Joshua Alston's take on the whole affair:
What better way to solidify South Park's image as the ultimate counterculture cartoon than to give it an oppressive force to work against? When South Park debuted, there was nothing on the air like it. Now, thanks in part to the show's success, no-holds-barred satire has become the rule rather than the exception. It's not enough today to lob insults at barely fictionalized characters as in a roman à clef; the more-is-more satire of today demands the mauling of celebrities and even religious figures, specifically and by name. Now that South Park has raised the "outrageousness" bar, they have to top themselves again and again. Their willingness to show a depiction of Muhammad would be the apex of the show's chutzpah, but by censoring the images, Comedy Central gets to appear to be the socially responsible organization while allowing Parker and Stone to maintain their bad-boy imagean image that is burnished, not dulled, by the rap on the knuckles.
Michael C. Moynihan goes after Comedy Central:
[T]he issue here is not causing offense to those who believe the rest of us must abide by the rules of their religion, by not representing their "prophet" in cartoon form (demonstrating that the turban bomb was mere icing on the cake). The answer to this niggling problem is simple: screw 'em. No, the real problem is the pathetic, spineless cowards at Comedy Central, who mock one and all nightly on the Daily Show and Colbert Report, but submit to the outrageous demands of the violent and superstitious. Actually, being that this is a preemptive measure, could we not accuse Comedy Central of Islamophobia? Are they not fearful of Islam, despite receiving only one threat from a group of subliterate wackjobs in Queens?