Voltaire Censored-Againby Ross Mullin
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."-Voltaire The city of Geneva has once again proven Voltaire's subversiveness-by preventing performance of his play, "Mahomet, ou le Fanatisme." Voltaire wasn't actually attacking Mohammed. His main targets, thinly disguised, were religious fanaticism in general, and Christian fanatics in particular. When his play reached Paris on 9 August 1742, the right-wing Catholic Jansenists [plus catholique de la pape] well knew at whom the barbs flew, and complained to the authorities. The authorities quietly pressured Voltaire to close it down. Fast-forward two-and-one-half centuries. When a plan to restage "Mahomet" in Switzerland was proposed, Muslim "cultural centers" overtly denounced "blasphemy" and covertly hinted at violence. Geneva's authorities yielded to the pressure, and religious fanatics were appeased once again. Patronized by Geneva's modern rulers, Voltaire is disguised as a harmless dead philosopher, a relic of French-Swiss history. Censored by them, he is exposed as a libertarian radical.
Voltaire preached "natural religion." Rejecting the cruel, terrorizing, vindictive Jehovah portrayed by most Christian clergy in his time, he turned to the remote mild God of the British deists. And, in "Mahomet," he attacked fraudulent and persecuting priests. Though he hated some clergy, he honored others. He sent a copy of "Mahomet" to Pope Benedict XIV, who replied by praising "your excellent tragedy... which I have read with great pleasure." Benedict's good words contrasted with those of clerics who saw it as a "bloody satire against the Christian religion." Earlier, in 1740, Voltaire had read this play aloud to Frederick of Prussia. Then he explained it further in a letter to Frederick, a few months before his Paris defeat: "The love of mankind, and the hatred of fanaticism, two virtues that adorn your throne, guided my pen.... They who tell us... that the flames of religious war are totally extinguished, in my opinion, pay too high a compliment to human nature. The same poison still subsists, even though it does not appear so openly.... In vain does human reason advance towards perfection, by means of that philosophy which of late has made so great a progress in Europe.... Why must I blindly follow the blind who cry out to me: hate, persecute all who are rash enough not to be of the same opinion with ourselves, even in things and matters we do not understand? ... A spirit of indulgence would make us all brothers; a spirit of persecution can create nothing but monsters...." To honor Voltaire, carry on his campaign for freedom of expression. Opportunities arise often. For a free list of groups against censorship, send SASE to: Tahanga Research, POB 8714-FC, La Jolla, CA 92038.
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