Merkel warns against self-censorship after play axed

GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel warned against “self-censorship out of fear” yesterday, a day after a leading Berlin opera house decided not to stage a production because of concerns it could provoke Islamic ire.

German leaders widely condemned the Deutsche Oper’s decision not to put on a production of Mozart’s Idomeneo with a scene featuring the severed heads of Jesus, Buddha and the Prophet Mohammed, after Berlin security officials said they could not guarantee the opera house’s security in the event of violent protests.

“We must be careful that we do not increasingly shy away out of fear of violent radicals,” Ms Merkel said. “Self-censorship out of fear is not tolerable.”

The issue was expected to dominate discussions at a previously scheduled summit with German government and Muslim leaders, which was to begin later in the day and launch a two-year dialogue on how to better integrate the country’s estimated three million Muslims.

Kirsten Harms, director of Berlin’s Deutsche Oper, said on Tuesday that she was pulling the three-year-old production after Berlin’s top security official recommended she either cut the disputed scene, or cancel it.

Hans Neuenfels, who staged the production that the opera company last performed in 2004, refused to cut the scene, in which King Idomeneo presents the severed heads of the Greek god Poseidon and also of Mohammed, Jesus and Buddha.

Ms Harms said although the four performances of the 225-year-old opera would not be performed thisautumn the production would remain in Deutsche Oper’s repertoire.

The furore is the latest in Europe over religious sensitivities — following cartoons of the prophet first published in a Danish newspaper and recent remarks by Pope Benedict XVI decrying violence in the name of religion.

Response from Germany’s Islamic community was mixed, with some praising the decision and others calling on Muslims to accept the role of provocation in art. Ali Kizilkaya, leader of Germany’s Islamic Council, welcomed the move, saying a depiction of Mohammed with a severed head “could certainly offend Muslims”.

But a leader of Germany’s Turkish community said it was time Muslims accepted freedom of expression.

“We should not make art dependent on religion.” — then we are back in the Middle Ages,” he said.

Islamic law is interpreted to forbid any depiction of Mohammed for fear it could lead to idolatry.