The other day we had the news that a German production of a Mozart opera had been canceled because of a scene which depicted a man showing off the severed head of Mohammed.
Apparently, this same production went off without a hitch two years ago. But, things have changed in the past two years and our Muslim friends have learned to expect us to behave like Dhimmis.
Anyway, this morning Fox News Live was on in the gym when I was working out and, I guess Fox hasn't gotten the message that they are supposed to be Dhimmis, because they showed the scene where the guy holds up the severed head of Mohammed for all to see.
The female news anchor concluded the segment by commenting, "It's hard to believe that a community which is so intolerant is always going around demanding tolerance from everyone else."
I wonder if there will be fatwas and riots.
UPDATE: Michelle Malkin has some great stuff to add to the Severed-Mohammed-Head story:
The first thing to remember when reading about the cancellation of Mozart's Idomeneo in Germany and the opera house Deutsche Oper's kowtowing to Islamic bullies is that jihadists hate Western art and music.
They hate love songs.
They hate Muslim female pop stars.
They hate church frescos. And poems. And illustrations of poems. And, uh, you know how they feel about cartoons.
So it doesn't take much to get them worked up.
The now-cancelled production of Mozart's opera, directed by provocateur Hans Neuenfels, includes a scene in which King Idomeneo is shown staggering on stage next to the severed heads of Buddha, Jesus, Poseidon and the Prophet Mohammad, which sit on chairs. It was an equal-opportunity insult of religions. But it doesn't matter. When Mohammed is insulted, you know the consequences.
Well, at least some German politicians are refusing to submit on this one:
German politicians denounced the opera house's move, deputy parliamentary speaker Wolfgang Thierse saying it highlighted a new threat to free artistic expression in Germany.
"Has it come so far that we must limit artistic expression?" he told Reuters. "What will be next?"
Peter Ramsauer, head of the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) in parliament, said the move pointed to a "naked fear of violence" and called it an act of "pure cowardice."
Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble also criticized the decision. "We tend to become crazy if we start to forbid Mozart operas being played. We will not accept it," he told a news conference during a visit to Washington.
I'm trying to get a full transcript of Schaeuble's remarks, but it sounds like a terrific manifesto.
Here are a few more details:
German interior minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said today that some Muslim radicals tend to act in a “crazy” manner with minimal provocation.
Schaeuble, in Washington on an official visit, also defended Pope Benedict XVI in his dispute with some Muslims that arose after a speech he gave two weeks ago at Regensburg University in Germany.
Benedict has expressed regret for offending Muslims in his remarks and said they did not reflect his personal views. He has not offered an apology as some had sought.
“I will never accept that it isn’t allowed for the pope or anyone else to make such a speech,” Schaeuble told reporters at a breakfast news conference.
In the same vein, he defended the right of Danish newspapers to print cartoons that many Muslims found offensive and generated protests in many countries.
“I will not accept that there will be violence because people don’t like some pictures in newspapers,” Schaeuble said.
He also said some non-Muslims go too far in attempting to accommodate Muslim sensitivities.
As an example, he cited a recent decision by a leading opera house in Germany to cancel a production of Mozart’s “Idomeneo” after Berlin security officials warned of an “incalculable risk” because of scenes dealing with Islam, as well as other religions.
By showing too much deference to Muslims on such matters, he said, the non-Muslim world “will not succeed in convincing people” that free speech and tolerance “are better than fundamentalism".
He acknowledged that it is not easy to deal with a situation in which some Muslims react disproportionately to what he considered to be minor offences.
“It’s a difficult situation with some Muslims. They tend to use anything to become crazy. I can’t accept that,” he said.
10 comments:
Yes!!! The mockery of the hypocrisy and tantrums CANNOT END!!!
The harder they come at us with the threats and the calls for bans of defamation of Islam, the more we have to hit back. Our society has to come to realize that we are dealing with a completely irrational enemy. One with which there can be no compromise.
Islam and civilization just don't mix. First Rushdie, then Pim, van Gogh, Danish cartoons, free speech for the Pope, and now Opera? When are people going to stand up to Islam?
If a leftist was threatened with death, we'd hear his/her words in every corner of the media & press. There would be solidarity to show that intimidation will not work. Leftists like to make heroes of those who stood up to "McCarthy" in the 1950s. Well, it's time to stand up ... to a far greater threat to free speech.
This is not a left/right issue. This issue won't go away by refusing to print "cartoons" or taking away the citizenship of Hirsi Ali. The issue is a fundamental difference between the West and Islam.
Jason,
I think it is highly likely the Producer of this opera is a liberal.
I suspect you’re right given the production. But I’d stand behind the producer's right to produce the show and even donate to the Opera to offset the cost of added security. I supported the conservative “Western Standard” when they were an object of legal harassment by Islamists for what they printed. (PS, it's also a good read!)
There was similar event at the Tate Museum in London. They removed an exhibit that, if I remember correctly, had desecrated the Koran, Bible, and Torah. I don’t consider this art but I would have supported the showing and plastered posters with the “art” around town to protest the intimidation.
When pushed by these types one has to push back tenfold.
You and I are in absolute agreement there.
It's interesting that the Germans are now holding a conference to deal with the 'self-censorship' issue. When the poor old Pope upset the Muslims, hardly anyone stuck up for him, but now it's become an issue of 'artistic freedom' (i.e., the freedom to wreck a perfectly nice little Mozart opera by introducing into it images that had nothing to do with the original libretto), people are starting to get interested.
I guess artistic freedom takes prejudice over religious freedom.
Where does that lead?
To a state without relgious freedom?
It certainly looks that way.
Jason to answer your initial question of when people are going to start to stick up to them, I think the answer is that they are starting to NOW. We have spent years reading doom and gloom books at this point while having dreams of a grand fight for the West, and the rest of the world in fact. Now that people are waking up to this reality of the threat posed by Islam, we need to take a stand.
To be a bit trite, if we build it, they will come.
I like that kind of trite.
I do think that is what we are doing. We are building the great Infidel shelter from the storm. The storm is a lot of threats and fatwas and sometimes murders coming from the Muslims. But, all that needs to be done is for a few to stand up and say, "We're not gonna take it," and then others will see, and say, "Hey, I'm not gonna take it either."
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