�South Park� Episode Is Altered After Muslim Group�s Warning

An episode of �South Park� that continued a story line involving the Prophet Muhammad was shown Wednesday night on Comedy Central with audio bleeps and image blocks reading �CENSORED� after a Muslim group warned the show�s creators that they could face violence for depicting that holy Islamic prophet. Revolution Muslim, a group based in New York, wrote on its Web site that the �South Park� creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker �will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh� for an episode shown last week in which a character said to be the Prophet Muhammad was seen wearing a bear costume. Mr. Van Gogh was slain in Amsterdam in 2004 after making a film that discussed the abuse of Muslim women in some Islamic societies.

The new episode of �South Park� on Wednesday night tried to revisit this character, but with the name and depiction of the character blocked out. It was unclear how much of the bleeping was Mr. Stone and Mr. Parker�s decision. In a message posted on their Web site, SouthParkStudios.com, they wrote that they could not immediately stream the new episode on the site because:



After we delivered the show, and prior to broadcast, Comedy Central placed numerous additional audio bleeps throughout the episode. We do not have network approval to stream our original version of the show.

On Thursday morning, a spokesman for Comedy Central confirmed that the network had added more bleeps to the episode than were in the cut delivered by South Park Studios, and that it was not giving permission for the episode to run on the studio�s Web site.

On Thursday afternoon, Trey Parker and Matt Stone released the following statement:

In the 14 years we�ve been doing South Park we have never done a show that we couldn�t stand behind. We delivered our version of the show to Comedy Central and they made a determination to alter the episode. It wasn�t some meta-joke on our part. Comedy Central added the bleeps. In fact, Kyle�s customary final speech was about intimidation and fear. It didn�t mention Muhammad at all but it got bleeped too. We�ll be back next week with a whole new show about something completely different and we�ll see what happens to it.

Muslim Group Issues "Warning" to "South Park" Show-Alleged show Prophet Mohammad in a bear outfit doing violence to females.

South Park




Muslims consider any physical representation of Muhammad to be blasphemous

A U.S. Muslim group has issued a dire Internet "warning" to creators of the satirical animated TV show "South Park" over a depiction of the Prophet Mohammad in a bear outfit.

"We have to warn Matt (Stone) and Trey (Parker) that what they are doing is stupid and they will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh for airing this show," said a posting on website RevolutionMuslim.com.The website posted a graphic photo of slain Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, who was killed in 2004 by an Islamic militant over a movie he made that accused Islam of condoning violence against women.

See the video with the alleged scandal clips.Below.




It also posted link to a news article with details of a mansion in Colorado that Parker and Stone apparently own, suggesting the Web posters know where to find the South Park creators.

The episode in question aired last week on cable channel Comedy Central of the 200th episode of "South Park", in which the Prophet Mohammad was depicted in a bear outfit.

"South Park" has a history of aiming biting satire at politicians, celebrities and the media, and its episodes have often drawn criticism.

The website of Revolution Muslim was down on Wednesday because of what a leader of the group called a traffic overload.

Most Muslims consider any depiction of the founder of Islam as offensive.

The head of Revolution Muslim, Younus Abdullah Muhammad, 30, defended the posting.

"How is that a threat?," he told Reuters. "Showing a case study right there of what happened to another individual who conducted himself in a very similar manner? It's just evidence."

According to U.S. law enforcement officials, the federal government rarely prosecutes threat cases. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution gives broad protections to free speech, and what constitutes a threat is often subject to interpretation.

In Ireland, police last month arrested seven people in connection with a suspected plot, involving the Internet, to kill Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks. Vilks' 2007 sketch of the Prophet Mohammad with the body of a dog drew anger from Muslims.