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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ManyMoose who wrote (180811)	9/27/2006 12:32:31 PM
From: Alan Smithee	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 794009

Sheesh. PC carried to the extreme. Now they're censoring Mozart. Politicians slam Berlin opera for canceling Idomeneo By Noah BarkinTue Sep 26, 2:41 PM ET German politicians condemned on Tuesday a decision by a Berlin opera house to cancel performances of Mozart's "Idomeneo" over concerns they could enrage Muslims and pose a security risk. The Deutsche Oper in west Berlin announced on Monday it was replacing four performances of "Idomeneo" scheduled for November with "The Marriage of Figaro" and "La Traviata." The decision was taken after Berlin security officials warned that putting on the opera as planned would present an "incalculable security risk" for the establishment. In the production, directed by Hans Neuenfels, King Idomeneo is shown staggering on stage next to the severed heads of Buddha, Jesus, Poseidon and the Prophet Mohammad, which sit on chairs. Two weeks ago Pope Benedict sparked outrage in the Muslim world by quoting, in a speech in Germany, from a medieval text linking the spread of the Islamic faith to violence. Last year, the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in a Danish newspaper sparked violent Muslim protests around the world. 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. DIRECTOR DEFENDS DECISION The director of the Deutsche Oper, Kirsten Harms, defended her decision at a news conference on Tuesday. She said Ehrhart Koerting, Berlin's top police official, had phoned her in mid-August and warned her of dire consequences if the opera house proceeded with its plan to show "Idomeneo." "If I had paid no attention and something had happened, everyone would rightly say that I had ignored the warnings," Harms said. Koerting issued a statement confirming the conversation, but saying the decision to cancel "Idomeneo" had been Harms's alone. Police have said their concern was prompted by an anonymous phone call in June but they had no evidence of a specific threat. The Deutsche Oper decision precedes a much-hyped meeting on Wednesday between Schaueble and representatives of the country's Muslim community to discuss ways to improve dialogue and integration. About 3.2 million Muslims live in Germany, many of them Turks who arrived after World War Two and helped fuel the country's postwar economic boom. Fears of Islamic radicalization have increased recently, aggravated by a failed bomb attack on two German trains in July. Two Lebanese students have been arrested for the plot and German security officials believe they likely had help from a radical Islamic network. news.yahoo.com

To: ManyMoose who wrote (180811)	9/27/2006 2:15:13 PM
From: Keith Feral	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 794009

I don't care about the sign, Moose. I just need something to rant about this morning.<g> We are well down the road to tolerance, but have we discarded all forms of respect for religion along the way? It's a question, not an accusation. If we are trying to save people from religious persecution, what's at the end of our road of religious tolerance if there is no God? Consider that most men in this country support women's right to vote, even though they don't believe in the feminist point of view. However, we all believe that women have a right to believe in feminism. Shouldn't we extend the same courtesy to Muslims who believe in transcendalism, as the Pope put it? Shouldn't we condemn anti religious or agnostic comments by anyone in our society? Maybe we should extend the same level of anti discrimination for religious beliefs that we do for feminism and racism. Let's make multicultural pluralism work so that everyone is free to practice religion without humiliation or intimidation from people that think God should be removed from our society. People in this country would be more offended if you made a negative statement about women's rights or minority rights than if you made a negative statement about religion. If you make a negative comments about a woman's anatomy or tell a racially insensitive joke, you will get your ass fired from the job or kicked out of any college in the country. I applaud the civil rights defense. However, any subject related to God has slipped to the lowest priority for acceptable conversation. People are free to blasphemy religion in any way they see fit, with no recourse to the people they are offending. The problem with multicultural pluralism or secularism is that we have removed all rights for people to practice their religion. God has been disgraced to the level of taboo. Talk about him and your reputation is toast. How is that in the spirit of freedom from religious persecution upon which civil rights was constructed? If people had their rights to religion protected just like feminism and racism, why aren't there any people getting fired from their jobs for making rude comments about the religious dorks in their office. I don't blame anyone in the US for intolerant Muslims. It is their problem, not ours. If we are going to help the Islamic community deal with intolerant radicals, I encourage Westerners to provide unconditional support to the moderates. for the first time, I think the Islamic countries are viewing the US as an ally against the extremists whom they no longer trust. We don't need to pontificate to the moderates that they had it coming because they follow the rule of religion inside of their own culture. A little courtesy and respect will go a long ways.