Power play, 1741 and 2005 (#101; Topic A)

Today's Wall Street Journal has a front-page story on Voltaire. It seemed that he wrote a play, Fanaticism, or Mahomet the Prophet, which mimicked France's predominant religion at the time. But, the year being 1741, when the church was in its full glory, even Voltaire dared not do it openly. So, Muhammad was drafted to be the stand-in, portraying him "as a ruthless tyrant bent on conquest, [using] religion to promote and mask political ambition." Of course, Roman Catholic clergymen were not that stupid, who saw through the cover and denounced it, correctly, "as a thinly veiled anti-Christian tract." After only three performances in Paris, the play was forced to close. Late last year, a Switzerland-bordered small alpine town, Saint-Genis-Pouilly, decided to organize a reading of this play. With the Danish cartoon incident still fresh in their memory, members of the Islam faith protested its production to the town's mayor, stating that "This play ... constitutes an insult to the entire Muslim community." The protest was rejected, the reading went through as scheduled, and minor street disturbances were controlled. So, we have witnessed another power play in action. Clearly, in France, where members of the Islam faith are not as powerful as those of Christian faith, the former must necessarily defer to the latter in power play. This is similar to the CNOOC-Dubai port cases (#96); facing a power play, the former withdrew, while the latter allowed a face-saving 45-day review period, recognizing that its bargaining power is much stronger with this administration. We'll see how it turns out.
Posted at 11:33 pm, Monday, March 6, 2006