in their episode, Super Best Friends? This is the episode where Muhammed was shown with the power of fire and fought along side Buddah, Moses and Jesus against David Blaine.
I found it odd that, during the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, I didn’t hear much controversy over that particular episode.
South Park controversies - Wikipedia (scroll down to “Islam”)
I’d guess there was no pre-existing controversy because muslims weren’t really watching South Park back in 2001. So if it wasn’t a problem then, why was it a problem later, after the scandal in Denmark? Well, given how much publicity that scandal got, the South Park episode might have made big news and caused further riots. At least, that’s what Comedy Central was probably thinking.
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I don’t think they are really aware of it. Virgin even managed to distribute DVDs of Bigger, Longer, Uncut - my guess is that censors assumed it was a children’s movie and only watched the first few minutes if they bothered to watch it at all.
Bear in mind that in the UAE that film with Jim Carrey and Morgan Freeman playing God, Bruce Almighty, was released in cinemas but censored to remove every single scene with Morgan Freeman. Because it is illegal to “depict God”. But loads of other stuff passes under the radar.
They still censor books when they can, but all of Philip Pullman’s work gets through, and even “banned books” - such as Robin Moore’s novel Dubai - turn up in second hand bookshops every so often.
Basically so long as nothing is brought to their attention by hordes of angry placard-waving people, they seem content to turn a blind/lazy eye.
I haven’t seen this movie, but I would love to hear how this came off. Isn’t the whole God thing pretty key to the movie?
I haven’t seen “Bruce Almighty” either but doesn’t Morgan Freeman play the Christian God in it? Why would Muslims object to the depiction of a god that they think is bullshit?
Allah IS the christian god, and the Jewish god; Arabs in particular believe themselves to be descendants of Abraham, and all Muslims consider themselves his spiritual descendant.
Remember that most Muslim countries do NOT have a free press. The general populace hasn’t seen SOUTH PARK, because the government-owned TV stations don’t show it. Out of sight, out of mind, and so there was no furor and no demonstrations and no riots.
The Danish cartoons were seized upon by the various Arab governments as a cause, a chance to rouse up the populace against the foreign devils.
I was in Bahrain at the time of the Danish cartoons, watching the way that a fairly benign Arab government played with it for their own political ends. They played it down, and there were no riots in Bahrain, but there was plenty of talk about how horrible the Danes/Europeans/Americans are.
They don’t think it’s bullshit.
They also added a couple of pictures which weren’t originally part of the cartoons in order to make it look worse, such as a person in a pig costume (pigs are considered unclean animals to Muslims).
I’ve seen trailers for a “Bruce Almighty” sequel, starring Freeman and Steve Carrell (Evan from “BA”), to be titled “Evan Almighty.” Freeman undoubtedly will be snipped from this one, as well.
Muslims worship the same Abrahamic God as Jews and Christians. They don’t think the Christian God is bullshit. They think the Christian God is Allah. They think Jesus was a great prophet whose message was distorted in the New Testament (Muslims even believe in the Virgin Birth), but they don’t think Christians worship a different God. Mohammed himself believed that the God who spoke to him was the God of Judaism and Christianity. Allah is Arabic for “God.” Arabic Christians call God “Allah.”