Iranian Intellectuals On Holocaust Conference
The February 15 issue of the New York Review of Books contains a letter by Gholam Reza Afkhami and over one hundred other Iranian intellectuals, writers, and artists, including Azar Nafisi, Marjane Satrapi, and Shahrnush Parsipur, contesting the Holocaust conference recently sponsored by the government of Iran:
We the undersigned Iranians,
Notwithstanding our diverse views on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict;
Considering that the Nazis' coldly planned "Final Solution" and their ensuing campaign of genocide against Jews and other minorities during World War II constitute undeniable historical facts;
Deploring that the denial of these unspeakable crimes has become a propaganda tool that the Islamic Republic of Iran is using to further its own agendas;
Noting that the new brand of anti-Semitism prevalent in the Middle East today is rooted in European ideological doctrines of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and has no precedent in Iran's history;
Emphasizing that this is not the first time that the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has resorted to the denial and distortion of historical facts;
Recalling that this government has refused to acknowledge, among other things, its mass execution of its own citizens in 1988, when thousands of political prisoners, previously sentenced to prison terms, were secretly executed because of their beliefs; Strongly condemn the Holocaust Conference sponsored by the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Tehran on December 11–12, 2006, and its attempt to falsify history;
Pay homage to the memory of the millions of Jewish and non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust, and express our empathy for the survivors of this immense tragedy as well as all other victims of crimes against humanity across the world.
You can view the letter and its signatories here.
ABF, for the promotion of human rights and democracy in Iran
6 comments:
I am glad they did this..
I am glad they did this..
Thank you so much for posting this. You continue to amaze me. I always feel hopeful after reading your posts. I should do this more often! :)
It's good to see some sanity in the land of theocratic crazies...
Thanks for posting, it's always great to be reminded that there are good people living under a madman.
The Holocaust conference shames IranDecember 14, 2006
iranian.com
Amil Imani
We have been telling the world that the present clique of Islamofascists ruling Iran is not Iranian in the world-view. And with each passing day fresh evidence supports our claim. The recent gathering of some of the world's fascists in Tehran, at the invitation of the Islamic Republic of Iran's Islamofascist President Ahmadinejad, provides further support to our claim.
Iranians have never had any animosity toward the Jewish people. In fact, our friendship with the Jews goes back thousands of years. You have to be a fascist to pick, with no justification at all, on any people to persecute and aim to annihilate. True Iranians are among the world's staunchest supporters of universal human rights.
The circus in Tehran, billed as "a conference", was nothing more than a disgusting attempt by the savage inheritors of Muhammad's dogma of hate to continue in his tradition of wanton attacks on all unbelievers, particularly the Jews.
It is said that you can tell a great deal about people by the company they keep. And who was given a front seat at this "conference?" It was, arguably, one of the world's greatest racist scums, former KKK Imperial Wizard David Duke.
In order to show his hateful fiber and simultaneously ingratiate himself to his newly discovered Petrodollar rich co- fascists, the fool Wizard told the 70 or so participants, "The Zionists have used the Holocaust as a weapon to deny the rights of the Palestinians and cover up the crimes of Israel", music to the ears of the hate-driven mullahs and fascists of the world.
Then, the Wizard told the Associated Press, "The Holocaust is the device used as the pillar of Zionist imperialism, Zionist aggression, Zionist terror and Zionist murder".
You are excused if you dismiss the "conference" as an inconsequential forum, since any event that would have David Duke as its star attraction is bound to be nothing more than an instance of psychopathic bigotry. However, rest assured that this is not the case. The shameless Wizard and his handler, the equally disgusting fascist, have other "luminaries" working with them side-by-side to demonstrate conclusively that the Holocaust is a myth and the Jews will have to re-experience it to make it real to the delight of these children of Hitler.
The impish Ahmadinejad, a man called "monkey" by Iranians, opened Tuesday's session by thanking God that the Zionist regime was about to expire soon and declaring "its lifetime will be over and their interests as well as reputation will be endangered".
Parroting the line of the "monkey", Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour, a former interior minister and one of the founders of the Lebanese Hezbollah, told the gathering, "All the studies and research carried out so far have proven that there is no reason to believe that the Holocaust ever occurred and that it is only a tale".
A card-carrying psychopath, Austrian Wolfgang Froehlich, who served a two-year jail sentence in his home country for denying the Holocaust, handed out the text of his speech to participants. Apparently he did not relish another trip to jail, since denying the Holocaust is a crime in a number of European countries, while it can earn one valued privileges in some Islamic lands.
A crowning comment was that of Nabil Soleiman, an adviser to the ministry of religious affairs in Syria. "If the Holocaust ever occurred, it was a conspiracy against the Arab-Islamic world and today the Middle East is still paying the consequences", he said at the event.
Mohammad Ali Ramini, an Ahmadinejad adviser, announced that he will chair a committee to find "the truth on the genocide of Jews", at the end of the gathering. And here the rest of us had thought that these bigots had already the truth about the myth of the Holocaust in hand. They have been saying so, even before this landmark "scholarly" gathering took place. Why bother with another "high" commission to prove the proven? Well, it's one of those fascists' ways.
Serving on the committee with Ramini was Robert Fuerisson, a French professor who denies the existence of gas chambers, as well as Holocaust deniers from Syria, Switzerland, Austria, Canada, the United States and Bahrain.
Now, how could anyone express any reservation, much less disgust about the impartial work of such a "distinguished" international group of "scholars", sponsored by, no less than the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran?
We, Iranians, denounce this circus of hate and fraud that sullies the reputation of our nation. We hold the betrayers of our heritage of friendship and respect for all people accountable for their crimes against us and all humans who are affronted by the shameless actions of the propagators of hate.
We, free Iranians, express our deepest sympathy to the Jewish people for what they have suffered at the hands of the Nazis; and we condemn, in the strongest terms, the new coalition of fascists who are gathering under the disgusting and dangerous banner of Islamofascism. Comment
Amil Imani is an Iranian-born American citizen and pro-democracy activist residing in the United States of America. Imani is a columnist, literary translator, novelist and an essayist who has been writing and speaking out for the struggling people of his native land, Iran. He maintains a website at www.AmilImani.com.
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