You will snowy for a long time, Mozart

The Berlin opera troupe canceled the prime minister of Mozart’s opera “Idomena, the Kreetian king”: the theater security service fears a possible negative reaction from Muslims (in the course of the production the head of the Prophet Muhammad appears). Experts Heydar Dzhemal, Maxim Shevchenko, Vitaly Naumkin, Marat Gelman and Marina Davydova give their assessment to this event.

Heydar Jemal , Chairman of the Islamic Committee of Russia:

I believe that in no case should I cancel the premiere of the opera. Any kind of frightened gesture brings the times when we all live according to the laws of Sharia. As for the security service, it should be engaged in other things - to look for attackers who are preparing terrorist attacks, and not give advice to directors. Maxim Shevchenko , leading the first television channel:

I believe that the leadership of the opera troupe came correctly. The abolition of the premiere is in this case a completely reasonable solution. It would be possible to change the libretto of the opera "Idomena, the king of Cretan", without changing the music of the ingenious Mozart. Thus did this in the Soviet Union with Glinka’s opera "Life for the Tsar" - the name was changed to "Ivan Susanin", and this did not prevent the great music of Glinka.

The value space in the world is not fixed, it changes dynamically along with the change of the era. When Mozart wrote the opera "Idomena, the Cretan king," Muslims were outside the Christian Europe, in the Ottoman Empire. Now the situation has changed - in Europe there is a huge Muslim diaspora. A century after the age, the era beyond the era, people change their attitude to cultural values. Each era has its own language and its own values.

Vitaly Naumkin , Islamic schola, Doctor of Historical Sciences:

Before that, there were no such precedents. Today the situation is so intense that the decision of the troupe leadership is quite legitimate. It is natural that after the "caricature scandal" and the reaction of Muslims to the statement of the Pope, the creative team decided to abandon the premiere. The production would certainly cause a new wave of indignation and violence. It is good that this is a conscious self -censorship, and not a decision imposed by the authorities.

Muslims are especially sensitive to any criticism directed to the Prophet Muhammad. For them, this is a taboo topic. If, for example, the Pope picked up for his performance any other quote that criticizes Islam, but not directed against the prophet personally, there would be no speeches. The criticism of Islam in general Muslims are quite calm.

Marat Gelman , Galerist, Political Science:

It's just fantastic. Firstly, I would have fired the director of the opera, because a person who is afraid of the reaction of the ignorant cannot lead the creative team. Secondly, I once again want to emphasize that history should be treated as a literary work, and not as a propaganda leaf. If we open the Bible and the Qur'an, we will find a lot there that is unacceptable today, unspoken. But if we are guided by these criteria, then we will have to delete the entire history from the textbooks until the fifties.

Marina Davydova , Theater critic:

This is a very dangerous precedent. Now it remains only to wait for the “Othello” to be banned due to the fact that the Moor is killing a white woman there, and the “Venetian merchant” is because the main negative hero is a Jew. All this brings the ideas of political correctness to complete absurdity.

It is especially depressing that the production was removed even before the Muslims began to protest. This means that the third world, or rather, his aggressive representatives forced Europe to dance under their tune. Now not immigrants will assimilate in Europe, and Europe will adapt to Sharia law.