The episode was largely inspired by the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy,[REF] in which twelve editorial cartoons, most of which depicted the Islamic prophet Muhammad, were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, leading to protests around the world in early 2006, including violent demonstrations and riots in some Muslim countries.
The network was "bummed" when they learned of their intentions, but nonetheless, as South Park as a franchise made the network exorbitant amounts of money, they could not tell them no [REF].