Olympic Opening Ceremony Sparks Controversy: Morocco and Algeria Censor ’Provocative’ Scenes

Drag queens, men transformed or disguised as women, and other expressions of support for the LGBT community, a representation of the Last Supper, or the last meal of Jesus Christ in the Christian religion... Scenes performed by drag queens and Jesus Christ embodied by a DJ. France shocked Morocco and Algeria at the opening of the Paris Olympics. The television stations of these Maghreb countries had to censor these scenes. They are described as "outrageous" and "provocative" by the French episcopate. "We thank the members of the other religious confessions who have expressed their solidarity with us," the bishops of France said in a statement. He says he is thinking "of all Christians on all continents who have been hurt by the excess and provocation of certain scenes".

These scenes provoked strong reactions from Russia, a country excluded from the Paris Olympics because of the war in Ukraine. In the eyes of the spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, the French organization of the ceremony is a "massive failure". On her Telegram channel, she criticizes Paris for having entrusted the Olympic torch to the "drug-addicted rapper Snoop Dogg". Zakharova also lambasted the "LGBT parody of the Last Supper," where the apostles were "represented by transvestites." The Russian Orthodox Church, for its part, deplored a "historical and cultural suicide in Paris, one of the Christian capitals of European civilization."