On the air for 13 years and counting, fans of the top rated, award-winning and endlessly edgy and satirical animated comedy South Park choose to tune in week after week because they never know who is going to be skewered next and exactly how it’s all going to play out.

The animation puppeteers who bring crude-mouthed 8 year olds Kyle Broflovski, Stan Marsh, Kenny McCormick and Eric Cartman to life are none other than Matt Stone and Trey Parker, who are – unsurprisingly – in the midst of their own personal censorship drama.

Did you happen to catch the recent episode in which several founding members of religious groups (such as Jesus, Buddha and Moses) were portrayed engaging in unsavory activities like snorting cocaine and watching pornography?

Well, the South Park creators intended to depict the Prophet Muhammad sporting a bear outfit, but Revolution Muslim’s leader Younus Abdullah Muhammad got wind of it and cautioned Stone and Parker “that what they are doing is stupid and they will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh (who was killed by an Islamic militant) for airing this show.”

Comedy Central deemed the threat to their prize money makers serious enough that they chose to bleep out any visual and audio reference made to Muhammad’s name and likeness.

Alrighty then…now that we’ve got that history squared away, in response, one Seattle based artist created a viral campaign offering support to South Park’s basic right to freedom of expression with her “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!” cartoon.

Scheduled for May 20, Molly Norris never expected that so many people would rally around her suggestion (and on the flip side, that so many others would give her a hard time due to lack of PC and religious sensitivity), so she’s instead asking the public to focus on Al Gore, instead.

Asking that participants channel their energy into something positive rather than creating drawings that could potentially be “hurtful to more liberal and moderate Muslims who have not done anything to endanger our first amendment rights,” Norris’ acknowledged fear might very well be justified.

Revolution Muslim was offended enough by Stone and Parker’s CARTOON to let them know that in addition to having the addresses of their production company and Comedy Central headquarters, they were issuing “not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them” if they didn’t ixnay the ohammad-may references stat.

Geesh. Sensitive much?

Via Washington Post