The entertainment industry has always found it quite strange why people of religion should question their right to freedom of expression through drama or art.

Following the danish cartoons controversy earlier this year, this debate has heated up once again as one of Germany's foremost opera houses was forced to cancel a production of Mozart's ‘Idomeneo’ because of fears of a violent reaction to a scene showing the severed head of the beloved Prophet Mohammed (pbuh).

Not learning from other peoples mistakes, the organisers were forced to cancel the production, with Muslim groups in Germany voicing satisfaction with the decision.

Leading politicians and artists were wrong to call the cancellation a cowardly surrender to religious “extremists” as this is not an issue of extremism. The cancellation came just three weeks after Pope Benedict XVI ignited anger across the Muslim world by quoting from a medieval text that branded certain teachings of Mohammed as “evil and inhuman."

The sensitive nature of mocking any religion these days should be taken into account as we have seen in recent years, this can have worldwide consequences.

The controversial contemporary version of Mozart's 225-year-old piece, which was to have opened for its third season at Berlin's Deutsche Opera in November, included a scene in which King Idomeneo, the central character, lurches around the stage near the severed heads of Prophet Mohammed, Jesus (peace be upon them), Buddha, and Poseidon, the ancient Greek god of the sea.

Mozart's original ‘Idomeneo’ was first presented in Germany in 1781, and featured only Poseidon. The modern staging, by stage director Hans Neuenfels, added the Prophet Mohammed (pbuh), Jesus (peace be upon them), and Buddha to emphasize the modernity of Mozart's message.

Quite frankly, I find it very distasteful that anyone would find it entertaining to watch a person dancing around severed heads. Had a similar production been made by muslims but with the heads of the royal family and leading world politicians, I am pretty sure, they would not have been allowed to finish the rehearsals before being banned by the government itself, as Germany has a similar law to the UK laws of incitement to hatred.

Under normal circumstances, this opera would not have raised an eyebrow, and whether the director intended to upset Muslims or not, the fact of the matter is that by making additions, the director has only served to lower his own credibility and tarnish the reputation of Mozart’s already successful script.

I also find it worrying to see that although some Christian groups expressed anger at the production, they were not highlighted in the media as extremist?

So is this a case of freedom of expression or the media selectively expressing their dislike for a religion that seeks to protect its belief system from those who continue to paint it in a negative manner? I think the latter.