Aasif Mandvi is a funny guy. He is also The Daily Show's "Senior Islamic Correspondent." So why would the show ask him not to talk about Muslim extremist threats after the Times Square bombing attempt?

Fox411—"Your First Call for Celebrity News, If Stephen Baldwin Counts as a Celebrity"—has a scoop! And their scoop is: Islam is ruining TV! No one is allowed to say the bad things about the Moslems anymore, due to "the supercharged climate."

What is the evidence? Aasif Mandvi was "asked... not to comment further" about the South Park Muhammad-in-a-bear-suit episode, according to his rep. If this is true, and based on fear of reprisal, it sucks. Mandvi is one of the strongest special correspondents they've got, and it hurts the show to pull him from a nice meaty topic like that. Worse, it's a capitulation—an admission that the threats have gotten to them. The Daily Show can't afford to wuss out in the face of a couple Triscuit-hating 'wads, and asking Mandvi to cease commenting on the issue looks like exactly that.

But... it's kind of unclear what happened. Was he asked to stop talking about all Islamic radicalism? Every terrorist threat? Or just the South Park episode? And why was he asked to stop? Specific, credible, threats? A fear for his safety? The safety of (well-insured) others? Update: Or, maybe, as some of you have pointed out, and I was stupid to leave out, because South Park is, like The Daily Show, a Comedy Central/Viacom property?

But why should specificity stop Fox411 from its own special brand of fear-mongering about censorship from the Islams? It's not like any other groups are guilty of the same thing.

[Fox411; pic via NYDN]