Lighten Up

On this Good Friday people reenacted the crucifixion of Christ by having themselves nailed to cross in the Philippines; Iran referred to Israel as a “Zionist threat;” a bomb went off in a Muslim temple in New Delhi and one worshipper was killed and two were wounded in knife attacks at two Greek Orthodox churches in Egypt.

It seems that people are missing the point. I’m not particularly religious but I’m fairly certain it’s not kill others as you would have them kill you.

Which, of course, leads me to South Park. On Wednesday Comedy Central censored the equal opportunity offenders during an episode about the fall out over cartoons of Muhammad that first appeared in a Danish newspaper. Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone wrote an allegory involving Family Guy and the Fox network that is explained in much better detail here.

By the time it came time to show Muhammad, the screen went black with the message: "Comedy Central has refused to broadcast an image of Muhammad on their network.” Even though they already did in a previous episode almost five years ago. So even a satiric cartoon like South Park is not immune to the fear of religious extremism. One of their characters sums it up best:

“Freedom of speech is at stake here, don't you all see? If anything, we should all make cartoons of Muhammad and show the terrorists and the extremists that we are all united in the belief that every person has a right to say what they want.”

I think everyone in the world could follow South Park’s example, laugh a little and not take themselves so seriously.