'South Park' Muhammad episode censored after Muslim group's warnings

Hi Larry,
it should be realized that a vast majority on this planet of every faith take their religion seriously.

Knowing this, why ridicule a particular religion or a religious figure ? Especially in the current world enviornment when what is needed most is to strive for peace & harmony.
Its beyond me.

@ikhan

Yes, the vast majority does take their faith seriously. However, South Park has mocked practically EVERY major religion. No other religion has made death threats to the creators, warning them that their fate will be that of a murdered man.

If your faith is so incredibly fragile that a South Park episode renders you enraged, you have many, many mental issues.

Who wants to live in a world where you can't tell a joke, even if it's tasteless? The "deeply religious" need to grow up and grow a pair. Those of any religion, in fact, bot merely Islam.

And stop threatening to kill people who don't believe what you do. That would be nice. Idiots.

Oh I get it.. We ignore the free speech portion of the First Amendment in lieu of the section regarding freedom of religion and live in fear of fundamentalist and radical Islamic groups. Well. up their Islamic Organization. Religion was created beyond the reason man invented his God..fear of the unknown. He used it as his first invention to appease that fear. Religion was the first political strata of over 6,500 off brands of 19-21 major cans of his concern for his health, safety, and his mortality. The last being his major fear..what happens to me when I die? There is sufficient evidence to establish that man had organized religion, however basic, over 100,000 years ago. Of course, it became the groundwork for the first political parties. Islam got it's foot in it's posterior over it, about 622AD. I am certain that will be disputed. They, when asked, look at themselves more akin to the Catholic religion than any other. Of course, they basically copied their history book, the bible/Koran. Such a convoluted way to control humanity. Moslem men, and their self appointed deity, do like all religions and make it up as they go along, to appease themselves mainly. It's a tool, used by Tools. They interpret what is written to suit their need to control the masses. Now they are controlling mass media, just as they desire to do. Look, there are a population of 33% Christian advocates, and dropping on this planet, and 19.6% Moslems and growing..the majority, by far, are peaceful. But intertwined in the mix is a band of idiots in all religions that are the catalyst for the unrest in this world...Silly human race...more later..I am burned out on this subject..it's disgusting!

IKHAN

Take no offense to the above and look at the gravity of the actions of a few.

I cant believe comedy central is allowing terrorism to be effective! South Park has brutally joked about every religion- catholics most likely receiving it the worst. The whole Mohammed thing-if you actually watch the episode leading up to this (not just the one prior, but another 2 part episode back in season 8)-the joke is about the censorship of it all, not about muslims. They arent making fun of the religion itself at all! I feel sorry for Trey and Matt-as artists in America are not supposed to be censored-they are dependent on Comedy Central to share their art with their world. Comedy Central has a right to do this, it is their business, it is just too bad that Trey and Matt cannot share this episode with the world on their own, with out Comedy Central behind them!
P.S. The funny thing is, pre9/11 there was a South Park episode with Mohammed as one of the characters...He did stuff, he spoke, he made fun of a super-hero named seaman. He just looked like a normal middle-eastern man...this episode can still be seen by the public world-wide.

I watched last nights South Park and enjoyed their creativity very much, unfortunately with the death threats, it appears they inserted the censored blocks at several points.

One in particular was the result of repeated threats allegedly coming from Tommy boy Cruise. However with South Park's children chanting fudge pack and their new creation of a Sea-Man jumping on Tommy Cruise's back, I rather doubt little Tommy boy is happy today that he and his team of attorneys allegedly threatened the South Park staff. In short Millions of South Park viewers are now laughing their ass off at and about Tom Cruise.

I suspect the same demise will come to the Muhammad character. My suggestion is to have that character chasing young girls in a definite attempt at pedophilia, or alternative views with Muhammad's animal husbandry skills with a goat.

In the future, it is entirely likely that Muslim zealots very much like Tom Cruise will rue the day they allegedly threatened the staff at South Park and South Park will have the lasting laugh on each of them.

As many have already stated, the Muslim religion is a religion entirely of peace, if you don't like it they'll chop your head off and if you try to leave the Muslim religion, they'll kill you.

Smith in Oregon...

You are absolutely correct..few crimes can get you the death penalty under the Sharia Court system..Islamic Law..Murder...Witchcraft (sorcery) or Giving up the Faith. It sort of explains why the Islamic faith is growing while the Christian faith is in decline....

Smith in Oregon..

I forgot to mention the most egregious reason to lose your head or get stoned...ADULTERY...Heaven forbid if the fundamentalist Christians adopt it in this country...heads will roll and so many will get stoned.

Smith in Oregon...

Oh and even though many men find themselves enjoying their fellow man's posterior attitude...it too can be a cause for execution...usually they have been known to be put into a large cloth bag and dropped from the highest buildings in town...several times, if necessary...Houdini may have got a few of his ideas from this practice...

Why dont we all watch the care bears people are a bunch of sissy whiners now days.
These guys make fun of everyone and imagine that a religion of peace are the only ones who threaten violence lol get over yourselves

@Cajazz

thanks. No offence taken.Everyone is entitled to an opinion.
My point is only this , when it is known that a particular section of world population does not take to their religious figures being ridiculed, why do it?
No one takes offence at caricatures of Muslims, Jews, Hindus etc if it is portrayed in purely a comedic sense in movies, comic strips & such. But why pick on their religious figures which they revere.

One cannot revile a Hindu deity, they will hound you out as was done to an artist in India who painted them in the nude.

One wouldn't be able to ridicule the Sikhs' Guru, they would be up in arms in no time
And you wouldn't dare do or say anything which even remotely implies anti-semitism or you know the consequences, so on & so forth.First Amendment- my foot.

You cannot desecrate the Bible & get away with it without the Christians protesting.
Religion folks, is a reality which is to stay till the end of days. It cannot be eliminated by our saying so. We better learn toi live with it.
And if we want a better & peaceful world we better learn to respect all faiths.

IKHAN

You have said it in a nut shell...respect all...you can drop faith from that and if we respect each other..each others possessions.. families...their 'personal' beliefs..their disabilities..their habits...their preferences...their likes and dislikes..mind their own business and live their lives as they wish...die their death as they wish..then we would have a much. much better world..When idols..icons..images..of unsubstantiated support systems are in competition with each other we end up on battlefields instead of ball fields or at the ballet. We dance around reality and create fantasies to find the bottom line of life...our acceptance of our deaths instead of learning how to live...

Comedy Central (Viacom) gave in to the demands of Muslim terrorists, and our freedom of speech is weaker for it.

To those that say religious figures and articles should be respected. No. Your fake religion is not any more important than anyone else's, and it deserves to be made fun of just the same.

This instance tells us one very important thing. Children, be violent, be vocal about your violence while hiding behind laws that you are being violent towards, and you'll get what you want. This is a war against free speech.

Freedom of chioce, if you dont like it then dont watch it, and allow those of us who do enjoy the programme, to make our own choices.

Well, Trey & Matt wanted attention ...

I don't care for South Park and wouldn't waste my time watching it. I suspect that the cartoon show has ridiculed many more religions and beliefs than just the Muslim faith. I am not in favor of riduculing anyones religion or faith but I am fed up with Muslim Radicals telling us to live and believe as they do or be threatened with death or great bodily harm. I know this is unfair but I am all for having everyone of that faith packing their bags and going back where they came from. If they want to live in this country, they have to adapt to our culture, not the other way around. I can't think of one group of immigrants that had the audacity to come here and make demands that we take steps to adapt to their beliefs rather than the other way around. There are places where people believe as these people do and where they can live in peace with their beliefs. They are known as the place you originally came from. When the majority of the people of the Muslim faith begin to crack down on the radicals among them, then we can welcome them back here to live peacefully among us. I cannot tolerate threats such as this even against a cartoon program such as "South Park."

To have respect for all is an excellent concept. Would that apply to respecting a culture or country’s constitutional rights? I view this as a double edge sword. I understand the anger pertaining to the perception that the Muslim idol was marred; however, does that anger give these people the right to threaten or kill??? There have been many comedy movies in which Jesus and even God was made a joke. The Christians were not happy with this, but only protested against the movie. Why must people go to extreme? Why must people threaten and kill just because they do not like a situation or event? It is in this “extreme” which creates conflict and loss of respect for others. Where is the respect for the first amendment?

A “belief” is not logical as there is no empirical evidence to substantiate it! Therefore, it can be considered irrational! One cannot reason with someone whose belief system was NOT derived from reason!!!!!

John H.

I can't think of one group of immigrants that had the audacity to come here and make demands that we take steps to adapt to their beliefs rather than the other way around...YOUR POST...I believe there were..they were called Puritans...then Christians...by here you did mean North America?

I like Monty Pythons, "The Life Of Brian". South Park should do a movie entitled "The Life Of Bear".

First of all, I cannot believe IKHAN, you think we will find peace by not touching the hot buttons? NO! We must all learn to respect the opinions of those around us. You must be able to say, "I think you are insane and I will argue with you about it." You can NOT allow these radicals dictate what you say and do which is why I dont blame them, I blam comedy central for censoring the episode. And dont give me the BS that they are afraid of the terrorists. Hello, less than five years ago they showed Muhammad uncensored and in full view several times. Not even a month ago they played that episode again as a re-run and he was still uncensored. But wait, I thought you couldnt show him without repercussion? Oh wait, thats them throwing threats around, threats that they cant back up. You all want to know why? Because they know if they try and riot like they did in Denmark they will get beaten down by police forces who are not going to tolerate terrorists. You think they arent going to bring out a flipping tank onto New York just because they can, Ill tell you right now they wont hesitate. That is the reason they wont riot, they dont want a tank shell up their back sides.

I would say that even making that episode or whatever is wrong. Its something that goes against our religion and of course we in return are angered...But what the islamic activist...well i i would also agree that they are wrong too... But this episode is very insulting. Even Christians or people of any religion would be angered if a racist episode is made insulting them.

I find it that simple:

Muslims ( all over the world -about some billion) do not virtualise Muhammad and this is their belief. Is it so hard to respect that? where does freedom end and respect begin?

And Michael...who ever you are...There is more to Islam than you think...To us its insulting. There is Nothing about deeply religious. We can take jokes or what ever. There are good people and bad people in everything. It all depends on how u see it...positively or negatively...The terrorists...to us are not Muslims...They are wrong people using the name of our religion to benefit themselves.

And yes all the threats and all are bogus...We get these threats everyday where i live...even though i am a muslim. we dont go to school so many times because they threat to do a suicide bombing or whatever...people should have handled this very carefully...kindness goes a long way

Michael...our faith is not weak....we just want stand up for ourselves...we want to stand up for what we believe in...everybody wants to...but we cannot change an opinion or force to

I live in the Arabian Gulf. We have satellite TV and watch any channel we want. What I can tell you is that from what I see around me, the people who live in the Muslim world are very laid back and do not waste their time over cartoon controversies and the like.
But it is the Arabs who have left their own countries and who live under the protection of the West, who try and force their narrow views of Islam on the West. Can you explain this? They want to bite the hand that feeds them. If they don't like "blasphemous" cartoons on USA TV, no one asks them to live in the USA.
But no, they wouldn't return to North Africa or the Gulf, because then they will be nobodies. They will be immersed in a very tolerant culture. In the West they can loudly proclaim their uniqueness and "moral superiority" over the American nation, who tolerates their rants and extremism. The views of these self-proclaimed defenders of Islam are nothing less than Racism directed against black and white and hispanic Americans – Racism aired on TV and backed up by threats of violence.
Let me assure you, I am surrounded by Gulf Citizens and Egyptian, Jordanian, Palestinian, Syrian expats in their millions, they are my friends and co-workers. They have only the greatest respect and love for the American Nation. I can flight any number of interviews on You-Tube, if you don't believe me. Don't give these Jihadists the publicity they crave. Kill the story now. It's only a cartoon, after all.

I don't believe in this new ... ☺
This is PR .

@Cajazz,@Saymoonun

We Americans who would invade countries thousands of miles away on the pretext of guarding our culture?? & way of life( we call our country a Judo-Christian state).. Destroy cities & cause civilian deaths without respect for the faith or the way of life, cultural values of those people, have the least right to criticize "other" people for getting violent when we ridicule their religious figures.
You guys have any idea how many civilian deaths were caused during invasion of Iraq?

First Amendment ? What's that. Try just saying something about the 'Holocaust' & see where you end up fellas!
Followers of all religions & faiths who take their religion seriously believe that their religion is the only true faith & more important than other faiths which to them is 'fake'.
But we from our haloed perches, self congratulating ourselves on our moral values, sense of equitable justice and what not, see fit to revile other faiths & cultures.
In every faith on this planet there have been, there are are & always will be rengades, extremists, fundamentalists who would try to shove down their brand of faith down the throat of others. But they are just that a monority. Billion other Christians, Hindus, Jews etc are peace loving , good human beings who follow their own faith & leave others alone

And also I believe there are a billion plus followers of Islam in this country & around the globe who are peace loving & want to be left in peace.

Thank you Viacom/Comedy Central for setting a precedent to all enemies of free speech; that intimidation is an effective tool in controlling the free exchange of ideas and information.

Censoring the image of *Bleep* and even the word *Bleep* shows the courage and the character of your media conglomerate.

What makes Muslim fanatics think their religion is so much holier and more sacred than that of the rest of the world? Are they so insecure in their belief system that the smallest joke can warrant death threats? South Park, even in the episode in question, pokes fun at Jesus, Buddha, Moses, and other major religious icons. And the only religious group to take public offense? The muslims. I'm certain that the muslim religion is a meaningful, beautiful thing. But worth murdering over because of a cartoon? Absolutely ridiculous. A word to the muslim fanatics: YOUR RELIGION IS NOT BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE'S. Take the joke like all the other faiths South Park has mocked and actually try to mesh into the functioning, human aspect of the world community for once.

IKHAN

I am more than aware of the high cost of lives and injuries in the stupid wars that the Bush Administration orchestrated in Iraq and in Afghanistan, well over 1 1/2 million casualties. I have posted those figures on these blogs before. I have also commented in the last day that most Moslem's are peaceful. I have lived amongst both Shiites and Sunni Moslem's for years, in their countries, where each particular sect is predominant. I have witnessed all aspects of their societies, their worshiping, their family values, their methods of punishment, their schools, their military, their hardships..all of it. I have absolutely no qualms with them as a whole, at all. I am glad you came back an included them into your blog.

It does lead to what I say and have been saying all my life. Ever since I was a child, about 6 or 8 years old I became uncomfortable with religion and politics...In my eyes they merged as one single entity. Remember, I grew up during the Cold War and heard all religious and political groups spread their brand of fire and brimstone throughout the world.

Looking back all can see it was a hyped act on the grandest scale on the largest stage. If you go back and look at all my blogs regarding religion and politics I use comparisons to group them as one. That is because if anyone looks at it and researches it will find religion and politics has no separation anywhere in the world, except in countries were it is not a predominant factor.

Prove or assimilate in some fashion that man has not made it up to appease his fears. No substantial or minute evidence exists to the contrary that man hasn't conjured it up to muddle the minds of those who are indoctrinated from birth into religion. Find a society that does not do that and you will find attitudes that are not affixed to their demise and they live and not worry about their life after death...a consolation to appease the fear of dying..

So many verses,veiled threats, vernaculars, phrases, parlances, expressions, idioms, idiosyncrasies, colloquialisms, argots, expressions, localisms in over 6000 languages and hundreds of dialects to contrive and convince billions on this planet there is a big boogey man or entity that will reign the damn-damn down on him if he strays from the norm in their particular culture, society, denomination, and environment. There are 19 major religions, over 270 large religions, over 6500 off shoots of those religions, over 34,000 separate Christian groups. So broad is this religious "umbrella" that it clearly includes polytheistic, tritheistic, monotheistic, pantheistic, non-theistic, and atheistic traditions. So in one word is becomes simply convoluted...an oxymoron...lol.

I simply say that man's first enemy was his greatest...his FEAR...his fear of the unknown..his fear of his death... His first invention to combat that fear was his God.

Since the beginning of recorded history, which is defined by the invention of writing by the Sumerian's, around 6000 years ago, there has been cataloged over 3700 supernatural beings, of which 2870 are considered deities. Those numbers are most probably a very conservative estimate because we have no accurate information before 4000 B.C. and human civilization goes back 8 000 to 10 000 years ago. You noticed I said civilization and not the existence of homo sapiens. For the first trace of modern humans, homo sapiens , we have to go a lot further back to 195 000 years ago. That means we have no direct evidence, or accurate information, about a belief system, if any, for 97% of the existence of the human species on Earth. There is some indirect evidence from the archeological discovery of funeral rites performed as far back as 350 000 years ago that may imply the belief of some sort of after life and one or many supernatural beings.

So history lesson and statistics aside, I often wonder why so few who believe that God had interceded, during times of biblical formatting, never observed that when 50-70 million of his "children" were perishing during World War II, he never made an appearance. It certainly would have altered the direction humanity has taken since then, which is not all that good, correct? Of course, someone will invent a reason...Take care Ikhan..

@Jean
@John H.

Grovel....................

@Cajazz

Thanks for your time spent on the subject. This is a wealth of info & correct from its historic perspective.
However religion practiced in whatever manner , is here to stay & billions who believe in some kind of a deity would not just up & abandon it.
Even if civilization as we know it is wiped out & there is a new beginning (ref. 2012) mankind or whatever kind emerges would seek & will find a parallel to organized religion. Be it the fear of unknown or myriad other reasons. I do not think that you would dispute that.
So if organized religion is here to stay why can't we find a way to live with it. Why must we seek ways to revile or ridicule one particular faith for the sake of hurting or demeaning its followers.
We are a civilized people or are we? We bend backwards to be politically correct , careful in not offending a neighbor or a friend or a colleague by our words, deeds or appearance.
So why is it difficult for us to try being the same towards a religion & those who peacefully follow that religion.
You, I and majority of us Americans are together in condemning any form of exrtremism & violence that results. Those who practice that distorted & perverted manifestation of a faith are terrorists.
No dispute there.
But I would avoid reviling that religion or its revered figures who billions follow in peace.
The reason being that it would just be playing into the hands of that minority who wants us to do just that so that their devilish agenda continues.
You take care too @Cajazz

Now we can espouse on the obvious. Why the divisions of the multitudes in the religions of the world? Quite easy from here on Ikhan.

My God is better than your God...My God is the only God..My Gods outnumber your God..My God is the true God..My God was the first God..My God likes baseball,,Your God likes football...Johnny's God likes horse racing..My God favor's Republicans..Your God is a Democrat..Johnny's God is an Independent..My God is a Catholic..Your God is a protestant..Johnny's God is a Jew...Bobby's God's are Hindu..Mickey's God is a Moslem..etc. The one common denominator is BIAS..and then it progresses to BIASED based HATRED...then on to CONFLICT...

Does all mankind need religion..no, over 1.1 billion do not have it in their lives...Does many need it?...I am certain they do. It compliments the part of our psyche known as a conscience. It prevent's many from acting impulsively. Has it been used to abuse..and far beyond?........ ...unfortunately.

It has and will continue to adorn and accentuate man's inhumanity to man.. There is not one God..not one religion...not once race of one color...and not one answer...One thing that we all have in common is our mortality....how we choose to accept it, divides us all....Silly human race...

@IKHAN

Most of the behavior's that divide us are learned...not innate...If we were taught from birth that whoever dies with the most toys wins..the outcome would be the same. One question for you is..How far would man's progression have evolved without religion? Without the vast wealth and energy expended to rebuild after conflict, without the digressions, suppressions, repressions, and regressions conflict appear to bear, where and how would all the peoples of the world be living today?

It appears with todays Mosque bombing in Baghdad the often repeated peaceful religion of Muslim's indicates fellow Muslims feel it is entirely OK and just as likely written in their 'Koran' to blowup Muslim Mosques along with a great many Muslim's attending their own religious sites.

But of course it is simply a threat to the staff of South Park over their character 'the prophet Muhammad' in a bear clown suit as just being empty words.

When does the 'Muslim Religion' cease to entirely be viewed as a actual, factual 'religion' and viewed entirely as a organization of violence and an excuse to commit violent actions and crimes against others that are not Muslims or against fellow Muslims that are not acting as their counterparts want them to act as?

“Followers of all religions & faiths who take their religion seriously believe that their religion is the only true faith & more important than other faiths which to them is 'fake'.”
________

That statement just explains everything. You are right on target. And that is the root of the innate problem with religion. ( All religions) Mine is the only real and true god; therefore, yours must be a fake… is the false analogy all religions are based upon!

Religions want to rule the world by having everyone believe the same way. Governments want to rule the world by seizing control of all natural resources. Both have their base in world domination and control.

correction...
Religions want to rule the world by having everyone believe their way!!!

You're basically killing each other to see who's got the better imaginary friend

The difference between philosophy and religion....
Philosophy is questions that may never be answered.
Religion is answers that may never be questioned.

this makes no sense to me, if you dont like it dont watch it, they have gone from animals that rape people to erics hand being the new j-lo, but the second they start picking on islam's you get all anal about it, look at the starting of the show, it gives you a MORE THEN CLEAR WARNING ABOUT THE PROFANITY !!

ALL CHARACTERS AND EVENTS IN THIS POST–EVEN THOSE BASED ON REAL PEOPLE–ARE ENTIRELY FICTIONAL.ALL CELEBRITY VOICES ARE IMPERSONATED......POORLY.THE FOLLOWING POST CONTAINS COARSE LANGUAGE AND DUE TO ITS CONTENT IT SHOULD NOT BE VIEWED BY ANYONE.

It is well known that Muslims cannot take any criticism of their religion and they take offense at EVERYTHING. But they don't just get mad – they kill you for it. Get hold of the movie The Third Jihad and watch it closely. Also do a search for "takeover of America" + Islam and read the articles.Read in THEIR OWN WORDS what they have planned for the U.S. and the world. Religion of peace? Yeah right. Read today's story of how they have poisoned the girls in Afghanistan for going to school. Or read the story of the little girl who bled to death after being raped by her much older husband. Or the 12 year old who died in childbirth. Honor killing, child brides, female genital mutilation, stoning – all practices of Islam. WAKE UP AMERICA

People die for freedom. It's happening today, it will tomorrow, and it will continue to happen as long as people wish for freedom. This is more true in America then it is anywhere else in the world. And I didn't grow in a country where millions of my fore fathers died for that freedom just to be scared out of expressing myself because of the mortal threat of death.

I hope Comedy Central will find it in there American hearts to see this truth and play all there shows uncensored, including swearing which I also feel shouldn't be censored, as per are given rights as Americans. I want to push my fellow Republicans and Tea Party members to take up this stand against freedom of speech, for Islam is becoming more of a threat to are believes then any one person in are own government.

And if the Islamic radicals are stupid enough to kill American citizens on American soil, I hope my government will protect its people. Even if it means another war of freedom, with a response similar to that of Pearl Harbor if necessary. And that my fellow Americans, is something we all should be willing to fight for.

Kahn,
South Park rips on everybody, all the time. and I mean EVERYBODY. Even in this very episode they had Jesus watching pornography and Buddah using cocaine.

I am in NO way trying to defend what extremists are doing. However rather than finding fault in a particular religion (Islam) and discussing it's flaws, it would be helpful to understand its stage in history. Religions manifest their attributes according to historical times. Religions are subject to interpretation, application and understanding according to context.

Going back in history, Christianity looks dim. Due to the advantages of our hard fought democracy, post-industrialism and the separation of Church and State, we live in a society with legal rights and defined limits. This however does not remove those aspects in Christianity that are restrictive. Our freedoms mask them.

The following can be argued of Christianity:
– It is based on fear (of the devil, hell)
– Preys on the innocent (fear mongering, eternal damnation)
– Is egocentric (tied to its reliance on fear, the dissolution of the individual ego)
– Breeds authoritarianism (claim of one true faith, interprets God's will on women's rights to an abortion, use of birth control, etc)
– The Inquisition (brutality based on maintaining God's word)
– Hatred of freedom (until the late 19th century atheists who held opinions publically were jailed)
– Cruelty (burning of "non-believers", torture, witch hunts)
– Being anti-intellectual and anti-scientific (earth is 6,000 years old, creationism, etc)
– Homophobic
– Exceeding narrow, legalistic view of morality
– Sanctioned slavery
– Is misogynistic (women accepted an inferior role, at one point the Church questioned if women had souls).
– Promoted colonization of other cultures. Subjugation of other non-Christian peoples.

One can argue that these teachings or beliefs are outdated and we do not promote slavery or anti-women etc. Yes, this is due to our history, our development over centuries.

Yet if go to a time (from the 7th to 15th century) – almost a 1,000 year period in Islamic history, we find the height of scientific learning and reason in the Muslim world, a highly enlightened civilization. Their studies and information was taken into the Dark Ages of Europe (from Muslim Spain) – which resulted in the Renaissance.

What did Christianity look like during this time? What would the opinion of outsiders have been about this religion? Negative. Does the Bible state to kill adulterors etc – yes. Do we apply this now – no. But it is there. Muslim extremists are at the stage that we were at when killings occured in the name of Jesus. The majority of this onslaught is due to centuries of colonization, lack of educational development, oppression, and literal understanding of religion.

Horrible things are occuring in the world. Some are justified in religion, most are cultural. We can point fingers at how awful other people are. We in the west are somehow "civilized" as we successfully submerged Christianity in its fullest application. We need to recognize that others may chose not to treat their religion as such. That is the issue.

We have our freedom of speech here. Let's think about the lack of freedom of speech given to Muslims while our past American governments have supported dictators in their lands for our own selfish reasons. We are the ones who waged war on two Muslim countries this past decade. We went in with all of our death machines and advanced technology. We invaded a country (Iraq) that had nothing to do with 9/11. How many innocent Muslims died at our hands? Don't expect any love from that direction.

Hi Larry,

this hatred & venom pouring out of some blogs simply sends shivers down one's spine. I simply wonder at the human psyche and the lust for violence that radiates from these blogs lip-smackingly while reviling others for promoting the very same sentiment.
No Muslim nation as far as I understand from the news that I watch everyday & read, is threatening to kill us Americans whereas we seem to be everywhere on this planet bombing people. Even Iraq who we destroyed under the Tartar like rule of the infamous duo Bush-Cheney, never once in their history threatened America.What we are doing in Afghanistan may seem routine & to be shrugged away for these fellow bloggers but not to me.
A handful of lunatics thriving on the hate generated by our occupation of those areas & the deaths , shape their vile political agenda under the guise of religion to recruit more to their side.
We have to fight that trend & those terrorists who are financed by nations
surrounding Iraq & Afghanistan & manipulated for their own geo-political interests. We do not have to fight that religion.
This fight cannot be carried out solely by bombing them. We have to fight them by winning over the general population in that region & we cannot do that while we continue demonizing their religion. This would be counter-productive & would prevent us from achieving our goals. On the contrary this would continue fueling the cycle of violence in that region & Middle East.
We want our troops back & peace to return to the region & to Israel – Palestine. At least I do for the sake of my kids & grand kids. I do not know about fellow bloggers.
Bye all & have a good day.

Ikhan makes some good points. No Muslim nation has ever threatened to attack the US. A small faction of extremists have acted. There are many organizations within Muslim countries who are fighting for democracy, freedom, women's rights etc. There are over 1.5 billion Muslims in the world. Most living under oppressive regimes.

How many Americans are familiar with the following:

– Between 1978 and 1992, the US government poured at least US $6 billion (some estimates range as high as $20 billion) worth of arms, training and funds to prop up the Mujaheddin factions in Afghanistan. This included Bin Laden.

– In 1986 CIA chief William Casey committed CIA support to a long-standing proposal to recruit from around the world to join the Afghan Jihad. At least 100,000 Islamic militants flocked to Pakistan between 1982 and 1992 (some 60,000 attended fundamentalist schools in Pakistan without necessarily taking part in the fighting).

– John Cooley, a former journalist with ABC television network and author of Unholy Wars: Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism, revealed that Muslims recruited in the US for the Mujaheddin were sent to Camp Peary, the CIA's spy training camp in Virginia, where young Afghans, Arabs from Egypt and Jordan, and even some African-American "black Muslims" were taught "sabotage skills".

– Provided Saddam in Iraq with billions of dollars worth of support. Reagan/Bush Administrations permitted the flow of money, agricultural credits, dual-use technology, chemicals, and weapons to Iraq. The US turned a blind eye when Saddam gased thousands of his own people (Kurds).

– In 1997 Gov. GW Bush welcomed the Taliban in Texas to sign a $2 billion deal for a Unocal pipeline in Afghanistan. They received a 5-star treatment. Enron was to benefit from this pipeline. They were the single largest contributer to GW Bush.

The list goes on. Perhaps its time to stop creating monsters.

@Rose
thanks @Rose. This is useful info if it can be digested by some of the fellow bloggers.
@Sherri.
For the those cases you quoted I can quote a thousand of child rape & murder,kidnapping & torture of children & women, to turn females into sex slaves for years, serial killers of demonic proportions, abuse of children by the clergy, violence against female spouses all happening everyday here in our civilized society not in some remote village in Afghanistan.
And guess who commit these crimes? – uh! oh! non-Muslims. Every reason for us champions of justice to blame their religion not the poor perps??
@Bay area Republican male.
He waxes profoundly on freedom of speech but I'm pretty sure he hasn't even heard of the brave & learned Jews who are hounded out of their jobs & even homes for daring to speak the truth. Persons like Naom Chomsky,Alan Horowitz, Philip Weiss, Rabbi Brent Rosan & the very brave Jewish lady Ofrah Yeshua Lyth. These people are banned from our media & from speaking out in public. Our brave anchors do not dare invite them to their shows on the pain of losing their jobs. And the laws of our great freedom loving society would jail them for telling the American public the truth about Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Sure we are all champions of freedom of speech

The destruction of the Jews in the Holocaust should be enough evidence of the dangers of using propaganda against any religious group. All sorts of "proofs" were produced by the Nazis to dehumanize, villify and murder Jews. Following the Nazi propaganda film "Triumph of the Will" there came the announcements concerning the status of Jews in Germany. These new rules became known as the Nuremberg Laws and for the Jews of Europe would one day be a matter of life and death.

The film "Third Jihad" is a classic piece of propaganda. Following the release of “The Third Jihad”, the producers were forced to remove demonstrably false information. It resorts to innuendo, minimalism, sensationalism, and conjecture. Agenda driven films for political benefit such as this, do little to defuse confusion about Muslims.

Its producers The Clarion Fund is associated with the pro-Israeli
Aish Hatorah and Likud party. They state their mission is "to educate Americans about issues of national security," with its main focus on what it calls "the most urgent threat of radical Islam." This gets the support of right wing Christians in the US, who in turn supports Israel. They also clearly took sides in favor of Republican McCain in the last election. Very convenient political reciprocity.

Copies of the DVD for a similar film "Obsession" appeared in swing-state newspapers and mailings during the last months of the 2008 election season, observers charged that Clarion and the Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET), which aided the distribution effort, were running a stealth campaign on behalf of McCain. In other words, American voters were targeted by a multi-million dollar campaign funded and directed by a foreign group hoping to create anti-Muslim hysteria as a way to influence the 2008 presidential election in favor of the Republicans. Manipulation and interference with our election process.

I don't subscribe to any religion however I can't condone the dehumanizing of any group. History proves this is a dangerous course of action and easily swallowed by the gullible.

The above was written for the benefit of "Sherri" who has obviously had a good gulp of liquid gullible. The inability to discern what is or is not a religious practice vs. culture is pronounced. Female genital mutilation (a disgusting act) is also practiced by Christians in Africa.

@Rose
very well stated.
Propaganda is polarizing this society the very fabric of which is woven with discernible, vibrant hues of cultures, religions & languages. This is the tapestry the rest of the world admires in awe.
Americans are by & large good hearted, generous & courageous folks. We have seen fellow Americans doing amazing work for humanity, standing up to aggression & even laying their lives for the cause of peace without a thought for color or creed. But this propaganda machine comprising of lobbies, foreign govt agents & the media controlled by them is misleading gullible Americans.
You listen to Jewish voice for Peace an American organization & you are at once struck by their determination, courage of their conviction & honesty. The same with jaystreet.com another Jewish organization struggling to fight the propagandists. Amazing people these Jewish folks.
Alas most Americans aren't even aware of them.
The likes of McCains, Liebermans & many others in Washington for who America's interest is secondary to their own or some other country's, thrive on this propaganda

Hi larry,

Our Gen.Jones had to apologize to an Israeli audience for telling a Jewish joke because of Israeli upraor. So much for freedom of speech.
And fellow bloggers were up in arms when South park episode was censored.
Are we a nation of bigots or what?

Just wanted to say Hi to all the guys here and thank Dodie for making me aware of this blog.

What a refreshing discourse ! I look forward to reading and participating further offering a UK perspective.

Have a Great Day to all 🙂

@Tony Wrightley, FunkURadio

Welcome to LKL. It would be very enjoyable to read your perspective on these issues.