The German Chancellor has joined the chorus of disapproval over an opera company's decision to cancel a Mozart opera production to avoid angering Muslims.

At the height Mozart's Idomeneo, the bloodstained King of Crete stumbles onstage and holds aloft the decapitated heads of Poseidon, Jesus, Buddha and the Prophet Muhammad. "The gods are dead!" he calls out to the audience.

Mindful of the violent outrage triggered by the publication of cartoons of the Prophet in Denmark, and of a warning by Berlin security officials that they could not guarantee the opera house’s security in the event of similar protests, the bosses of the Deutsche Oper in Berlin decided to cancel performances of the show in the German capital.

The decision has unleashed a storm of disapproval from politicians and writers, who claim that Germany has fatally compromised the freedom of expression. Wolfgang Schäuble, the German Interior Minister, said that the decision to cancel the opera was insane, laughable and unacceptable. Other politicians said it was irresponsible.

Today Angela Merkel, the German leader, herself waded into the row. "We must be careful that we do not increasingly shy away out of fear of violent radicals," Merkel told the Hannover Neue Presse. "Self-censorship out of fear is not tolerable."

The issue was expected to dominate discussions today at a previously scheduled summit with the German government and Muslim leaders, which was to begin this afternoon to launch a two-year dialogue on how to better integrate the country’s roughly 3 million Muslims.

Kirsten Harms, director of Berlin’s Deutsche Oper, said yesterday that she was pulling the production after Berlin’s top security official - who had received an anonymous tip from an opera-goer concerned about potential reaction to the scene - recommended she either cut the disputed scene, or cancel it altogether.

Hans Neuenfels, who first staged the production at the Deutsche Oper in 2003, said he stood behind his production and refused to cut the scene, in which King Idomeneo presents the severed heads not only of the Greek god of the sea, Poseidon, but also of Muhammad, Jesus and Buddha.

Ms Harms said although the four performances of the 225-year-old opera would not be performed this autumn, the production would remain in Deutsche Oper’s repertoire and may still performed in the future.

The police report advised Ms Harms that "disturbances could not be excluded" during performances of the Mozart opera. She decided to replace the opera, due to play from November 5, with The Marriage of Figaro.

A Deutsche Oper spokesman said yesterday that putting on Idomeneo would "represent an incalculable security risk for the theatre at present". It was, therefore, in the interests of the public that the opera should not be performed.

The decision comes at a time of acute sensitivity in Europe about offending Islam. Police units have been set up in several EU countries to study potential flashpoints. Pope Benedict XVI’s comment on Islam — contained in a wider speech on religion and responsibility — also triggered unrest.

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