Mozart wrote what?

Bad art should go away because people refuse to pay to witness it, not because the goat rapists might blow it up.

AFP: German officials, Muslim leaders back 'Mohammed' opera

BERLIN - German ministers and Muslim leaders have issued a joint call supporting the staging of a Mozart opera featuring the severed heads of the Prophet Mohammed and Jesus after it was cancelled over fears of violent protests by Islamic radicals.

Wednesday's meeting, which had been planned before the row erupted, was to focus on efforts to combat growing alienation between Germans and Muslim immigrants but was overshadowed by the debate over the provocative staging of "Idomeneo" at a prominent Berlin opera house.

Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, the meeting's host, said the 30 politicians and Muslim community representatives had agreed at the talks that the show must go on in the name of artistic freedom and tolerance.

"We hope the opera will be staged as soon as possible," Schaeuble, a conservative from Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrat party, told a news conference, flanked by other conference participants.

"We would like to send a message by saying that we would like to attend it together. I think that is the right way to end a debate that is no one's interest, particularly not for the great majority of Muslims in Germany."

Schaeuble, who had on Monday described the cancellation as "crazy", said the rights of a free society must be protected even for art that some find offensive.

"That is why I would call on all of us to be self-confident enough to safeguard those rights. If you don't like the performance you can boo or whatever you like, or argue, or applaud," he said.

The production of "Idomeneo", a 1781 tragedy set in ancient Crete, was removed from the Deutsche Oper's November schedule after police warned it could spark violent reactions from Muslims.

Meet Hans Neuenfel, artiste extrordinaire:

Director Hans Neuenfels's staging, which features a bloody climax in which King Idomeneo places the decapitated heads of Poseidon, Jesus, Buddha and Mohammed on four chairs, provoked an outraged reaction from the audience when it premiered in December 2003.

What? No Shiva? Those lucky Hindus! I guess Mozart must have been a closet Hindu...or maybe a Rastafarian! I did not see any mention of Haile Selassie's severed head...

Deutsche Oper's decision Monday to pull the opera, scheduled to be performed in November, drew attacks from across the political spectrum by officials who called it a kowtow before religious extremists.

"We must be careful that we do not flinch out of fear of radicals who are prepared to use violence," Merkel told the Hanover-based daily Neue Presse.

"Self-censorship for reasons of fear is not acceptable. It should only be allowed when it is done responsibly within a genuine and completely violence-free dialogue of cultures."

I wonder what would have been said if only the false prophet's head was scheduled to make an appearance...

Berlin's Interior Senator Ehrhart Koerting, who had personally called the director of the Deutsche Oper to warn her about staging the opera, acknowledged the police had not received a specific threat.

But he said in light of the violence in the Muslim world over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed printed in European newspapers, he and the police determined it would be risky to go ahead with the production.

Islam considers any image of the prophet to be blasphemous.

In the face of massive criticism of his warning, Koerting noted that most German newspapers had opted not to print the cartoons over similar fears.

Wednesday's meeting, the first of its kind, brought together political leaders and representatives of Germany's 3.2-million-strong Muslim community, most of whom are descendants of Turkish guest workers invited to Germany in the 1960s and 1970s.

Schaeuble hoped the meeting would mark the beginning of a two-year dialogue addressing integration, Islamic extremism, Islamic religious instruction in schools and the training of imams in Germany.