That didn't take long . . .

The response was swift and effective. The headline in The New York Times story:

‘South Park’ Episode Is Altered After Muslim Group’s Warning

 

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.

If this were a decision based on the principle of treating all religious traditions with equal respect, it would be less contemptible, despite the asymmetrical evidence that one religious tradition is currently lending legitimacy to violence in every corner of the world. But no one in his right mind imagines that this decision is based on any such principle. Very obviously it is based on intimidation. One religious tradition is being given protections that the others -- most notably the tradition that gave birth to religious tolerance and religious freedom in the first place -- are not.