Molly Norris – Draw Mohammed Cartoonist Goes Into Hiding

A cartoonist for Seattle Weekly in Washington state is in hiding after she received death threats for mocking the Prophet Mohammed five months ago, the newspaper reported. The alternative weeklys editor in chief reported this week that artist Molly Norris is going ghost on the advice of FBI security specialists. She will be moving and changing her name, Mark Fefer wrote.

You may have noticed that Molly Norris comic is not in the paper this week. Thats because there is no more Molly, he said. She is, in effect, being put into a witness-protection program  except, as she  notes, without the government picking up the tab.

Norris hasty exodus stems from an April controversy in which the creators of South Park saw their 201^st episode censored over its inclusion of Mohammed as a character. Creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker received death threats because their 200^th episode featured the Muslim prophet in a bear suit.

Norris dedicated her cartoon that week to Stone and Parker and attacked bloggers at Revolution Muslim, who she said made threats against the South Park masterminds. Couching the cartoon as a First Amendment protest, she accused the Comedy Central network of cooperating with terrorists for pulling the original episode.

This is what started the flap, as you remember.