Ghost of a flea

A message from Anonymous

Neither South Park's creators (Trey Parker and Matt Stone) taking a poke at Muslim sensitivities (there are a few, if we're honest) nor the subsequent (one hardly need say consequent) thinly veiled death threats against them struck me as particularly newsworthy. It is delightful, of course, to have the problem recognized, if only in part, by a stand by of our popular culture and, of course, to see two artists demonstrate more bravery than the entirety of the political class of the West. But in a sense the spectacle was just more pantomime of position. It is not as if jihadis or their apologists were going to recognize the intellectual incoherence and absurdity of their demands let alone accept moral responsibility for their violence.

In another, yet more cynical sense, Comedy Central's censorship of the episode in response to robust Muslim objections was just as predictable, just as staged. Islam suffers yet another fit of pique and South Park's ratings get a boost. Short of (yet another) beheading in defense of the religion of peace, this would be the end of it so far as the press was concerned.

Even so, I figured there would be an audience reaction to the speed with which Comedy Central appeared to betray and abandon its product and its principles.

It only took a day. Using the strange, grunting argot characteristic of youth, Anonymous - previously tilting at the windmill of a badly written '50s sf novel masquerading as a religion - have belatedly noticed there is a problem with Islam. Even the young are capable of recognizing the difference between the reaction of "some" Muslims to ridicule and the relatively anodyne reactions of pretty much everyone else when South Park has lampooned their sacred cows.

Ezra Levant has argued the craven reaction to Muslim outrageous outrage over the Mohammed cartoons represented a greater defeat for civilization than the massacres of 9/11. He is right. If Buddha can snort coke in front of Jesus on South Park, Mohammed can survive the indignity of a bear suit. And if Comedy Central chooses to censor an episode everyone has already illegally downloaded, it is not only the double standards of Muslims on display but the corruption and cowardice of the West's institutions.

Hence, the following.

With Operation Islamichan, Anonymous declares war on a religion lacking a sense of humour.

This seems like minor stuff next to budgets and battleships. But where the West is unmatched in arms it is short on a sense of its values let alone the values for which it would be prepared to fight and die.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone have repeated Pope Benedict's rhetorical finesse in sending a message to Islam in the knowledge Muslim reaction would serve to underline the message's message. But while we have yet to see Benedict's turn of phrase lead to action (Crusade, please), Parker and Stone have triggered a sense of purpose and political feeling in a generation otherwise unmatched in its apathy.

What the West needs is spine. If you are a young man a long way from the front lines of Kandahar or York University, it seems to me that harrying the Enemy's on line communications is a productive - and admirable - use of your time.

Related: Blazing Cat Fur has yet another video response from the culture. It is reliably blunt.

Also: Upping the ante in Sweden, an anti-Islam party shows Mohammed naked. It is considerably more inflammatory than it sounds (hat tip to Rochelle).

Update: It begins. Revolution Muslim has been hacked and now features the famous bomb turban Mohammed cartoon (hat tip to Sanwin in Blazing Cat Fur's comments).

Posted by Ghost of a flea at April 23, 2010 10:18 AM

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