The Daily Mail:
During his Monty Python days he poked fun at everyone from the Establishment to Christianity.
But thanks to the threat of ‘heavily armed’ fanatics, Michael Palin has admitted there is one comedy taboo he is too scared to break- Islam.
The 70-year-old said religious sensitivities have increased so much since his comedy days it would now be impossible to make 1979 film Life of Brian – which satirised the life of Jesus – let alone laugh at Muslims.
He said: ‘Religion is more difficult to talk about. I don’t think we could do Life of Brian any more. A parody of Islam would be even harder.
‘We all saw what happened to Salman Rushdie and none of us want to get into all that. It’s a pity but that’s the way it is. There are people out there without a sense of humour and they’re heavily armed.’
In 1989, Mr Rushdie was forced into hiding after the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa calling for him to be killed in revenge for his novel The Satanic Verses.
Ahead of a series of live reunion shows in July, Mr Palin admitted much of his Monty Python material would now seem dated to modern audiences.
But he denied the comedy troupe – which also included John Cleese, Terry Jones, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam and the late Graham Chapman – deliberately targeted people with its comedy.
He said: ‘There’s probably a lot of political incorrectness in Python but we can’t rewrite it. I suppose attitudes have changed – a lot of British comedy at that time was ladies’ clothes falling off but in a rather sweet farcical way. Now what you can watch on television is incredibly explicit about sex.
‘When we were writing you couldn’t even talk about homosexuality at all.
‘Python has always been about dealing with things you’re not meant to deal with. It’s like being at school – as soon as the teacher said ‘it’s not funny’ you started laughing.’
He added: We didn’t target people and say “We’re going to have a go at this or that”. We were just writing what would make the six of us laugh.”
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The Python guys should take a cue from one of their own bits…. when trying to find derogatory names for nationalities, a character said “he couldn’t find anything more derogatory than ‘Belgian'”. Well, I can’t think of anything more of a parody than islam. 😉
Few remember what ”the crime” was about that book.
It highlighted where Mohammad, in the Koran, admitted being fooled by a false or evil spirit creature.
It lied to him and he wrote down what it told him, he said.
So, the Koran is a combo of Mohammad;s own words and his orders from spirit creatures about how people ought to comport themselves. Trouble is, which verses were the lies and which from ”god?”
None of his sayings align with the ”fruits of God’s Spirit” as defined in older Scripture, Galatians 5.:22. 23.
So, is it ALL from the Deceiver?
Salmon Rushdie was marked for death for sharing verses every Muslim MUST memorize.
His crime was telling the Infidels about the Koran’s dirty little secret.
Over the Duck Dynasty issue, we went back and forth about whether it is censorship if a person keeps quiet out of fear of being treated like Phil Robertson.
Does your freedom to choose who you a associate with take a back seat to you being forced to work for people you disagree with?
What if you bake cakes and breads for a living?
What if you’re a photographer?
What if you run a private school and are looking to hire a teacher?
Comedians are like the canaries in the mine.