The Islamic State militant, a.k.a Jihad John, who beheaded American and British journalists, James Foley, Steven Sotloff and John Cantlie, on a video broadcasted over the internet is now being celebrated by the NY Metropolitan Opera as a hero, a freedom fighter and a caring human being.
The new production titled, “John, The Freedom Fighter”, will open next 9/11 in Lincoln Center to a jam-packed auditorium filled with celebrities and dignitaries from all over the world. These will include Saddam Hussein’s widow (her husband is unable to come. She has not talked to him for over a year), Osama Bin Laden’s second wife (her husband is unable to come. He is too busy attending to his 72 virgins), and several “freedom fighters” from Yemen, Somali, Libya, Hamas, Hezbollah, the UK, Germany and the US.
The new opera explains the reasons that justify the recent beheading of the journalists, showing how Islamist grievances against the governments of the US and the UK play a cameo role in justifying the beheading. The principal reasons comprise the actions of American and British citizens, missionaries and humanitarian workers who come to the Middle East to spread their religious infidelity and western culture of human rights to all (really, to all? treating even infidels?). The opera makes it unambiguous; the evidence sings like Pavarotti—these Americans are evil incarnate. Unquestionably, these journalists are worthy of the ultimate punishment.
Jihad John is humanized by the opera—he is a freedom fighter after all—he is an innocent victim, since the US and the UK have forced him to commit these heroic acts of beheading.
Now, did I get your attention? Would you be upset, mad as hell, protest, try to stop this Kafkaesque madness, had it all been true?
I suspect you would. You’d suppose that the Met would find it intolerable by its potential audience. The Met would not dare presenting this outrageous bend on the prestigious stage of the Lincoln Center. Or would it?
But then, it is true. Once you substitute Jihad John for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO); once you replace the kidnapping of the journalists with the takeover or hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro in 1985 by Palestinian terrorists. It is true once you swap the beheading of the journalists with the murder of the 69-year old, wheelchair-bound Leon Kilnghoffer, an old Jewish man on a cruise. It is true once you have the Jews take the place of the US and the UK.
You see, the NY Metropolitan Opera is about to present the takeover of the Achille Lauro cruise ship and the savage killing of a crippled Jew by PLO terrorists as a justified action by the heroic freedom fighters of the PLO. They call their great new opera: “The Death of Klinghoffer”. The opera justifies the murder. The opera dehumanizes Jews in general; it employs common anti-Semitic stereotypes like the one where the principal terrorist says, “Wherever poor men are gathered, they can find Jews getting fat. You know how to cheat the simple, exploit the virgin, pollute where you have exploited, defame those you cheated, and break your own law with idolatry.” And there is plenty more.
Unfortunately, as long as the Met presents a new opera packed with anti-Semitic pronouncements, dishonest and outrageous allegations against Jews, it is defended as a celebration of the freedom of speech (and music). But would you feel that way had it been about Jihad John, the decapitator of the "ugly American infidels" who “deserved” their horrible fate?
Time to let the NY Metropolitan Opera know how you feel.