Secular Students Drawing Muhammad in Solidarity with Threatened South Park Creators

For Immediate Release
Contact: Jesse Galef (614) 441-9588 x1
jesse@secularstudents.org �“ www.secularstudents.org

May, 12 2010

Secular Student Alliance affiliates ignited controversy this month by drawing the Muslim prophet Muhammad to show solidarity with South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, who recently received death threats for their portrayals. Groups at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Wisconsin at Madison, and Northwestern University used chalk to draw hundreds of smiling stick figures labeled "Muhammad" around campus accompanied by messages in support of free speech without intimidation.

"The best response to intimidation is unity," said Jesse Galef, Communications Director for the Secular Student Alliance. "Threats of violence should never be used to stifle expression, and we stand together in denouncing them."

After Stone and Parker featured Muhammad in their 200th episode of South Park, an American Muslim group named Revolution Muslim warned the cartoonists that they would likely end up like Theo Van Gogh, a Dutch filmmaker who was murdered for producing a film critical of Islam. The group also posted images of the murder along with Stone and Parkers' home and office addresses.

Author Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who is an ex-Muslim and a former member of the Dutch Parliament, encouraged a "solidarity campaign" in a Wall Street Journal Op Ed. She suggested that people feature Muhammad in non-insulting ways to spread the risk of attack.

"The point of the matter is that we have allowed, as a culture, for intimidation and fear-mongering to compromise our freedom of expression," said Cassy Byrne, president of Northwestern University Secular Humanists for Inquiry & FreeThought (SHIFT). "When threats of violence are made and are taken seriously, the intimidated party renders the intimidating party more powerful."

Today, the Secular Student Alliance, the national nonprofit umbrella organization devoted to supporting groups for nonreligious students, sent out recommendations to their affiliates that wish to participate.

Among the recommendations, participants are encouraged to be respectful and reach out to Muslim groups on campus to make their intentions clear. All three participating groups posted statements of purpose on their websites and have been in direct contact with their respective Muslim Student Associations to explain the context of the message.

Despite the outreach, the chalking has elicited pushback. Drawings at all three schools have been deliberately erased or vandalized. At the University of Wisconsin at Madison, the Muslim Student Association denounced the event and mobilized its members to follow secular students and alter the drawings.

A grassroots campaign has formed to declare May 20th "Everybody Draw Muhammad Day." More secular student groups are expected to participate.

The Secular Student Alliance recommendations to their affiliates can be found on their website at http://www.secularstudents.org/DrawingTheProphet

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The Secular Student Alliance, based in Columbus OH, supports a network of over 200 campus groups for atheist, agnostic and humanist students. The Secular Student Alliance envisions a future in which nontheistic students are respected voices in public discourse and vital partners in the secular movement's charge against irrationality and dogma. www.secularstudents.org