As happens from time to time, Jon Stewart last night mixed solemnity
with humor, responding to Comedy Central's decision to censor a South
Park episode which pretended to depict the prophet Mohammed in a bear
suit (apparently, it was actually Santa Claus beneath the fur).
Stewart
dismissed the network's censorship mostly as an attempt to protect its
employees, who had received veiled death threats regarding the episode. The
authors of the threats, a radical Muslim group in New York, were
the real targets on The Daily Show, as Stewart joined
those already speaking out against the group. After playing clip after clip of
Comedy Central shows mocking other religions and asking Daily Show
correspondent and Muslim Aasif Mandvi how he personally felt about the
mock depiction, Stewart gave the extremists his
new favorite treatment: mockery by gospel choir.
He does point out, along the way, that while he delivered the same
message to his adversaries at Fox News, the two groups aren't even
close to being in the same category. His Fox News counterparts are
adversaries; people threatening violence in the name of politics and
religion are "enemies."
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