More religious leaders continue to condemn the 2024 Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony for a scene involving drag queens that many viewers interpreted as a reference to The Last Supper.
Friday’s controversial display featured French DJ and LGBTQ+ icon Barbra Bush standing in the center of a long table, surrounded by fellow drag performers on either side of her. The scene sparked widespread criticism from conservative Christians claiming it was offensive and disrespectful to Christian values and faith. Bush has since filed a legal complaint after receiving abuse online following the event.
However, The Olympic Games official X account tweeted a photo of the scene, claiming, “The interpretation of the Greek God Dionysus makes us aware of the absurdity of violence between human beings.”
AP Photo/@Olympics on X
On Tuesday, the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, slammed the act for the “insults” against Jesus Christ in a statement posted to X.
“Respect for #JesusChrist … is an indisputable, definite matter for Muslims,” Khamenei, who has held his position since 1989, wrote. “We condemn these insults directed at the holy figures of divine religions, including Jesus Christ.”
During an address, Turkish President Recep Tayyi Erdoğan also spoke out against the ceremony, claiming he plans to call Pope Francis right away to discuss the “immorality committed against the Christian world.”
The “disgraceful scene in Paris offended not only the Catholic world, not only the Christian world but also us as much as them,” he said. “Immorality displayed at the opening of the Paris Olympics once again highlighted the scale of the threat we face.”
Al-Azhar, the top institution of the Sunni branch of Islam in Egypt, said in a statement, “The scenes portray Jesus Christ in an offensive image that involves disrespect to his person.”
“Al-Azhar, and nearly 2 billion Muslims behind it, believe that Jesus … is the Messenger of Allah. The Quran reads, Jesus is Allah’s ‘Word through Mary and a spirit from him,'” the statement referenced Islam’s religious book.
The Muslim Council of Eldersgrand imam of Al-Azhar also issued a released statement on the opening ceremony.
“This disgraceful act showed a complete lack of respect for the beliefs of religious people and the high moral values they hold dear,” it read. “The council unequivocally rejects all attempts to demean religious symbols, beliefs, and sacred figures.”
On Sunday, a spokesperson for the Paris Olympics, Anne Descamps, told the media that The Last Supper display was not meant to be offensive and defended the vision of the ceremony’s artistic director Thomas Jolly.
“Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group,” she said. “On the contrary, I think (with) Thomas Jolly, we really did try to celebrate community tolerance,” Descamps said. “Looking at the result of the polls that we shared, we believe that this ambition was achieved. If people have taken any offense we are, of course, really, really sorry.”
Jolly told The Associated Press after the ceremony, “My wish isn’t to be subversive, nor to mock or to shock. Most of all, I wanted to send a message of love, a message of inclusion and not at all to divide.”
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