IRANIAN PAPER PLANS HOLOCAUST CARTOONS
By Jeremy Reynalds (02/09/06)
An Iranian newspaper said Tuesday it would hold a competition for cartoons on the Holocaust to test whether the West extends the principle of freedom of expression to the Nazi genocide as it did to the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
Reuters reported that the Brussels-based Conference of European Rabbis (CER) denounced the idea and urged the Muslim world to do likewise.
Hamshahri's (www.hamshahri.net) Davoud Kazemi, who is in charge of the contest, told Reuters that each of the 12 winners would have their cartoons published and receive two gold coins (worth about $140 each) as a prize.
The Associated Press (AP) reported that Hamshahri, which is one of Iran's largest papers, said the contest is a reaction to European newspapers' publication of Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, which have led to demonstrations, boycotts and attacks on European embassies across the Islamic world. Several people have been killed.
The AP reported the newspaper said the contest would be launched Monday and co-sponsored by the House of Caricatures, a Tehran exhibition center for cartoons. The paper and the cartoon center are owned by the Tehran Municipality, which is dominated by allies of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, well-known for his opposition to Israel.
Ahmadinejad, who was Tehran's mayor until being elected president in June, provoked outcries last year when he said on separate occasions, the AP reported, that Israel should be "wiped off the map" and the Holocaust was a "myth."
Iran said last month it would sponsor a conference to examine the scientific evidence supporting the Holocaust, an apparent attempt to give voice to Holocaust deniers.
Hamshahri invited foreign cartoonists to enter the competition.
"Does the West extend freedom of expression to the crimes committed by the United States and Israel, or an event such as the Holocaust? Or is its freedom only for insulting religious sanctities?" the AP reported Hamshahri wrote, referring to the cartoons depicting Muhammad.
In Paris, CER President Joseph Sitruk, who is also Chief Rabbi of France, told Reuters, "The Iranian regime has plummeted to new depths if it regards the deaths of six million Jews as a matter for humor or to score cheap political points.
"Sadly, we are not surprised by this action," Reuters reported he said, recalling Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's calls last year for Israel to be "wiped off the map" and his dismissal of the Holocaust as a myth.
RADICAL ISLAMIC BULLETIN BOARD ASKS FOR COMMENTS ON IRANIAN STATEMENT
A radical Islamic bulletin board asked for comments (www.islamicawakening.com/haveyoursay.php?hysid=46&) on the Iranian president's statement.
Here is a selection.
One person stated, "What the Iranian President said is the truth. The whole of Israel is an occupied land from the river to the sea, all is Historical Palestine and Palestinians lived there before Israel was established in 1948. May the Ummah rise and remove the cancer of Israel in our midst."
Another writer said, "What President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Israeli should be wiped from the map needed saying. Bush and his Zionist cronies have Syria and Iran next in their cross-hairs and plan to invade these Islamic lands regardless. I know many think that this just adds fuel to the fire but I do believe war against the Terrorist State of Israeli and the Zionist forces is inevitable ... "
Someone else wrote, "Truly, the United States has done a strategic mistake in supporting Isreal to this extent, and giving the Jews such a favored position here in the states. I truly think that this entity (The Jewish State) is illegal, and should stop to exist."
Another person commented, "The Iranian President, in fact, is saying that the whole of Israel are illegal settlements which must be dismantled! He is courageous enough to tell the world the truth."
IRAN AND THE JEWS
In a statement issued by the CER, which represents chief rabbis from over 40 European countries, Reuters reported Sitruk said the Iranian government menaced Jews and the whole international community.
Reuters reported Sitruk noted that European religious leaders had condemned the publication of images likely to offend believers' feelings.
"This is a test for the Muslim world to react immediately to condemn their own co-religionists in Iran for such obscene behavior as we condemned those who sought to insult them," Reuters reported he said.
The cartoons were first published by a Danish newspaper in September. As Muslim protests mounted, numerous European newspapers have reprinted them in recent days in the name of free expression, provoking wider and angrier protests.
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