There are calls from top German cultural officials for the reinstatement of a controversial production of a Mozart opera adaptation, which includes a scene showing the severed heads of Mohammed, Jesus, Buddha, and Poseidon on stage. The Financial Times reports that the German government said the show must go forward as a "signal of closer dialogue" with the country's 3.4 million Muslims. Berlin's Deutsche Oper company had removed the opera, Mozart's Idomeneo, from its schedule because of fears by local police that it would be targeted by Muslim extremists.

Wolfgang Schäuble, interior minister and the country's top security official, said on Wednesday that 30 government and Muslim representatives, meeting in Berlin to launch a three-year dialogue forum, had "spoken out unanimously" that the opera should be performed as scheduled in November. Deutsche Oper and Berlin city officials said on Wednesday night that efforts were under way to ensure the opera, already shown dozens of times in Berlin since 2003, returned to the stage....

The support offered to the opera by the German-Islam Conference, the dialogue forum established on Wednesday and set to run for at least two years, showed that Muslim groups in Germany rejected extremism and supported artistic freedom, Mr Schäuble said.

Muslim representatives called the creation of the German-Islam forum a "turning point" for Germany's Muslims. They hope that the forum will lead to the creation of an advisory group for the government. Badr Mohammed, head of Berlin's European Integration Centre, described the forum as an "historic breakthrough – an opportunity that Muslims must now grasp."

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The Times of London reports that there had been no prior indication that Muslims would have reacted to the play with the same outrage that greeted a series of cartoons depicting Mohammed published in a Danish newspaper last year, especially since the play had already been produced with no sign of opposition. But "sensitivities were raw" after the recent backlash, particularly in the Middle East, to statements by German-born Pope Benedict XVI about Islam and violence. Kerstin Harms, the director of the Deutsche Oper, decided to cancel the production over security concerns.

The report was drawn up after an anonymous tip-off from an opera-goer who saw the production in 2003. The informant told the police that the audience had reacted angrily to the sight of the decapitated head of Jesus but had slumped into an "ominous silence" when the ... head of Muhammad was held aloft.

Police saw this as a possible sign that performances could be disturbed by Islamic fanatics. Frau Harms calculated that the risk to the audience – 2,000 people can be accommodated in the opera house – and to the cast was too great.

Deutsche Presse-Agentur reports that a spokesman for the Berlin police department said that they were prepared to handle the necessary security if the opera was returned to the schedule.

Reuters reports that when the opera company first canceled the production, it "provoked front-page headlines across the continent and found itself fending off charges of cowardice."

"Here we go again. It's like deja vu...This is exactly the kind of self-censorship I and my newspaper have been warning against," said Flemming Rose, culture editor of Denmark's Jyllands-Posten paper, which met a storm of Muslim protest after publishing satirical cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed last year.

He said bowing to fears of a violent Muslim reaction would only worsen the problem: "You play into the hands of the radicals. You are telling them: your tactics are working. This is a victory for the radicals. It's weakening the moderate Muslims who are our allies in this battle of ideas."

Reuters also reports that the decision to cancel the production before any form of protest had materialized came under criticism from a variety of groups.

"To do it in advance of any actual protest I think invokes the next protest, because the radicals in any community are aided and abetted by that," said Lisa Appignanesi, a novelist and deputy president of the writers' group PEN in England.

"We don't want to end up in a situation where we don't dare to speak up. What we do not want is a society where one is constantly fearful about what the people holding the bombs or the guns might say."

The Associated Press reports that the response to the original decision in Germany's Muslim community was mixed. Some groups praised the decision, while others called on Muslims "to accept the role of provocation in art."

The leader of Germany's Islamic Council welcomed the move, saying a depiction of Muhammad with a severed head "could certainly offend Muslims." But in an interview with German radio, Ali Kizilkaya added: "I think it is horrible that one has to be afraid ... That is not the right way to open dialogue."

The leader of Germany's Turkish community said it was time Muslims accepted freedom of expression in art. "This is about art, not about politics," Kenan Kolat told Bavarian Radio. "We should not make art dependent on religion – then we are back in the Middle Ages."

For his part, the director of the play, Hans Neuenfels, said he will not alter the controversial scene. He said the scene where the severed heads of the religious figures are presented represents his protest against "any form of organized religion or its founders."

Reuters also reports that the controversy is one of the latest in Europe involving conflict between artistic expression and religious sensitivies. In other cases, religious groups have demanded the cancellation of an production or display. European artists groups, journalists, and analysts say a climate of "political correctness" is growing "in which people are afraid to speak out publicly.

In 2004, Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was murdered after outraging Muslims with a film accusing Islam of promoting violence against women, and a British play featuring sexual abuse and murder in a Sikh temple was canceled after protests. Last year London's Tate Britain museum removed a sculpture by John Latham which it feared would offend Muslims and a British tour of "Jerry Springer – The Opera" was temporarily canceled when conservative Christian groups complained.

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Feedback appreciated. E-mail Tom Regan.