Posted on 09/26/2006 11:03:35 PM PDT by MadIvan
Key quote Our ideas about openness, tolerance and freedom must be lived out on the offensive. Voluntary self-limitation gives those who fight against our values a confirmation in advance that we will not stand behind them - Klaus Wowereit, Berlin's mayor
Story in full ONE of Germany's leading opera houses has unleashed an angry debate over free speech by cancelling a production over security fears because a scene featured the severed heads of Buddha, Jesus and Mohammed.
The Deutsche Oper Berlin yesterday said it had decided "with great regret" to cancel a planned production of Mozart's Idomeneo after city security officials warned of an "incalculable risk" because of scenes dealing with Islam, as well as other religions.
Kirsten Harms, the director of the Deutsche Oper, said that the Berlin state police had warned of a possible - but not certain - threat and that she decided it would be in the best interest of the safety of the opera house, its employees and patrons to cancel the production.
After its premiere in 2003, the production by Hans Neuenfels drew widespread criticism over a scene in which King Idomeneo presents the severed heads not only of the Greek god of the sea, Poseidon, but also of Jesus, Buddha and Mohammed.
"We know the consequences of the conflict over the [Mohammed] caricatures," the opera house said in a statement. "We believe that needs to be taken very seriously and hope for your support."
While some said they understood the decision, a broad spectrum of politicians opposed it.
The leader of Germany's Islamic Council welcomed the decision, saying a depiction of Mohammed with a severed head "could certainly offend Muslims."
"Nevertheless, of course I think it is horrible that one has to be afraid," Ali Kizilkaya said. "That is not the right way to open dialogue."
Dieter Glietsch, head of the Berlin state police, said: "One can find nothing wrong if, in a climate that's already tense between Islam and the western world, people avoid heating up the situation further through a scene that can - and perhaps even must - be taken as provocative by pious Muslims."
Many others, including Germany's senior security official, Wolfgang Schäuble, the interior minister, condemned the decision, which came ahead of a conference on Islam planned for today. "That is crazy," Mr Schäuble told reporters in Washington DC, where he was holding meetings with American officials.
Berlin's mayor, Klaus Wowereit, said that "with all understanding for the concern about the security of spectators and performers, I consider the decision of the director to be wrong.
"Our ideas about openness, tolerance and freedom must be lived out on the offensive. Voluntary self-limitation gives those who fight against our values a confirmation in advance that we will not stand behind them."
Bernd Neumann, the federal government's senior cultural official, said that "problems cannot be solved by keeping silent". He added: "When the concern over possible protests leads to self-censorship, then the democratic culture of free speech becomes endangered."
The decision comes after the German-born Pope Benedict XVI infuriated Muslims by citing a 14th century Byzantine emperor as saying Muhammad brought "things only evil and inhuman".
Earlier this year, furious protests erupted after a Danish newspaper published 12 cartoons depicting Mohammed. The images were reprinted by dozens of newspapers and websites in Europe and elsewhere, often in the name of freedom of expression.
Islamic law is interpreted to forbid any depiction of Mohammed for fear it could lead to idolatry.
The leader of Germany's Turkish community said that while he could understand how the production could be seen as offensive, he also encouraged Muslims living in the West to accept certain elements of western traditions, noting that an opera production was not equivalent to a political point of view. "I would recommend Muslims learn to accept certain things," Kenan Kolat said. "Art must remain free."
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
Again; you had to post another thread about this, in less than 24 hours? LOL
I loved the quote from the Mayor. He hit the nail on the head.
On the other hand, the head of the Security Forces must be a lefty apologist.
Yeah, those Amish people might set off a quilt bomb in retaliaton. Or do a drive-by barn raising with one of their little horse buggies.
People in a free society cannot allow the dictators
of an oppressive culture to define freedom!
Anyone who believes the european people will sit and
watch their cultures to be ruined are mistaken.
Voltaire Censored-Again
by Ross Mullin
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."-Voltaire
The city of Geneva has once again proven Voltaire's subversiveness-by preventing performance of his play, "Mahomet, ou le Fanatisme."
Voltaire wasn't actually attacking Mohammed. His main targets, thinly disguised, were religious fanaticism in general, and Christian fanatics in particular.
When his play reached Paris on 9 August 1742, the right-wing Catholic Jansenists [plus catholique de la pape] well knew at whom the barbs flew, and complained to the authorities. The authorities quietly pressured Voltaire to close it down.
Fast-forward two-and-one-half centuries. When a plan to restage "Mahomet" in Switzerland was proposed, Muslim "cultural centers" overtly denounced "blasphemy" and covertly hinted at violence. Geneva's authorities yielded to the pressure, and religious fanatics were appeased once again.
Patronized by Geneva's modern rulers, Voltaire is disguised as a harmless dead philosopher, a relic of French-Swiss history. Censored by them, he is exposed as a libertarian radical.
"We disapprove of what you say," the censors tell him, "and we will suppress your right to say it, even long after your death."
Voltaire preached "natural religion." Rejecting the cruel, terrorizing, vindictive Jehovah portrayed by most Christian clergy in his time, he turned to the remote mild God of the British deists. And, in "Mahomet," he attacked fraudulent and persecuting priests.
Though he hated some clergy, he honored others. He sent a copy of "Mahomet" to Pope Benedict XIV, who replied by praising "your excellent tragedy... which I have read with great pleasure." Benedict's good words contrasted with those of clerics who saw it as a "bloody satire against the Christian religion."
Earlier, in 1740, Voltaire had read this play aloud to Frederick of Prussia. Then he explained it further in a letter to Frederick, a few months before his Paris defeat: "The love of mankind, and the hatred of fanaticism, two virtues that adorn your throne, guided my pen.... They who tell us... that the flames of religious war are totally extinguished, in my opinion, pay too high a compliment to human nature. The same poison still subsists, even though it does not appear so openly.... In vain does human reason advance towards perfection, by means of that philosophy which of late has made so great a progress in Europe.... Why must I blindly follow the blind who cry out to me: hate, persecute all who are rash enough not to be of the same opinion with ourselves, even in things and matters we do not understand? ... A spirit of indulgence would make us all brothers; a spirit of persecution can create nothing but monsters...."
I don't believe the people of europe are weak.
Their politicians certainly have caused a big
problem once again. It's called appeasement.
Let us send this quote to the editors and reporters of EVERY MSM News outlet who declined to publish the Mohammed Cartoons.
Hypocritical scum, they are.
Cheers!
Only in Post-Christian secular Europe would an 18th century Opera about the King of Crete be turned into an anti-religion polemic. There is no reference to Islam, Mohammed, Buddha or Jesus in the original Opera. It was all added on for this recent production. It seems to me these people have sown the seeds of their own destruction.
That being said, bowing to Islamic fascism by suppressing free speech is disgraceful and dangerous .
THE PLOT:
Idomeneo, the King of Crete, returning victorious from war with Troy, encounters a storm that threatens his fleet. In return for safe passage, he vows to Neptune to sacrifice to him the first person that he sees upon arriving ashore. When that person turns out to be his son, Idamante, Idomeneo sends Idamante away, hoping to avoid his pledge to Neptune.
Idamante and a Trojan prisoner, the princess Ilia, are in love. Idamante is also loved by Elettra, herself a princess in exile. Of course, breaking a vow to a god will have repercussions: Neptune sends a monster to ravish Crete. Idamante slays the monster and offers himself as the promised sacrifice to Neptune, as, indeed, does Ilia, but an oracle intervenes and everyone lives happily ever after.
What could these Germans have been thinking?
"Our friends in Germany appear to be awakening."
Only if they go on with the opera - if they don't terrorism and violence work... and the pope was wrong.
I'm outraged at the cancellation. Death to the Imams!!! Or at least publish some more cartoons.
Come and get me Muslims.
SFS
I'm going to produce a car antenna topper that looks like Mohammed's (bees pee upon him) head; a golf-ball-sized foam ball with a beard and a turban with that funky scribble on the front.
Once I have proof-of-concept, I'll debut photos here on FR for the enjoyment of all sane people who still have a sense of humor.
Yea right... "European people have short memory, they appeased Hitler not that long ago, now they welcome and appease Islamofacist, the cancer grows unchecked, the patient will become terminal soon.
European people are sitting on their lazy asses and wait until islamic sharia will be imposed on them.
Meanwhile european people whine and blame Bush for all evil in their small world.
This morning, my local classical station is playing Mozart's Idomeneo.
The book & art burnings & bans will soon begin, again. Will another Kristallnacht be far behind, with both Jews & ethnic Germans the targets this time?
I am surprised at the decision of the director of the Deutsche Oper. Theater people are usually rabid in their defense of free expression, especially in the arts. I'd say the Deutsche Oper needs a new director.
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