Jon Stewart on Thursday night said he believes Comedy Central altered a controversial episode of "South Park" that featured the Prophet Muhammad out of security concerns for the show's creators.
A new episode of the animated show aired Wednesday with audio bleeps added by the network after the program's depiction of Muhammad in a bear suit in last week's episode triggered a warning from an extremist group.
"Comedy Central decided to censor the episode," Stewart said in a 10-minute segment that opened "The Daily Show." "It's their right. We all serve at their pleasure. I have more than once been called out of my house on a Sunday to dance for the head of programming at his winter chalet."
Stewart added that "the censorship was a decision Comedy Central made, I think, as a way to protect our employees from what they believe was any possible harmful repercussions to them."
He went on to denounce Revolution Muslim, the group that posted the threat on its Web site, saying "your type of hatred and intolerance — that's the enemy."
Last week, a blogger on www.revolutionmuslim.com warned that "South Park" co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone would end up like Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, who was slain for making a film critical of Islamic society.
The duo went ahead with another episode that featured Muhammad but covered the character with a graphic that said "censored." On a statement on their Web site, they said the network further altered the show with audio bleeps after they turned it in.
Comedy Central has declined to comment, but a spokesman said that for now the episode is not available online. It remains unclear whether it eventually will be.
