17 Pulitzer Prize Winners Condemn Threat to 'South Park' Creators

By: E&P Staff Following threats against the creators of Comedy Central's "South Park" television show, 17 Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonists joined in condemning the producers of RevolutionMuslim.com, where pictures of murdered film maker Theo van Gogh are captioned "Have Matt Stone and Trey Parker Forgotten This?"

A few months after the 2004 airing of his film about some Muslim societies' treatment of women, van Gogh was stabbed to death by a Dutch-Morrocan who threatened, among others, the film's female Muslim writer.

In a brief letter, the cartoonists issued a public condemnation of the threats "by the extremist organization, Muslim Revolution." Their letter continues: "Freedom of expression is a universal right and we reject any group that seeks to silence people by violence or intimidation. In the United States we have a proud tradition of political satire and believe in the right to speak or draw freely without censorship."

Signing the letter were Nick Anderson, Tony Auth, Clay Bennett, Steve Benson, Matt Davies, Fiore, Jack Higgins, David Horsey, Jim Morin, Mike Peters, Joel Pett, Michael Ramirez, Ben Sargent, Paul Szep, Ann Telnaes, Trudeau and Signe Wilkinson.

Washington Post Writers Group columnist Kathleen Parker attributed the online threat to an "Abu Talhah Al-Amrikee (a.k.a. Zachary Chesser of Virginia)."

Reporting the cartoonists' letter, Washington Post writer Michael Cavna writes today that Comedy Central censored a South Park episode last week that would have shown Mohammed, and that Stone and Parker said the network also censored that show's speech concerning intimidation.