South Park Creators Need Protection—and Solidarity

Dismissing those who threatened South Park's creators as mere cranks or fringe extremists is a potentially deadly mistake, warns a Dutch politician who received death threats herself after criticizing Islam. The warning from a radical website may not have broken the law, but it still amounts to an "informal fatwa" that like-minded extremists may feel compelled to act upon, Ayaan Hirsi Ali writes in the Wall Street Journal.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone need to be protected, Ali writes, and Hollywood should do its part to help by organizing a solidarity campaign. By showing as many images of Mohammed as possible, producers can spread the risk and "confront hypersensitive Muslims with more targets than they can possibly contend with," she writes, arguing that it's time to directly address the "tyrannical" rule that those who depict the prophet need to be punished. (More Mohammed stories.)