That sound you’re not hearing is the media, holed up in their towers along Sixth Avenue and across the street from the old Show World Center porn palace on Eighth Avenue, noisily rising to the defense of Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the South Park creators who recently upset the tender Muslim sensibilities of this guy:
That would be Zachary Chesser, or as he currently styles himself, Abu Talhah Al-Amrikee. This 20-year-old from Fairfax, Va., trolling away on his blog, was able to get Comedy Central to censor one of the most popular and lucrative shows in its lineup merely by suggesting that Stone and Parker might meet the same fate that befell Theo Van Gogh when he “outraged” Muslim sensibilities.
Most of the stories so far have been along the lines of this one from the Los Angeles Times, which examines the “dilemma” media companies face in dealing with controversial subject matter:
The network may have thought it had no choice after revolutionmuslim.com, the website of a fringe group, delivered a grim warning about last week’s episode, which depicted Muhammad dressed as a bear.
“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,” the posting said. A photo of Van Gogh’s body lying in the street was included with the original posting, which has been unavailable to some Web users since news of the item broke earlier this week. “This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them.”
Experts say that in trying to forestall such threats, media companies may be setting dangerous precedents — a possibility underscored by the fact that “South Park” has strirred up a free-speech issue that, while dormant for years, has now exploded anew…
The ADL has identified Abu Talhah Al-Amrikee, the blogger who posted the warning about “South Park,” as Zachary A. Chesser, a former student at George Mason University who lives in Virginia and has become more active with Revolution Muslim in the last several months.
On April 15, he wrote on one of his Twitter accounts: “May Allah kill Matt Stone and Trey Parker and burn them in Hell for all eternity. They insult our prophets Muhammad, Jesus, and Moses.”
That’s right: an American-born Muslim convert with ties to a small extremist group operating openly in the United States of America can affect the programming policy of a cable comedy network whose headliners — Stone and Parker, and Jon Stewart — pride themselves on their fearless irreverence. To his credit, Stewart came out swinging, ending his monologue with a mock-gospel chorus of “Go F’*ck Yourself.”
But, aside from this column in the Washington Examiner by Diana West, where’s the outrage?
No other American “name” I can think of, no one tops in pop culture, has spoken out against (or even mentioned) the Islamic threat to Western freedom of expression as exemplified by the Sharia dictates against “Motooning.” Certainly no one has produced creative content about it.
Rather, such dictates have been religiously followed — no pun whatsoever intended — just as though our society were itself officially Islamic. This makes “South Park’s” message the closest thing yet to a mainstream declaration of independence from Sharia. For rejecting both the threat of violence and the emotional blackmail emanating from Islam over critiquing Islam’s prophet, the two “South Park” creators deserve a medal.
From the rest of the bigdomes, it’s pretty much been silence so far. Surely, tomorrow’s editorial and Op-Ed pages will be ringing with calls in support of free expression, of standing up to punk bullies like Zach Chesser, of asserting our rights as Americans and the inheritors of the Western Enlightenment, and of supporting sense over culturally alien “sensibilities.”
Won’t they?