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Iran launches Holocaust cartoon competition

Updated: 09/Feb/2006 17:26

The Tehran daily Hamshahri newsroom, that wants to “test the boundaries of free speech”

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Iran’s biggest-selling newspaper has launched a competition to find the best cartoon about the Holocaust in response to the publication in Europe of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, including one showing a bomb tucked into his turban.

The Tehran daily, Hamshahri, said it wanted to “test the boundaries of free speech”. Farid Mortazawi, graphics editor of the newspaper, said, “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 added.

Davoud Kazemi, who is in charge of the contest, told news agencies that each of the 12 winners would have their cartoons published and receive a prize of two gold coins, worth about dollars 185 (around 154 euros) each.

“Does Western free speech allow working on issues like America and Israel’s crimes or an incident like the Holocaust, or is this freedom of speech only good for insulting the holy values of divine religions?” Kazemi asked.

Rabbi Joseph Sitruk, France’s chief rabbi, said, “The Iranian regime has plummeted to new depths if it regards the deaths of six million Jews as a matter for humour.”

In December Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad described the Holocaust as a “myth” and suggested that European countries create a Jewish state in their land in order to solve the Palestinian problem.

German denounces Iranian provocation

A German government minister said the Iranian newspaper’s call for Holocaust cartoons is an attempt to drag Israel into a conflict between Europe and the Muslim world over caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed.

	"Muhammad overflown by fundamentalists"
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	Israel v Denmark to go ahead, despite concerns
	Danish chief rabbi slams cartoon publication
	Palestinian gunmen storm EU offices
	Jewish dignitaries condemn Muhammad cartoon

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier described as a "provocation" the Iranian proposal to hold the cartoons competition.

"To deny the Holocaust in such a manner and to denigrate the memory of the victims, is not only tasteless but a provocation," Steinmeier told reporters after a meeting with his Portuguese counterpart Diogo Freitas do Amaral.

He said that freedom of expression and freedom of the press should not only be written into the constitutions of most European countries, but should be enforced.

"We have to explain that to Arab nations," Steinmeier added.

Does Western free speech allow working on issues like America and Israel’s crimes or an incident like the Holocaust, or is this freedom of speech only good for insulting the holy values of divine religions?

Davoud Kazemi

The proposal was earlier condemned by Deputy Foreign Minister Gernot Erler, who told the German newspaper Berliner Zeitung: "The Iranian government is provoking a conflict in a country which has absolutely no tradition of anti-Semitism.

"It should fill us with concern when the leadership of a country uses a war of cultures as an instrument of power."

On Wednesday, a commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards lashed out at German Chancellor Angela Merkel over her remarks on the Iranian nuclear programme, saying she "thinks she’s Hitler."

"In her childish dreams, Merkel imagines she’s Hitler and thinks that now she occupies the chancellor’s seat she can dictate orders to the world and to free countries," Commander Massoud Jazayeri was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.

"We cannot expect anything else from people with a Zionist past," he added.