Security Stepped Up at Comedy Central Following Threats Against 'South Park'

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Security Stepped Up at Comedy Central Following Threats Against 'South Park'
Mark Hosenball


The New York Police Department has stepped up security at the headquarters of the Comedy Central cable channel after an Islamic extremist Web site posted apparent threats to the creators of South Park, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, for making fun of the Prophet Muhammad. Paul Browne, NYPD deputy commissioner and chief spokesman, says that his department for some time has been aware of the small group, which appears to organize around a now-unreachable Web site called RevolutionMuslim.com, at least one of whose purported leaders posted threats against South Park after the scatological cartoon series made fun of Muhammad, Jesus, and the icons of several other major religions, as well as numerous prominent Hollywood celebrities, in a two-part story celebrating the program's 200th episode. "We were aware of the threat before it surfaced and took precautions to safeguard the offices of Comedy Central," Browne says. He declined to discuss the security measures in further detail or to disclose how NYPD managed to get advance warning that the cartoon and its producers were going to be threatened.

A law-enforcement official who asked to remain unnamed due to the sensitivity of the information and private experts who monitor extremist Islamic Web sites say that from what they can tell, the people behind RevolutionMuslim.com, who at one point last year apparently succeeded in organizing a pro–bin Laden demonstration outside a Queens, N.Y., mosque known for propagating a moderate form of Islam, espouse a particularly virulent extremist Islamic message that includes support for bin Laden and the 9/11 attacks. But the experts say that there is no evidence that the Web site or its supporters have ever engaged in actual violence or have access to any weapons. "It's all talk," the law-enforcement official says.

Nevertheless, law-enforcement agencies are concerned that the implied threats that the Web site posted condemning the latest South Park lampoon of Muhammad "might inspire someone else," says the official. According to Reuters, after the first part of the two-part South Park anniversary episode aired 10 days ago, depicting Muhammad in a bear costume, RevolutionMuslim.com warned Parker and Stone that they could be murdered: "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." Along with this warning threat, the Web site posted a photo of Van Gogh, a Dutch filmmaker who was killed by an Islamic militant in 2004 for producing a short film that criticizes Islam for demeaning women. The Web site also reportedly posted a link to a news report that gave details of a mansion in Colorado that Parker and Stone reportedly own, implying, according to Reuters, that RevolutionMuslim.com posters "know where to find" the South Park creators. (The Web site is no longer accessible in the wake of the broadcast of the latest, heavily censored South Park episode featuring Muhammad that was aired Wednesday night.)

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http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/declassified/archive/2010/04/23/security-stepped-up-at-comedy-central-following-threats-against-south-park.aspx