Recently the cartoon ‘South Park’ on Comedy Central came under extreme pressure due to its portrayal of the prophet Muhammad dressed as a bear. The creators of the cartoon received death threats soon after the airing of the cartoon and Comedy Central bowed to the pressure and bleeped out every word or reference that might be considered offensive.

For some reason our society considers religion to be separate from everything else within our society. Free speech allows everyone within America and every other modern democracy to make fun of or (legitimately) attack politicians, corporations, fads, celebrities, or anything else. However, religion is special in that it is immune to the scrutiny that everything else within our entire society must face.

It is so entrenched within our culture that no one is willing to challenge it. And on the few occasions that someone tries, as in the case of the recent ‘South Park’ episode, then death threats end up forcing the show to cave.

The worst part is that people will often side with religion even when members of that religion make the death threats. For instance, in the 2005 Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoon controversy the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published several cartoons depicting Muhammad which set of a firestorm of hate speech and violence throughout Europe. These cartoons ended up being reprinted in newspapers in over 50 countries and the result was riots and the burning of Danish embassies in several countries.

When all was said and done, many officials apologized to Islam for the newspaper’s blasphemy. So essentially religious extremists who had just incited riots in several countries and burned down sovereign Danish embassies were apologized to because the newspaper had printed a handful of cartoons. Several groups even attempted to cite a section of the Danish criminal code that specifically shields religion from any ridicule or insults.

This of course goes completely against free speech and democracy. Everything needs to come under scrutiny and nothing is immune from the law. Allowing religion to exist above the law only gives it a sense of entitlement that eventually leads to the belief that death threats are an acceptable course of action to take against someone it disagrees with.

Of course, this is in no way limited to Islam, all religions are considered to be above basic social standards simply because they are religions. Christianity and Judaism are conspicuous examples, but any organization that manages to tack on the title of religion is automatically considered special and often above the law. Even when it is obvious to everyone that crimes are being committed by religious organizations or religious officials it is considered taboo to delve too deeply into the wrongdoing.

Until very recently the Catholic Church’s solution to priests who participated in the molestation of children was to transfer them very far from wherever the crime was committed. Everybody knew that molestation and violence towards children occurred, but no one did anything, or they were unable to make any headway. There are of course hundreds of other examples for hundreds of other religions, the list is simply too long.

Religion has used its status to gain power over what is supposed to be a free and equal society. Anyone who dares to insult a prophet is condemned for being offensive and blasphemous to believers. If I were to openly and publicly insult someone like President Obama and dress him up in a bear suit in a cartoon, absolutely nothing would happen. But if I dress up Muhammad in a bear suit, then I receive death threats and censorship. This is no different for any other religious figure, and to have an entire aspect of our culture that is above ridicule and scrutiny goes against the very democracy that we all treasure.

Because of the simple fact that religion has been with us for millennia it is considered above the law or somehow special within our society. In reality, religions are simply organizations that should not be treated any differently from any other group. Nothing is above the law, and if we let religion have a pass then we are surrendering all of the rights that we hold so dear.