xer0 \^/

P.S. OK, I'm up until 1:00 in the morning, and RIGHT after I go to bed do ppl start posting.

TBH:  I can already see this being shut down by Kryo for being overly religious or discriminatory or blah lah lah sometime soon, so just a note of caution; keep it clean.

Xer0 \^/

I can't believe these people weren't arrested.  They threatened the lives of Trey and Matt which is ASSAULT which is an arrestable offense.  It doesn't matter if he said it wasn't one afterwards.  Thats like a bankrobber robbing a bank and then afterward say it wasn't a robbery so we let him go.

No, it's considered a terrorist threat.

http://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/making-a-terrorist-threat.html

Lurking in the background here is the cultural belief that deep down everyone knows that all religions are the same. This is a Western presumption of relatively recent vintage. Not everyone accepts that belief, neither here in the Useless Arse of A and certainly not in the rest of the world. Nor will they necessarily do so in the future.

There really is nothing sacred about Western cultural beliefs or opinions. They are, after all, nothing but little electronic patterns swirling in our brains. They have no substantial reality.

Somewhere or another whether it is right or wrong gets pushed out on stage. But right and wrong are also nothing but little electronic patterns swirling in our brains. Different electronic patterns swirl in other people's brains and there is nothing we can do about it.

Agreed.