A welcome bit of anti-dhimmitude. I don't think this kind of staging is necessary or helpful, and certainly it is needlessly insulting of all three figures depicted. But part of living in a civilized society as a civilized person is addressing wrongs peacefully, without either violence or the threat of violence. This show was cancelled for fear of Muslims; no one worries about Christians or Buddhists rioting. All three should take up their complaints, should they have any, in a peaceful and lawful manner. An update to this story from DPA, with thanks to Fjordman:
BERLIN - The Berlin opera house which last week cancelled a production for fear of protests by Muslims announced Wednesday it was reinstating Idomeneo by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, but set no date.Media and German politicians have accused Deutsche Oper Berlin of practising "self-censorship" and kowtowing to violent radicals.
First staged in 2003, the production has a scene devised by director Hans Neuenfels and not in the original Mozart opera that shows the hero laughing at the severed heads of the Prophet Mohammed, Jesus Christ and the Buddha.
Opera house spokesman Alexander Busche said, "The earliest slot for the production is in December, but first we need an okay about security from the police." City police are expected to mount a strong guard at the theatre if there are any demonstrations outside.
Hopefully the fact that the media (I hope this means MSM by the way) means that Europe's elites are finally starting to wake up and take action.
That the media was involved in the drive for reinstatement of the play that is.
Ooops.
Maybe the Germans have looked into their souls and found the spine that was there historically. Great allies should stick together in this war! The rest of Europe will follow in due course.
A small victory, but a victory none the less for commonsense.
I hope the show is a sell out for decades. Germans defend your freedoms by visting this opera.
Well, I'd say this opera is somewhat tasteless by my standards but at least the Germans came to their senses and decided not to knuckle under to potential problems by a certain group that shall remain nameless (I'm aping the media now).
"shows the hero laughing at the severed heads of the Prophet Mohammed, Jesus Christ and the Buddha." from the article above.
WHAT???? No head of Poseidon? I guess the threats of radical Poseidonistas are still having their effect. There is no god but Zeus and Poseidon is his prophet!
While I don't favor censorship, I've seen the kitschy productions of this company. I would lose no sleep if the entire season would be cancelled. They are just bad.
chsw
American culture regularly and centrally -- lit up by shining Klieg lights -- pokes fun at Jesus, Moses and God Himself, on American television and in movies (as well as many other artistic media).
On Late Night with Conan O'Brien -- one of the most popular late night talk shows in the USA (Conan is slated in a couple of years to take over the late night seat that is the pinnacle of all American talk shows, the Tonight Show of the late Johnny Carson) -- Jesus, Moses, God Himself, and the Bible, and Jews too, have been lampooned and blasphemed a thousand times over the years. In one recent skit, the punchline was a mock promotional photo of Jesus Christ flanked by two sexy women in bikinis, with the title of a new show "Sex and the Savior" (a pun on "Sex and the City"). (This is not to mention the lampooning and blaspheming on two other immensely popular and successful American TV shows, The Simpsons and South Park, of Jesus, Moses, God Himself, the Bible, the Catholic Church, and evangelical Christians.)
Until Muslim society shows an equivalent amount of healthy insouciance about their own religious icons which American (and European) culture has shown about the religious icons of its own history & tradition, they and their PC defenders don't have a leg to stand on.
Good news they reinstated the Opera. Bad news the subject matter of the Opera is tasteless. As a tolerant person I am prepared to tolerate art that may offend me because I recognise others' right to view and experience things which I would not choose for myself.
As much as the mockery of the religions bothers me, I am glad that they re-instated the opera. I'll put up with offense, and without looting, burning, or pillaging, if it means supporting free-speech and the right to open discussion without the violence.
Peace.
Hmmm...a German opera house cancels the show because it faces the threat of violence.
Do you think Pope Benny 16 (a German) made a call encouraging them to reconsider???
I am appalled that Mohammad would even be considered to be in the same company as Jesus, Buddha, and Poseidon. Just because he founded a religion, doesn't mean he deserves any fame. With arabs, anybody could have come along and founded a religion. I could have come there in 600 AD, farted conspicuously, started chopping heads in honor of the God of intestinal gas, Smellah, and the arabs would, today, be breaking wind all over the world in honor of my legacy.
The arabs, an undisciplined nomadic race of sheep farmers, were just waiting for a strongman to come along and tell them how to live. The first guy on the scene with a sword to read them the riot act got the job. And that is exactly what happened.
You don't need to be a prophet to do that. You don't need to have any redeeming social characteristics. You don't need to be an instructor of humanity. And you certainly don't need to walk on water. You just need to have a strong personality and an iron fist. History is full of guys like that. Unfortunately, the arabs made this guy's rantings into a religion, because, unlike the Christians and the Jews, or even the Pagan, they didn't have a religion of their own already being the primitive nomads they were. So islam was born into a vacuum. By accident. From a fart of a mental patient - long before there were sanitoriums to keep such farts quarantined from the general population.
Any man can do this. Create a religion, that is. It is harder today because there are few primitives left unspoken for. The world has shrunk. But, if you were so inclined, you could go into the Amazon rain forest, find yourself a tribe of primitives, those who worship the sun and the sky, beat them over the head, flash them a fancy watch, and tell them, that there is a new sheriff in town and if any of them want to live forever, all they have to do is follow your lead. Those that oppose you, you kill. Use carrot and stick. Threaten death to the living, hell to the unbeliever, but promise riches, albeit afterlife riches, to those that bow to you. And presto, you have a religion, and you are the prophet.
'There is no god but Smellah, and Larry is his messenger.' You're Larry.
Codify your predilections into a book, and give them that as a bible. That ensures that their children will follow. They will not grow up to be heathens worshipping the sun and the sky. They will worship Smellah, which means, intrinsically, that they will do exactly as you would have them do:
Eat beans and only beans.
Always pass wind in public, but never in mixed sexes.
Always sleep on your stomach to allow the devil to escape from your rear while asleep.
All foods that don't produce gas are stricly haram.
Inhale the smell of gas with your left nostril and exhale with your right.
If anyone should not pass gas for three days, they have conserved the devil, and are to be killed.
The more primitive and backward the people, the easier it is to do this and make funny, even obscene dictates that become a manifesto which somebody can put all into writing. What fun that would be. Crickey!
However, should this simple exercise, if fruitful, then mean that I be included with Jesus, Buddha and the sea god Poseidon in a Mozart opera? I think not. Mozart was a childish boor, but even he had standards.
What needs to be protested here is that a criminal is getting a place at the table of fame and honor that he does not deserve, just as we should protest the heads of Al Capone or John Gotti being in such company. I mean we can't make a prophet out of everyone who farts.
A video clip of the heads-on-chairs scene looked really stupid. The cynic in me suspects that the play wasn’t doing well and that the whole ‘intimidation’ play had more in common with T.O.’s antics than it did with a credible threat.
In any case, they’ve now got both a business model and a credible threat.
I could have come there in 600 AD, farted conspicuously, started chopping heads in honor of the God of intestinal gas, Smellah, and the arabs would, today, be breaking wind all over the world in honor of my legacy.
But they **DO**..
Every take a cab in New York City???!! These Mofos REEK!! Each time I get in one of their rides I have to OPEN all the windows.. winter is nigh! In winter I take car services which are more expensive but run by courteous Latin gentlemen.
Germaninamerica, I realize that you are likely a sock puppet trying to whip up some embarrassing evidence of racial prejudice, but I feel I must respond to you pathetic rant. At JihadWatch we are not concerned about the race or personal hygiene of individuals. Rather, we are concerned about Sharia, Jihad and Dhimmitude as they are practiced in Islam today and in the past. Islam is not a race neither is Sharia or Jihad. In Islamic law, anyone who is not a muslim is liable to be subjected to dhimmitude regardless of race. This is the reality of islam and it has nothing to do with race. In fact, muslims come from every ethnic group on earth and can be found in almost every country in the world. Therefore, you will never be able to tell if someone is about to engage in Jihad by the color of his skin, his dress, or his personal hygiene.
Recent and past history of the jihad should show you how serious this situation is but instead of working with us race bating leftists like your self are trying to exploit the situation for short-term political gains. Your gains, should you get them, will be short term indeed: just look at France, Belgium, Britain and the Netherlands if you don’t believe me. IF you really are concerned about minority, human, womans, and gay rights; IF you really are concerned about freedom of speech and democracy; and IF you really are concerned about a REAL theocratic or fascist take over of the US, then you will help us to defeat the jihad ideology. If you cannot accept these realities then leave this site, and annoy us no further. We will help to save the Western Civilization that is the cradle of all you supposedly hold dear.
PS I would also like to remind you that the majority of Arabs in the US are in fact Christian not muslim.