I'm all for poking fun at people and ourselves. I'm not going to say I don't make fun of other people, and you're right, south park seems to be pretty equal in their satire. I'm just commenting on how it seems that a lot of people are jumping on the bandwagon and are just trying to hurt a group of people that they know will take a huge offense.
Muslims are not free of this themselves, and they do actually make fun of their Mulla's. They are actually a pretty common target in their jokes. But there seems to be a line where people always insist on crossing and take things too far. this goes for everyone. I'm not taking a particular side on this.
Well I think there is a fine line between freedom of speech and being blatantly insulting.
If you depicted jesus among a bunch of flaming faggots and half the audience were 20-something christians how many do you think would start throwing punches?
I mean you can certainly walk on the street and insult anyone you want, sure. But don't say they tried to bully you around when they end up socking you in the face... that just doesn't make any sense at all to me.
I think you guys missed the point.
The goal of the extremists who threatened Matt & Trey Parker, killed Theo Van Gogh, and attacked Jyllands-Posten is to stifle their freedom of speech so they don't have to be 'offended', and to make non-believers live within their religious ideals.
By not posting images of Mohammad and leaving it as taboo, these people get what they want. The tactics they're using are considered effective, and will continue.
When
everyone posts pictures of Mohammad, it makes it so there's no one point of attack. There's too many people to threaten, and no central authority to attack. More than that, it (especially with the vulgar nature of the pictures) makes sure that their actions have the
opposite of the desired effect. With every person they don't threaten, it becomes more accepted and their legitimacy (and the fear they can inspire the next time they
do threaten) decreases.
There is no clearer way to make it clear that trying to intimidate people into suppressing their free speech and is in fact counterproductive. And it requires no violence: It only requires us to use the rights we already have.
That's why I'm firmly of the opinion that these threats need to be delegitimized. When they come, or people say we shouldn't have images because they may 'offend' someone, they should be ridiculed, not taken as a legitimate, and people should surge to do the opposite of what it is they want.
It's a shame that all the moderates and non-lunatics have to get caught up in the middle of this, but there's no other way that I can see to make sure that threats and violence don't become seen as a legitimate way to control what Americans say or depict about Islam. But in the end: It's my right, and you can go fuck yourself if you don't like it. It needs to be made clear this kind of stuff does not fly.
