Daniel Pearl invoked at protest over Met opera

These remarks by Dr. Judea Pearl, father of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl who was murdered by al Qaeda in 2002, were read at last week’s Coalition to Stop the Terrorist Klinghoffer Opera, by one of the protest’s organizers, Dr. Paul Brody.

In joining you today to protest the New York Metropolitan Opera production of this opera, I echo the silenced voice of my son, Daniel Pearl, and the silenced voices of other victims of terror, including James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and including thousands of men, women and children who were murdered, maimed or left heartbroken by the new menace of our generation, a menace of savagery that the Met has decided to elevate to a normative, two-sided status, worthy of artistic expression.

They tell us that the composer tried to “understand the hijackers, their motivations, and their grievances.” I submit to you that there has never been a crime in human history lacking grievance and motivation. The 9/11 lunatics had profound motivations, and the murderers of my son, Daniel Pearl, had very compelling “grievances.”

In the past few weeks we have seen with our own eyes that Hamas and ISIS have grievances, too, and, they, too, are lining up for operatic productions with the Met.

There is nothing more enticing to a would-be terrorist than the prospect of broadcasting his “grievences” in Lincoln Center, the icon of American culture.

Yet civilized society, from the time of our caveman ancestors, has learned to protect itself by codifying right from wrong, separating the holy from the profane, distinguishing that which deserves the sound of orchestras from that which deserves our unconditional revulsion. The Met has smeared this distinction and thus betrayed their contract with society.

I submit to you that choreographing an operatic drama around criminal pathology is not an artistic prerogative, but a blatant betrayal of public trust.