09-28-2006, 08:04 AM
<!--emo&:argue--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/argue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='argue.gif' /><!--endemo--> Merkel wades into opera vs Muslims row
Rashmee Roshan Lall
[ 27 Sep, 2006 2040hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
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Culture minister Bernd Neumann said "If fears about possible protests result in self-censorship, then the democratic principles of free speech are in danger."
Germany's interior minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, added while on a visit to Washington that the cancellation was "crazy, unacceptable".
In a bleak comment reflective of the increasingly polarized tone of debate, Kay Kuntze, director of the Berlin Chamber Opera, said: "If we give up the central point of our culture -- the freedom of art -- we end up giving up our entire culture."
Merkel's comments and those of other leading German politicians, set off a simmering row over freedom of speech in a Europe that uneasily tolerates its 15 million-strong Muslim population. German commentators admitted that Merkel's comments also overshadowed her government's unprecedented attempt to build bridges with Germany's 3.2-million strong Muslim minority on the very day it opened a conference to promote dialogue with them.
The new threatened storm clouds over Europe's increasingly fragmented view of its enforced multi-religious and multi-cultural nature comes a fortnight weeks after the Pope enraged Muslims across the world by quoting from a medieval text that linked the spread of the Islamic faith to violence. And it has provoked new questions over increasing religious sensitivity among Muslims living in the advanced economies of the developed world.
Back in Berlin, the Merkel government's integration commissioner, Maria Boehmer assured that the opera controversy would feature at the government-sponsored conference of dialogue with Muslims. The conference, which officially aims to tackle issues such as equal rights for men and women, the building of mosques, religious lessons and the training of imams, is seen as a stuttering attempt by mainly Christian Western Europe to maintain an unquiet peace with its increasingly resented Muslim minority.
Culture vultures in leading European capitals said on Wednesday that it was ironic the Deutsche Opera had become the focus of a new row over freedom of expression vs Muslim sense of grievance. Just over three years ago, the German government saved the Deutsche Opera and two other Berlin opera houses from closure with a cash injection of 25m euros because the then culture minister insisted it was important to keep such institutions "safe from harm".
The cancelled opera, 'Idomeneo', is an ancient story of the king of Crete's pact with sea god Poseidon to sacrifice his son. This production is described as a meditation on enlightenment, which shows the king lifting the severed heads of Poseidon, Jesus, Buddha and Muhammad to suggest that too much reliance on religion can endanger the human spirit. The opera's previous outing, again in Berlin, had infuriated its largely Christian audience in 2003. Appalled by the production's depiction of beheaded divinities, they had smashed doors but the opera continued to run for nearly a whole year.
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Rashmee Roshan Lall
[ 27 Sep, 2006 2040hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
RSS Feeds| SMS NEWS to 8888 for latest updates
Culture minister Bernd Neumann said "If fears about possible protests result in self-censorship, then the democratic principles of free speech are in danger."
Germany's interior minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, added while on a visit to Washington that the cancellation was "crazy, unacceptable".
In a bleak comment reflective of the increasingly polarized tone of debate, Kay Kuntze, director of the Berlin Chamber Opera, said: "If we give up the central point of our culture -- the freedom of art -- we end up giving up our entire culture."
Merkel's comments and those of other leading German politicians, set off a simmering row over freedom of speech in a Europe that uneasily tolerates its 15 million-strong Muslim population. German commentators admitted that Merkel's comments also overshadowed her government's unprecedented attempt to build bridges with Germany's 3.2-million strong Muslim minority on the very day it opened a conference to promote dialogue with them.
The new threatened storm clouds over Europe's increasingly fragmented view of its enforced multi-religious and multi-cultural nature comes a fortnight weeks after the Pope enraged Muslims across the world by quoting from a medieval text that linked the spread of the Islamic faith to violence. And it has provoked new questions over increasing religious sensitivity among Muslims living in the advanced economies of the developed world.
Back in Berlin, the Merkel government's integration commissioner, Maria Boehmer assured that the opera controversy would feature at the government-sponsored conference of dialogue with Muslims. The conference, which officially aims to tackle issues such as equal rights for men and women, the building of mosques, religious lessons and the training of imams, is seen as a stuttering attempt by mainly Christian Western Europe to maintain an unquiet peace with its increasingly resented Muslim minority.
Culture vultures in leading European capitals said on Wednesday that it was ironic the Deutsche Opera had become the focus of a new row over freedom of expression vs Muslim sense of grievance. Just over three years ago, the German government saved the Deutsche Opera and two other Berlin opera houses from closure with a cash injection of 25m euros because the then culture minister insisted it was important to keep such institutions "safe from harm".
The cancelled opera, 'Idomeneo', is an ancient story of the king of Crete's pact with sea god Poseidon to sacrifice his son. This production is described as a meditation on enlightenment, which shows the king lifting the severed heads of Poseidon, Jesus, Buddha and Muhammad to suggest that too much reliance on religion can endanger the human spirit. The opera's previous outing, again in Berlin, had infuriated its largely Christian audience in 2003. Appalled by the production's depiction of beheaded divinities, they had smashed doors but the opera continued to run for nearly a whole year.
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