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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Iran kicks of Holocaust-bashing cartoon fest |
| 2006-02-14 |
| A controversial contest for cartoons of the Holocaust was launched in Iran on Monday in a tit-for-tat move over the caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed that have enflamed Muslims worldwide. The first entry was said to be from renowned Australian cartoonist Michael Leunig, according to the Website organizing the competition with Iran's biggest selling newspaper Hamshahri, triggering outrage in the United States and Germany in particular. "As a show of solidarity with the Muslim world, and an exercise in free speech, I would like to submit a cartoon to you on the theme of the Holocaust," Leunig was quoted as saying in a statement on the Irancartoons.com Website. Hardline President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has already prompted international anger by dismissing the systematic slaughter by the Nazis of mainland Europe's Jews as a "myth" used to justify the creation of Israel. The first of Leunig's two cartoons on the Website show a poor man with a Star of David on his back walking toward the Auschwitz death camp in 1945 with the words "Work Brings Freedom" over the entrance. The second shows the same scene but depicting "Israel 2002" with the slogan "War Brings Peace" over the entrance and the same man walking toward it bearing a rifle. "I have had some difficulty getting this work published in my own country, and I believe it would help highlight the hypocrisy of the West's attitude to free speech if you were to publish it," the Melbourne-based Leunig was quoted as saying. Hamshahri, which is published by Tehran's conservative municipality, said that the contest was officially launched on Monday with the title "What is the limit on freedom of expression in the West?" Its graphics editor Farid Mortazavi said earlier this month that the aim was to turn the tables on the assertion that newspapers can print offensive material in the name of freedom of expression. Anger over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, first published in Denmark in September, has boiled over into violent demonstrations across much of the Muslim world. "Freedom of expression has always been a pretext for Westerners ... to insult the beliefs of Muslims," Hamshahri charged in its advertisement for the contest. "This assault is taking place while criticizing many issues such as the crimes of the United States and Israel as well as historical events like the Holocaust are seen as an unforgivable crime all over the West." Iran's fiercely anti-Israeli regime is supportive of so-called Holocaust revisionist historians, who maintain that the systematic slaughter by the Nazis of mainland Europe's Jews as well as other groups during World War II has been either invented or exaggerated. The newspaper said that the contest was open until May 5. It did not announce what the prize would be but said that each artist would receive a book of the cartoons submitted. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #7 Long range UAVs. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2006-02-14 21:58 |
| #6 Iran loves cartoons in the past they launched a Cartoon attack on visitors from outer space here is the report......me thinks Iran will have trouble finding plausible deniablity for the current flap in light of a repeating pattern.... According to Reuters, state-run television today broadcast a sparkling white disc flying over the capital of Tehran, saying it was filmed last night. People were reported rushing out into the streets in eight towns last night to watch a bright "extraterrestrial light dipping in and out of the clouds." The Islamic Republic News Agency also reports colorful objects seen beaming out green, red, blue and purple rays over the northern cities of Tabriz and Ardebil and in the Caspian Sea province of Golestan. And cartoons of alien spacecraft have been gracing the front pages of local newspapers this week. An air force officer in the Revolutionary Guards was quoted in the reformist Vagha-ye Etefaghiyeh daily saying Iran's Supreme National Security Council should investigate whether these visitors from afar had hostile intent, |
| Posted by: Snoluth Snineck5289 2006-02-14 21:29 |
| #5 Tim Blair has a new post showing Leunig for the self-obsessed moron he is. He is also remarkably unfunny/uninteresting. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2006-02-14 20:25 |
| #4 The first entry was said to be from renowned Australian cartoonist Michael Leunig It was, and it wasn't. The cartoon *was* actually drawn by Leunig in 2002. But he did not enter it into the contest, an anonymous prankster did. And now Leunig is whining mightily and frothily about the insult to his honor and dignity. Heh. Tim Blair has all the details; keep scrolling and keep the beverages well away from the keyboard! |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2006-02-14 15:17 |
| #3 And yet, as we've seen proved again and again, war does bring peace. But nontheless, I hope his newspaper fires him for participating. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-02-14 15:06 |
| #2 Why, because it's all about the jooooooooos!!! The jooooooos! The joooooos! The joooooooos! |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2006-02-14 06:19 |
| #1 Now, if I was an alien from Aldebaran 3, I'd wonder why Danish cartoons satirizing the Muslem prophet caused the later to attack Jews. |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2006-02-14 01:48 |