Last month Iran announced it was planning a conference to assess the scale of the Holocaust. This is the same country with a president (who some say, was among the hostage takers at the U.S. Embassy back in the '70s) who rejects the Holocaust as mere myth.
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi told a news briefing:
"Iran's Foreign Ministry has decided to hold a conference on the Holocaust to assess its scale by scientific means and discuss its consequences,"
He did not say when or where the conference would be held.
President Ahmadinejad caused international outrage last month when he said the Holocaust — the killing of six million Jews by the Nazis and their allies between 1933 and 1945 — was a myth and suggested Israel be moved to North America or Europe.
However, one newspaper, in fact the largest-selling newspaper in Iran, has decided to wade into the Muhammad controversy by launching a competition to find the 12 "best" cartoons about the Holocaust.
Farid Mortazavi, graphics editor for Tehran's Hamshahri newspaper, explained in The Times, the reason for the contest was it would test out how committed Europeans were to the concept of freedom of expression.
"The Western papers printed these sacrilegious cartoons on the pretext of freedom of expression, so let’s see if they mean what they say and also print these Holocaust cartoons," he said.
According to Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, the Holocaust survivors were getting used to these kind of insults from Iran.
Article comments
1 - Nancy
Typical of the puerile, spoiled-brat mentality of these people. As BB always says, "what a bunch of maroons".
2 - Richard Brodie
They are unwittingly providing another excellent opportunity to highlight the vast divide that separates that nauseous cultural sewer that is Islam from the civilized rest of the world.
Let them publish their anti-Jewish cartoons, and then let the world take note of whether the Jews throw a tantrum demanding death or hand severance for the cartoonists, burning down embassies, etc. !!!!!
3 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
There is an old saying: the Trotskys make the revolutions - the Bronsteins pay the bills.
The Danes scrawled some anti-Mohammed graffitti in a newspaper - and we Jews get screwed over for it. It's just a pleasure being Jewish sometimes. It's a good thing the bastards don't have an embassy in TA. I'd spend bus fare just to firebomb it, just to teach them that this shit can go two ways.
But wait! The Egyptians DO have an embassy in TA. Hmmm... Nah. It costs too much to go to TA and back.
4 - Nancy
Now they're blaming the US for these cartoons. Not sure how they arrived at that conclusion, either.
5 - zingzing
oh, let them have their fun. they obviously realize that they are being childish and antagonistic. that's the point. i wish they wouldn't choose the holocaust as a target, but whatever... free speech is free speech. that said, if they do this then they have no right to be upset about the cartoons that caused the uproar. so, they can either print these lovely cartoons and shut up, or they can be angry. let them print the cartoons and get over themselves.
6 - Jack from NOI
Who cares! They have been mocking people of other religions since the time of the perverted Mohammed started...
7 - gracefulboomer
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has spoken.
The cartoon controversy is a Zionist conspiracy, of course.
'Khamenei: Cartoon row is 'zionist conspiracy'
-AP 02/08/06
Could this get any more absurd?
8 - The Fifth Dentist
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9 - Baronius
I looked for this article to be labeled "satire", but I guess the word "Iran" covers it.
I read where a senior Iraqi official said that his country has for years been the North Korea of the middle east, and now they want to be the South Korea. It really seems like Iran is becoming North Korea.
10 - David Gutmann
My entry to the Holocaust Cartoon Competition:
Ann Frank wears a placard on which is written: "Holocaust? What Holocaust? I died of the mumps."
11 - Justin Berry
I am really more concerned about the snubbing of their nose at the IAEA, than some childish attempt to piss off Israel.
Without IAEA inspections the rest of the world just has to wonder if Iran has WMD's. Didnt we just go through this with Iraq? This problem should fall to France, Germany, and Russia. They wussed out on confronting Iraq so I am sure Iran feels pretty confident that they will flounder again.
As for the cartoons it is just an obvious attempt to get Isreal to react by force against Iran. If Israel does react it will garner Iran more Middle Eastern support for everything they want. I wouldnt be suprised if the radical islamists send their own suicide bombers into embassies in an attempt to blame it on the Israelis.
12 - Reality
A nation is never united in one cause, not even Iran. Yes the government opposes intense scrutiny of their nuclear program, much like Iraq opposed scrutiny of their mysteriously absent weapons programs, and organizes a peaceful response to anti-semitic propaganda, but this does not make all of Iran the same. The way I see it is that we can either cut ourselves off from the opportunity to reach some peaceful relationship with these people or we can push for war. The choice is ours.