From blogland comes this...

First, The Catholics came for South Park and I did not speak out because my head was in the sand.
Then, the Scientologists came for South Park and did not speak out because my head was in the sand.
Then, the Muslims came for South Park and I did not speak out because my head was in the sand.
Then, when I pulled my head out of the sand and turned on Comedy Central to watch South Park and it was gone.

After watching last night's South Park, it was unclear whether or not the image of Mohammed was censored, or whether it was part of the gag. Well, it turns out that it was the network who censored the image. Malkin has a complete rundown complete with news links to other bloggers and how you can contact the network. The most ironic aspect of this is that Mohammed is depicted in their episode "Super Best Friends" which makes fun of David Blaine. In fact, the clip of Mohammed is part of the opening credits. Don't you just love the inconsistency of censorship.

Perhaps Cartman is right that this will spell the end of Family Guy South Park. He argued that once one "offended" group gets an episode censored, then each new group that gets offended will also demand their episode also gets pulled. First it was the Catholics, then it was the Scientologists, and now it is the Muslims. I don't see South Park having much of a future in these circumstances. In fact, we are seeing a twisted version of Pastor Martin Niemöller's, "First They Came for the Jews". (see above) However, in this version, the victim is free speech.

While I would certainly miss the show, I am more fearful at how successful extremists are becoming at squelching free speech. Granted, it's not technically "censorship" since it is not a government ban on speech. However, this private form of censorship is much more insidious and sadly is more effective.