TO THE VICTORS

"We sent a clear message to the West regarding the red lines that should not be crossed."
-Organization of the Islamic Conference

There was a show on TV once which had a cartoon version of Muhammad, Lao Tsu, Jesus Christ, Buddha, Joseph Smith, and more portrayed as superheroes. In this long ago period, the show portrayed all of these characters openly and without fear or censorship.

Times have changed since then, as we all know. Comedy Central's South Park has been forced to censor appearances of Muhammad in later portrayals - oh I didn't mention that? Yes it was South Park. Muhammad actually has shown up several times on the cartoon, but since 2006 Comedy Central has forced them to censor the character lest Muslims be offended.

Russ Douthat in a recent New York Times column opined:

But there’s still a sense in which the “South Park” case is particularly illuminating. Not because it tells us anything new about the lines that writers and entertainers suddenly aren’t allowed to cross. But because it’s a reminder that Islam is just about the only place where we draw any lines at all.

Across 14 on-air years, there’s no icon “South Park” hasn’t trampled, no vein of shock-comedy (sexual, scatalogical, blasphemous) it hasn’t mined. In a less jaded era, its creators would have been the rightful heirs of Oscar Wilde or Lenny Bruce — taking frequent risks to fillet the culture’s sacred cows.

And he's right, South Park goes out of its way to be offensive, iconoclastic, disrespectful, and insulting to everyone, with no limits to its targets. Frequently on shows they will mock and attack both sides of a given cultural debate, with foul-mouthed children leading the way.

The first episode that Comedy Central censored Muhammad's appearance in also included a scene where Jesus, President Bush, and the American Flag all had human feces thrown at them by a Muslim. That scene (over a minute long) made it into the show, but not an image of a silent Muhammad merely walking in the door. Mr Douthat notes other western cowering before Islamic wrath:

In a way, the muzzling of “South Park” is no more disquieting than any other example of Western institutions’ cowering before the threat of Islamist violence. It’s no worse than the German opera house that temporarily suspended performances of Mozart’s opera “Idomeneo” because it included a scene featuring Muhammad’s severed head. Or Random House’s decision to cancel the publication of a novel about the prophet’s third wife. Or Yale University Press’s refusal to publish the controversial Danish cartoons ... in a book about the Danish cartoon crisis. Or the fact that various Western journalists, intellectuals and politicians — the list includes Oriana Fallaci in Italy, Michel Houellebecq in France, Mark Steyn in Canada and Geert Wilders in the Netherlands — have been hauled before courts and “human rights” tribunals, in supposedly liberal societies, for daring to give offense to Islam.

Why? Well obviously fear plays a major part but there's another emotional reason: they want to appease the enemy. The idea is if we stop making the Muslims so mad, they'll stop doing mean things and we'll all join hands and sing a Beatles medley. Think I'm exaggerating or unfairly characterizing leftist entertainment and media types?

Look at the timing involved: before 9/11, mere months before the terrorist strike on America, that religious-figures-as-superheros episode ran. It was okay then, before the terrorists hit America. After? Now its banned. What's the only thing that changed? The left was terrified when 9/11 happened: the heart of leftist culture and thought was hit: New York City, the Jerusalem of leftists in America. It could happen again, anywhere! No where was safe from the Muslim radicals! That's why Gore screamed about President Bush playing on their "feeaarrrs!!!!" Because they were so scared when this happened they went along with anything.

Yet their response isn't to fight the terrorism and stop it at its source, they don't want to defeat this evil and prevent any more strikes. They want to appease it and make nice with terrorists, on the idiot assumption that the only reason they are so very mad at us is because we've been so very mean to them. So if they prevent images of Muhammad from being shown, well maybe they won't be so upset. Bow to the Saudi King even though he said nobody should bow to him. Don't criticize the Iranian government for crushing their own people seeking liberty. Don't try to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons. Urge the US to pull out of Iraq because the Muslims seem to dislike our presence there.

This combination of fear and appeasement (and the latter follows the former) essentially means that western popular culture and academia - if not the actual people - have surrendered to the terrorists. Its easy to say 'if you do x the terrorists have won!' but there is a sense in which caving in to Islam to prevent its adherents from doing the things which scare you is their victory. If you can make fun of every single icon and object of respect in the world except for Islam, then Islam is de facto the one thing you respect, fear, and honor.

Like the Muslim leaders in the 18th century who thought the rest of the world feared, respected, and obeyed them because other nations would bring chests of gold to them in tribute to stop Barbary pirates, today the Islamic leaders can think no different: we command, and they obey. We threaten, and they cringe. The west is weak, they surrender to us, terrorism works.

When even the cartoonist who went out of her way to call for "Draw Muhammad" day backs off and claims it was stupid to even mention it, you know that's a victory for the Muslim radicals she fears.

In a world where people think there is no absolute right and wrong and there is nothing save what we can touch, measure, and scientifically prove, then threats to someone's life and health are the most powerful weapon a man can wield.

South Park wields satire and sarcasm, usually in the crudest, most infantile way possible, as a different weapon; and they've made the cringing, pathetic western pop culture movement look really weak and stupid. Again.