[Rutles4Ever]

Oh well. I suppose the brow-beating of Western culture shouldn't stop at political cartoons. Not even Mozart is safe.

Good night, Europe.

[mylife]

In the staging, which sparked audience protests during its premiere in December 2003, King Idomeneo presents the lopped-off heads of Poseidon, Jesus, Buddha and the Prophet Mohammed and displays them on four chairs.

Funny, I dont see that in the libretto

[good old days]

Why don't they just do the opera as written and not add the director's scene which is causing the problem in the first place? Makes absolutely no sense to me.

[Bokababe]

Here's another story on this same event http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060926/ap_on_en_mu/germany_opera_islam_18

Bernd Neumann, the federal government's top cultural official, said that "problems cannot be solved by keeping silent."

"When the concern over possible protests leads to self-censorship, then the democratic culture of free speech becomes endangered."

At least someone there has had a lightbulb moment!

[Stultis]

[*VERY LONG STRING OF MOST INDECOROUS EXPLETIVES DECOROUSLY DELETED*] When will the media, the liberal intelligentsia and liberal governments stop treating the dictates of extremist/wahhabist Islam as normative?!

There is NO universally recognized prohibition in Islam against depicting Mohammad. This, as an outright prohibition, is a dictate of extremist/wahhabist Islam.

I've got a (piously positive) biography of Mohammad by a Turkish Sunni/Sufist Muslim that reproduces DOZENS AND DOZENS of paintings of Mohammad. Granted many obscure his face, sometimes in a veil of holy flame, but many others do NOT, instead depicting the face clearly and distinctly.

This practice of Westerners mainstreaming extremist Islam is killing us. What's more it's probably the most effective way you could possibly think of to discourage anti-Islamist Muslims from publicly challenging the extremists. If their liberal, Western governments so readily submit, why should they think they will be supported and protected?