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"We hope the opera will be
staged as soon as possible," Schaeuble said flanked by Muslim
leaders.
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BERLIN — German officials and Muslim leaders on
Wednesday, September 27, issued a joint call supporting the staging of
a controversial opera featuring the severed heads of the Prophets
Muhammad and Jesus (peace and blessings be upon them) after it was
cancelled over fears of offending Muslim sentiments.
"We hope the opera will be staged as soon as
possible," Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told a news
conference, flanked by other conference participants.
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 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, a conservative from Chancellor Angela
Merkel's Christian Democrat party, had on Monday, September 25,
described the cancellation of the opera as "crazy."
Berlin's Deutsche Oper had removed the performance
from its November's schedule after police warned it could spark
violent reactions from Muslims.
"Idomeneo", a 1781 tragedy set in ancient
Crete, features a bloody climax in which King Idomeneo places the
decapitated heads of Prophet Muhammad, Jesus, Poseidon and Buddha on
four chairs.
The original opera deal with resistance to
sacrifices demanded by the gods but makes no mention of any of the
world's major faiths.
But amendments were made by director Hans Neuenfels,
sparking outraged reactions from the audience during its premiere in
December 2003.
German critics at the time saw the show as a
radical attack on religion and religious wars.
Islam considers any image of the prophets to be
blasphemous.
Divided
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Al-Boga said the meeting met the
aspirations of the Muslim minority.
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The decision to cancel the blasphemous opera had
drawn different reactions from Muslim leaders before the Wednesday's
meeting.
Turkish community leader Kenan Kolat said that
although he could understand why some Muslims would be angered, they
must accept artistic freedom in a democratic society.
"Art must be free," he said.
But the leader of the Islamic Council, Ali
Kizilkaya, disagreed.
He said the staging was unacceptable and was deeply
offensive to German Muslims.
"An opera or a caricature -- it does not make
a big difference," he said, referring to 12 Danish caricatures
lampooning the Prophet.
The insulting drawings, which were also published
by European newspapers, sparked outrage and massive protests across
the Muslim world.
The opera controversy comes hot on the heels of a
crisis triggered by Pope Benedict XVI after quoting a medieval text
criticizing teachings of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) as "evil and
inhuman".
Germany had in the past cancelled a number of
artistic activities seen insulting to religions.
A Berlin festival shunned the country's top rock
band, Oomph, over a song lampooning God.
A German court had slapped a one-year jail sentence
against a businessman of insulting Islam by printing the word
"Qur'an" on toilet paper and offering it to mosques.
Breakthrough
The meeting, the first of its kind, brought
together political leaders and representatives of Germany's
3.2-million-strong Muslim community.
Schaeuble hoped it would mark the beginning of a
two-year dialogue addressing integration, extremism, Islamic religious
instruction in schools and the training of imams in Germany.
"This process of dialogue was urgently
needed," he said.
Badr Mohammed, General Secretary of the European
Integration Center in Berlin, called the conference a "historic
breakthrough".
"The government has sent a message and reached
out its hand and now it is up to the Muslims to make something out of
it," he said.
Bekir Al-Boga from the Turkish Islamic Union (Ditib)
said the meeting met the aspirations of the Muslim minority.
"It is now time to recognize Muslims in
Germany."
Schaeuble called on Monday, September 11, for a
state recognition of Islam and teaching the Muslim faith at schools as
part of a state-backed curriculum.
He also underlined the need for Muslim
"representative organs" beyond those that presently exist.
Islam comes third in Germany after Protestant and
Catholic Christianity.
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