dlish

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117...-30977,00.html

In light of recent Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed, it looks like the Christians have finally jumped on the bandwagon and have started protesting about sacriligious depictions of holy figures in their faith.

personally i think its about time that they woke up to themselves and stopped biting the bullet. maybe the muslim reaction to the Danish cartoons tilted (no pun intended) them into action, but Jesus and his mother had been copping it for the past 2000 years without so much as a whisper in the name of freedom of speech and political correctness. what ever happened to good natured-ness and humility between human beings.

i for one am a big fan of South Park, but they do have a go at the christians in a big way, and although i find it amusing sometimes, its somewhat down right crude and offensive sometimes.

Even as a muslim, i find these depicitions of Jesus and Mary to be offensive, as should all muslims the world over. With Jesus and Mary great figures in islamic ideology, i would hope that muslims would join in and support this protest and find this as offensive if not more offensive than the depiction of Mohammed. hopefully this time the protest of 'Bloody Mary' wont be as 'bloody'

heres the article below....



Angry vigil for 'Bloody Mary'

HUNDREDS of Catholics and supporters held a protest vigil outside a New Zealand television station during its broadcast last night of South Park's controversial Bloody Mary episode.

More than 200,000 viewers watched the program in which a Virgin Mary statue is depicted spurting menstrual blood into the face of the Pope – six times the US animated comedy's usual audience in New Zealand.
SBS Television in Australia has deferred its scheduled March 6 broadcast of the episode because of the worldwide controversy over cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.

CanWest-owned broadcaster TV Works said it received hundreds of calls and emails before the program was broadcast on its free-to-air youth channel C4, about 85 per cent of them complaining about the episode's broadcast.

Video: The controversial episode (warning: may offend some viewers)
Video: Catholic vigil over episode
Have your say on the controversy
Vote: Should SBS show the episode?

The company provoked the angry reaction after bringing forward the episode's screening from its original May schedule date, saying it wanted the public to make up its own mind about the controversy.

The Mohammed cartoons originally published in Denmark provoked violent protests by Muslims around the globe.

The Catholic Church in New Zealand said it intended to lodge a complaint with the Broadcasting Standards Authority.

"In a secular society some people are not able to understand the depth of feeling, loyalty and love that others have towards those things that make them who they are – their culture, tradition, their religious faith or nationality," church spokeswoman Lyndsay Freer said.

"Freedom of speech has to be tempered with responsibility."

A lawyer for the group Catholic Action has written to the Attorney General complaining the episode was blasphemous libel which breached the Crimes Act.

TV Works chief operating officer Rick Friesen said a small number of advertisers had withdrawn their business but none withdrew commercials from last night's episode.

One placard held up by a protester last night said: "If it's good enough for Mary, let's show Rick's mum."

Television reviewers were underwhelmed by the satire of the "Bloody Mary" episode.

Frances Grant wrote in The New Zealand Herald that the show could have made its point without resorting to vulgarity.

"Surely those who should be offended most are the loyal South Park fans who were delivered at best only a mediocre episode," Grant wrote.

Jane Bowron of the Dominion Post wrote: "Watching the deeply unfunny and frankly, boring, episode of Bloody Mary won't have harvested C4 viewers, for the satire wasn't anywhere near clever enough and many of us were left, as Mr Friesen predicted, wondering what all the fuss was about."

__________________
An injustice anywhere, is an injustice everywhere

I always sign my facebook comments with ()()===========(}. Does that make me gay?
- Filthy

Vincentt

I don't see where they burned down buildings or hurt people though.
So I don't think it is even somewhat close to the Violent Muslim protests.

__________________
.

hulk

South Park was designed from the get go to be crude and offensive. Have you ever seen the splash screen for the show? Folks who create provoking media don't give two shits about who protests or what countries ban them, they care about getting their message out in the most effective way possible. Thanks to the wonderful efforts of these Christian protests, more people saw what offended them than would have otherwise. Same story goes for games like GTA and Postal, newspaper cartoons like we all know about, books, music, the works. Protesting about whoever's publishing the media is shooting the messenger, and all it does is add publicity to the cause they're trying to stop.

I like this one;
Obviously he's not a regular fan, blasphemous libel is one of their favourites.

__________________
"'There's a tendency among the press to attribute the creation of a game to a single person,' says Warren Spector, creator of Thief and Deus Ex."
-- From an IGN game review.

dlish

that wasnt my point...try reading my last paragraph... i'm all for peaceful protests, and as a muslim i challenge my fellow muslims to take note and learn from this.

__________________
An injustice anywhere, is an injustice everywhere

I always sign my facebook comments with ()()===========(}. Does that make me gay?
- Filthy

dlish

hulk, your words ring true. although those Mohammed cartoons were pretty lame, they did give the cartoonists exposure they wouldnt have otherwise gotten.

but on the other hand, if someone wants exposure, all they really need to do is do something offensive against christianity/islam/judaism be it cartoons, artworks etc and they are world wide news.

__________________
An injustice anywhere, is an injustice everywhere

I always sign my facebook comments with ()()===========(}. Does that make me gay?
- Filthy

Zyr

I would assume that one who is offended by pornography wouldn't go and watch it. In the same way, I would imagine that one offended by southpark wouldn't watch it. To watch it only to find something to take offence at would be stupid, just as it would be for me to go through the Bible or the Koran looking for things that offend me, just to complain.

__________________
"Oh, irony! Oh, no, no, we don't get that here. See, uh, people ski topless here while smoking dope, so irony's not really a high priority. We haven't had any irony here since about, uh, '83 when I was the only practitioner of it, and I stopped because I was tired of being stared at."

Omnia mutantu, nos et mutamur in illis.
All things change, and we change with them.
- Neil Gaiman, Marvel 1602

highthief

Agreed there is no comparison. No one is against peaceful protest and voicing your opinion as these Christians did. Most people are generally opposed to murdering dozens of people and burning buildings down, as happens in the Muslim world when a cartoon pisses many of them off.

__________________
Si vis pacem parabellum.

Astrocloud

I'm waiting for those Catholics to start attacking people, setting fires to things, and otherwise start fucking shit up.

jwoody

I have three words for peole who may find this program offensive:

1) Don't 2) Fucking 3) Watch (it).


To expand the point; what is it about the airing of this cartoon that personally affects a religious person?

__________________
.

guthmund

It's because you guys (in the general sense, not you in particular) get all worked up over it. Draw a cartoon, the Muslim world goes indiscriminately crazy and starts burning shit down. Film a movie about Jesus, the Christian world goes nuts and starts crying religious persecution.

That's kind of an unfair comparison, I think. I don't believe for a minute that guys like Fred Phelps and Donald Wildmon wouldn't lead 'their people' in the streets if they could get away with it, but that's neither here nor there.

I believe in God. I think Jesus and Mohammed, peace be upon them, were some pretty forward thinking guys, but I don't get all worked up when something offends me. The world could be a much better place if we'd all learn to laugh at ourselves every once in a while or at the very least...learn to look away.

__________________
No signature. None. Seriously.

The_Jazz

Having seen this episode a couple times already, I have to agree with some of the Kiwis that were interviewed that it wasn't the funniest effort that South Park has ever put forth. They flat out miss the funniness sometimes, and this is one of them. As far as I'm concerned, that's only thing wrong with it.

That said, who cares? South Park is consitently satirical, and they have no sacred cows. They've happily sent up everyone from the American government to Osama bin Ladin to Alcoholics Anonymous to Barbara Streisand. And again, so what? Their job is to make fun of people and things, and they engage in some very pointed social commentary from time to time. To me, its pretty obvious that the "Bloody Mary" episode is criticism of the Catholic Church, NOT Christianity in general, specificially the Catholic's misogyny and general mistrust of women. The critism isn't even pointed at the faithful but at the upper levels of the hierarchy, since the rank and file are ready to believe in what's obviously a miracle of sorts, albeit a sort of disgusting one.

dlishguy, you said that you find this depiction of Jesus and Mary offensive as a Muslim, but please tell me where Jesus or Mary is depicted in this episode. If you've actually watched the show, you know that Jesus is a long-running periferal character that pops up from time to time (like on his low-rated "Jesus and Pals" cable access show) as is God, Moses and angels, and the Jesus character never really shows up in this particular episode. I don't see where Mary is depicted at all other than a bleeding statue. Yes, the blood is coming from possibly vulgar spot, but this is a statue, not the actual ideolgical figure. If the South Park guys were out to skewer her, they would have put her in the episode.

I really don't get the point of your post. Are you really hoping that Christians rally around the "Bloody Mary" episode the same way that the Muslims have rallied around the Danish cartoons? Sorry to be blunt, but that's pretty naive, especially since this isn't a critisism of Christianty in general but of the Catholic hierarchy in particular. I can't imagine the rank and file of the Southern Babtists (notoriously conservative and outspoken) getting upset about this. Even if they did, what would it prove? That Christians are just as capable of outrage as Muslims? Well of course they are. Until I see Matt Stone and Trey Parker being burned in effigy or living with death threats from the Christian Right, I'm going to have to think that you've missed the boat on all of this.

It's very obvious to me why Muslims are so upset about these cartoons - your religion specifically bars images of the Prophet. The cartoons are all labeled as being such and in unflattering ways. Christianity has no such prohibitions. If the cartoons in question hadn't been had the word "Mohammed" in a way making it obvious that the person drawn was supposed to be the Prophet (i.e. if it were "Mohammed Jones" or the Arabic equivalent), this whole tragic situation never would have happened. As it stands, the Danish artists violated a basic tenant of your faith. Since Christians don't have the same prohibition, I think that the parallel that you're trying to draw here just doesn't exist.

I think that you might want to go back and actually watch this episode again if you're still confused.

__________________
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin
"There ought to be limits to freedom." - George W. Bush
"We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo

CSflim

As an atheist, I find every single depiction of any deity, prophet, unicorn, spirit, demon, totem, idol, virginal mother, mythological character, etc. etc, extremely offensive to my beliefs. It is my belief that none of these things exist, and should not be depicted at all, in any way, ever. Up to now I have had better things to do than to constantly bitch and moan about this (non-)religious persecution and how thoroughly offensive these things are to me and my people (better things to do, such as picking the dirt out between my toes). However given the current climate, I've decided to jump on the bandwagon, and publicly declare my outrage. After all if everyone else gets to scream bloody murder about victimisation, then why not me?


AMEN

__________________

Trisk

I'm pretty sure the entire point of south park is to make fun of things. They have made somewhat offensive episodes about almost everything else - and have taken blows at Christianity quite often. Then again, they also take blows at protesters, hippies, republicans, democrats, Americans, non-Americans, as well as other religions. Maybe this one episode wasn't funny - to some people. Maybe it was funny to others. But I really don't think that any one group should feel singled out by this show, considering what all the other jokes are about.

Marvelous Marv

Nice solution. I agree with it, but what about the similar stuff that is funded by our tax dollars? How do we handle that?

__________________
"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."
Margaret Thatcher

grumpyolddude

Been there, done that! Google "The Crusades" or "Spanish Inquisition" just for starters.

The_Jazz

I find the funding of municipal symphonies offensive since they play music composed by foreigners. Can we get rid of those too?

Seriously, where do you draw the line? Either you agree to fund art or you don't. I certainly don't want you picking what artists get funded and which don't. At least with the current setup in the NEA, they have set critera. If you don't like what's being put out there, get them to change their requirements.

__________________
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin
"There ought to be limits to freedom." - George W. Bush
"We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo

Astrocloud

I wasn't expecting that....


NOBODY EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION