Iranian Paper Plans Holocaust Cartoons
by Jeremy Reynalds
February 9, 2006
(AgapePress) - - 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 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 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. Associated Press (AP) reported that Hamshahri, which is one of Iran's largest newspapers, said the contest is a reaction to European newspapers' publication of Danish cartoons of Muhammad, which have led to demonstrations, boycotts, and attacks on European embassies across the Islamic world. Several people have been killed.
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," he said, recalling Ahmadinejad's comments last year.
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. 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," 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.
Read earlier article about this writer, Jeremy Reynalds
Jeremy Reynalds is a special correspondent for ASSIST News Service and the founder and director of Joy Junction, New Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter. This article is reprinted with the permission of ASSIST News Service.
