May 20 was designated as Everybody Draw Muhammad Day in response to Trey Parker and Matt Stone receiving death threats over the internet for having depicted the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the cartoon South Park. The episode had a man in a bear suit, who other characters on the show stated was Muhammad.

From Wikipedia :
"The South Park episode sparked statements from the extremist website Revolution Muslim, which posted a picture of the partially decapitated body of the Dutch filmmaker, Theo van Gogh, with a statement declaring that Parker and Stone could meet a similar fate ... Comedy Central self-censored the episode when it was broadcast by removing the word "Muhammad" and a speech about intimidation and fear from the South Park episode."

The original intent of the event was to show Islamic extremists that they couldn't suppress others' freedom of speech with threats of violence and to make it seem preposterous that they would kill anyone who depicts Muhammad by making the list of targets inconveniently long. In practice, it became a frenzy of racism and trolling that shamed the artists involved and drowned out the message of free speech.

In addition to the hadith's prohibition of creating images of sentient living beings (due to a belief that creating living beings is something only God is allowed to do), the depiction of the Prophet Muhammad ibn Abdullah is prohibited in Muslim countries in order to prevent people from worshiping him instead of Allah (AKA God).

Wikipedia Articles

• Everybody Draw Muhammad Day
• South Park
• Islam
• Muhammad
• Depictions of Muhammad

See Also

• Revolution Muslim website
• Video response on YouTube