Some of the angriest protests have been in
Tehran |
An
Iranian paper is holding a contest for cartoons about the Holocaust, to
retaliate against the publication of images of the Prophet Muhammad.
Hamshahri says it wants to test the boundaries of free speech, echoing
the reasons European papers gave for publishing the caricatures.
There have been protests about the images across the Muslim world,
where they are seen as insulting and racist.
One showed Muhammad, whose image is banned in Islam, as a terrorist
bomber.
"Does the West's freedom of _expression_ extend to... an event such as
the Holocaust or is this freedom of _expression_ only for the desecration of
the sanctities of divine religions?" the best-selling paper said in its
announcement.
It also asks for cartoons covering "America and Israel's crimes and
plundering".
Iran's conservative rulers are supportive of so-called Holocaust
revisionist historians, who argue that the systematic slaughter of Jews by
Nazi Germany during World War II has been exaggerated for political ends.
Hitler formula
Graphics editor Farid Mortazavi, who announced the contest, challenged
Western newspapers to publish the Iranian cartoons as they did the
European ones.
As the row has escalated, Tehran has cut trade ties with Denmark
because of the cartoons, first published there last September by the
conservative Jyllands-Posten newspaper, and recalled its ambassador in
Copenhagen.
Hamshahri is offering gold coins to the best 12 artists - the same
number of cartoons that were commissioned by Jyllands-Posten.
It claims to be "keeping its distance from vindictive or irrational
conduct" and says full details will be published on 13 February.
The dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, a Jewish human rights and
educational organisation, condemned the competition.
"They're following the classic formula of Adolf Hitler, which says if
there's a problem, it's the fault of the Jews," said Rabbi Marvin Hier in
an interview with AFP.
