Fear of offending Islam spurs hot debate in Europe
dgrm...@telus.net
Fear of offending Islam spurs hot debate in Europe
By Mark Trevelyan and Mike Collett-White
Reuters
Wednesday, September 27, 2006; 12:15 PM
LONDON (Reuters) - Four canceled performances of a Mozart opera have
reignited an anxious and heated debate in Europe over free speech,
self-censorship and Islam.
By canning its production of "Idomeneo," fearful of security threats
because of a scene that might offend Muslims, Berlin's Deutsche Oper
provoked front-page headlines across the continent and found itself
fending off charges of cowardice.
The controversy centered on a scene in which King Idomeneo is shown on
stage with the severed heads of Buddha, Jesus, Mohammad and the sea god
Poseidon.
"Here we go again. It's like deja vu...This is exactly the kind of
self-censorship I and my newspaper have been warning against," said
Flemming Rose, culture editor of Denmark's Jyllands-Posten paper, which
met a storm of Muslim protest after publishing satirical cartoons of
the Prophet Mohammad last year.
He said bowing to fears of a violent Muslim reaction would only worsen
the problem: "You play into the hands of the radicals. You are telling
them: your tactics are working. This is a victory for the radicals.
It's weakening the moderate Muslims who are our allies in this battle
of ideas."
The drawings, including one showing Mohammad with a bomb in his turban,
triggered violent demonstrations throughout the Muslim world but were
defended by the newspaper as an expression of free speech and a
challenge to religious taboos.
Berlin security officials had warned that staging the opera "Idomeneo"
would pose an "incalculable security risk."
GUNS AND BOMBS
The decision to cancel the production even before any protests had
materialized was singled out for criticism.
"To do it in advance of any actual protest I think invokes the next
protest, because the radicals in any community are aided and abetted by
that," said Lisa Appignanesi, a novelist and deputy president of the
writers' group PEN in England.
"We don't want to end up in a situation where we don't dare to speak
up. What we do not want is a society where one is constantly fearful
about what the people holding the bombs or the guns might say."
European countries, rocked by a series of events including Islamist
bombings in Madrid and London and widespread rioting in French
immigrant communities last year, are struggling to find better ways of
integrating their Muslim minorities.
The latest controversy follows a furor in the Muslim world over
comments by Pope Benedict this month in which he cited a medieval
emperor who associated Islam with violence. He has since distanced
himself from the quotations and assured Muslims of his respect,
although without directly apologizing.
Some analysts fear a climate is developing in which people are afraid
to speak out publicly. In a speech to the annual conference of
think-tank Oxford Analytica last week, its head, David Young, said
political correctness posed a threat to free expression for
journalists, politicians and academics alike.
Nirjay Mahindru, an Asian playwright who runs a theater company in
Britain, told Reuters: "British Asian writers are without a shadow of a
doubt not writing what they want to write about or what they feel is
reflective of what is out there. They are writing what is now expected
of them."
"This has been going on for at least two or three years and it's almost
like a coalition of fundamentalist forces, whether they are Christian
or Muslim or Hindu or whoever. I just wish more members of the artistic
community would be brave."
CLASH OF VALUES
The opera cancellation was just the last of a series of incidents in
recent years where religious sensitivities and artistic expression have
clashed.
In 2004, Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was murdered after outraging
Muslims with a film accusing Islam of promoting violence against women,
and a British play featuring sexual abuse and murder in a Sikh temple
was canceled after protests.
Last year London's Tate Britain museum removed a sculpture by John
Latham which it feared would offend Muslims and a British tour of
"Jerry Springer - The Opera" was temporarily canceled when conservative
Christian groups complained.
Such tensions are not new, although artists argue they have become more
common since September 11, 2001. In 1989 British author Salman Rushdie
was forced into hiding after Iran issued a fatwa calling for his death
after he wrote "The Satanic Verses."
"You can't be afraid of constantly watching your back in the arts,"
PEN's Appignanesi said. "One is in the business of provoking response.
Otherwise there is no art."