Muslims threaten South Park creators over parody of Muhammad

Matt Stone and Trey Parker, creators of TV show South Park, have been threatened by Islamists they could face violent retribution for depicting the Prophet Muhammad in a bear suit.

“We have to warn Matt and Trey that what they are doing is stupid and they will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh for airing this show. This is not a threat, but a warning of reality of what will likely happen to them.”

The reference was to The Dutch film-maker who was shot and stabbed to death in 2004 by an Islamist angered by his film about Muslim women.

The suggestion that the message, accompanied by violent imagery, was not meant as a “threat,” was echoed by the author of Islamic group’s Web site post.

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.”