Fear of Islamists Causes Opera Cancellation
September 28, 2006, 9:05 am |
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By Andrew L. Jaffee
Kirsten Harms, Berlin’s German Opera director, cancelled a performance of Mozart’s “Idomeneo,” beacause she was afraid of Muslim reaction — not Buddhist, Christian, nor Greek reaction (“a leading Berlin opera house decided not stage a production because of concerns it could provoke Islamic ire.”). Again, we see special dispensations granted to Muslims precisely because Islamist use of terrorism works. Islamist violence has achieved its goal for some in the West, instilling a paralytic fear, just as the Islamists want. Why the “Islamic ire” over an opera? From Deutsche Welle:
Many religions could find director Hans Neuenfels’ adaptation of Mozart’s “Idomeneo” blasphemous. Although the opera itself makes make no reference to Islam, Neuenfels introduced the closing scene that depicts the decapitated heads of the Prophet Mohammed, Jesus Christ, Buddha and the Greek god Poseidon.
Of course, Kirsten Harms is not worried about Buddhist, Christian, or Greek reaction. Luckily, we can take it for granted that these groups wouldn’t do anything violent. But if Islamists get the “ire,” then stop the presses. Thankfully, even many Germans, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, have warned against “self-censorship out of fear.” Again, Deutsche Welle:
German politicians meanwhile cautioned against taking self-censorship too far. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany had to be careful not to retreat further because of fear from violent radicals. Hans-Joachim Otto, head of the parliamentary committee for culture and media, said artistic freedom and freedom of expression needed to be guaranteed.
“Western achievements are at stake here,” Otto, a member of the free-market liberal FDP party FDP, told DW-RADIO.
Culture minister Bernd Neumann said Harms’ decision was wrong. The removal of “Idomeneo” undermined creative freedom, he said.
“If worries about possible protests lead to self-censorship, that threatens democratic culture,” Neumann said. “It requires tolerance and courage from us all: tolerance in the face of uncomfortable opinions and courage in the face of controversy. You cannot solve problems by being silent.”
In this context, Neumann also referred to this week’s moving of the controversial television film “Wut” or “Anger” from primetime to a late-night slot. The film about a violent youth of Turkish heritage in Berlin had been criticized in German media as portraying a negative picture of foreigners.
Kenan Kolat, who chairs an umbrella group of Turkish associations in Germany, criticized the cancellation. He said he could understand why some Muslims would be angered by the opera, but that they must accept creative liberty in a democratic society.
“It’s a pity they are scared of public discussion,” Kolat said, adding that art was not politics. “Art must be free.”
Granted, freedom of expression gives people the right to distribute, display, and post obscenity, insults, “blasphemy,” etc. The West’s citizens allow themselves to be exposed to all sorts of nonsense, but people should have the right to decide for themselves.
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Categories, Tags: Islam, Europe, Media/Blogsphere, Philosophy / Ideology
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September 28th, 2006 at 10:32 am
It seems that the cancellation will be revoked and this opera will be shown after all. What a clever publicity stunt the opera house made by first announcing the cancellation. Usually hardly anybody would be interested in that opera, but now it is the talk of the town.
I think I am in a very small minority in Germany who approved of the cancellation. That opera is an insult to other religions (since it shows the severed heads of Jesus and Buddha as well) and to Mozart, the composer, himself.
What benefit would we get if we had this opera? It seems the only reason to defend this stupid opera is to avoid giving the impression of appeasement to the Islamofascists. That’s not enough for me. I think this opera would only strengthen Islamofasicsm since it would help their propaganda. To win the war on terrorism, we need to have moderate Muslims on our side, so that they don’t support the terrorists, but give us information about them. And we want the moderate Muslims to win over their autocratic governments and fundamentalist groups in the Arab world. This opera, however, alienates the moderate Muslims and helps the fundamentalists.
Let’s not forget that theater plays critical of Christians and Israel also get canceled. Earlier this year:
“A New York theatre company has put off plans to stage a play about an American activist killed by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza because of the current “political climate” - a decision the play’s British director, Alan Rickman, denounced as “censorship”.”
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/theatre-gets-stagefright-over-play-on-israeli-death-of-activist/2006/02/28/1141095740986.html
I am not a fan of Rachel Corrie. Not at all. However, if one criticizes the canellation of the Mozart opera for fear of offending Muslimes, then one should also criticize the canceling of that play for fear of offending supporters of Israel..
Besides:
“On May 23, 1998, the New York Times announced that the Manhattan Theatre Club would be canceling its scheduled production of playwright Terrence McNally’s newest play, Corpus Christi, due to bomb and death threats made against the theatre, its personnel, and the playwright. The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights disavowed responsibility for the threats but did publicly applaud the decision, calling the play “blasphemous.”"
http://muse.jhu.edu/cgi-bin/access.cgi?uri=/journals/theatre_journal/v051/51.2pr_mcnally.html
When Corpus Christi was shown in Germany in 2000, there have been death threats and bomb threats as well:
http://www.cityinfonetz.de/tagblatt/thema/thema39/
Thus it could very well be that the threats against the “Idomeneo” opera are not only coming from Muslims, but from Christians, who don’t like to see the severed head of Jesus… Having said that: The concern about attacks from Muslims is bigger.
Greetings from Berlin,
My blog: The Atlantic Review, A press digest on transatlantic affairs edited by three German Fulbright Alumni
September 28th, 2006 at 10:50 am
I would’ve opposed the cancellation of any of the events you mentioned, on the grounds of free expression.
September 28th, 2006 at 2:30 pm
Josh:
In a way, I understand your argument, but don’t accept it. Suppressing free speech will not help with moderate or radical Muslims. Moderate Muslims in Germany have already condemned the opera’s cancellation. Radical Islam feeds on fear — that’s why we call their tactics “terrorism.” The play’s cancellation will only emphasize to them that Westerners are submitting to their twisted idealogy. The plays cancellation will embolden them. There is no way the radicals can be further radicalized, as they represent the absolute worst extreme on Earth as it is today.