Holocaust denial
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President Ahmadinejad of Iran has now joined the storied ranks of holocaust deniers. This is following up on his stated desire to wipe Israel off the map. The statements were made during a meeting of the Organization of Islamic Conference in Mecca.
Iran’s official news agency IRNA quoted Ahmadinejad as saying of the Nazi Holocaust “Some European countries insist on saying that Hitler killed millions of innocent Jews in furnaces…”
“Although we don’t accept this claim, if we suppose it is true, our question for the Europeans is: is the killing of innocent Jewish people by Hitler the reason for their support to the occupiers of Jerusalem?” he said.
Another gem of historical knowledge that Ahmadinejad has come by is that Israelis have “no roots” in the Middle East. Maybe he should re-read the Holy Quran a little bit.
I can understand questioning the legitimacy of the Israeli claim over ‘occupied Palestine’ (the term that was used in all maps and text books when I went to school in Kuwait), but what point is there in denying the holocaust? Makes him (and Iran) look stupid at best and like a rabid zealot (which is the more likely case) at worst.
I’d be curious to see the reaction, if any of the rest of the members of the OIC. It is disappointing that as far as I can see there have been no urgent denunciations other than from the usual suspects (Russia may be a little bit of a surprise).
Maybe this is what his intention is.
From discussions with my Iranian friends, I have a good understanding of the country but a fascinating book I am reading now is increasing that knowledge: “In the Rose Garden of Martyrs” by The Economist journalist Christopher de Bellaigue. Here is a review by Pico Iyer for the NYT:
http://snipurl.com/knbd
The book talks about the brutal war with Iraq mostly but also delves into the psyche of the revolutionaries such as Ahmadinejad.
The New Yorker also had a relevant article recently. Worth a read for those interested in the current Iranian political scene.
What an extraordinary account of courage and resilience in the face of extreme adversity! Read it even if you have no interest in Iran or politics. Anupcs, thanks for posting the link.
I would also recommend “Reading Lolita in Teheran”, by Azar Nafisi. Terrific book!
The New Yorker piece was very powerful. We really have it good, eh? On the lighter side, this portion from the article article was priceless:
Eye-opening article on the New Yorker. And yes, this guy Belashabadi is funny: “Young people by nature are horny. Because they are horny, they like to watch satellite channels where there are films or programs they can jerk off to.”
There are lots of people and events that need to be denounced, many much more urgently than somebody denying the Holocaust. Mini holocausts continue to happen, people are denying them, lots of people don’t denounce these people. Every person dying in these would rather have someone denouncing the people carrying these out, and doing something about stopping it.
On the flip side, during the hoopla around “The Passion”, there were reports of how Mel and his dad had, at best, ambivalent views of the Holocaust. I don’t think Mel’s popularity in the US dipped much after that, especially after tons of people saw his movie and were stirred to great heights of passion by it. Lots of people denounced him, but lots of others obviously didn’t care.
Also, just because people recognize past holocausts, it doesn’t mean future and present ones, are going to be stopped, or prevented. The Killing Fields, Rwanda, Bosnia, E. Timor, and Darfur now are prime examples of ones after “The Holocaust”. Stalin killed quite a few in Ukraine just before. Most people in the US, for example, would rather make sure they don’t elect or impeach and dismiss the wrong leader so that the economy doesn’t go down or their country’s standing in the world militarily doesn’t go down. Maybe contribute some money to charity. People who get bulldozed literally when they protest and try to stop some wrong doing are outliers.
“Mel” (you have to excuse tansen and me for being so familiar–we went to school with lil Mel in Oz) is making a mini-series about the holocaust:
http://snipurl.com/ko63
I don’t think he ever denied the holocaust (would be a no-no in the Jewish run Hollywood) but his father is definitely on record saying that.
Even if he did deny the Holocaust, to me (perhaps my own lack of perspective) it does not rise to the level of the elected leader of 68 million people denying it. It would be the equivalent of Angela Merkel denying that the killing fields ever happened after stating that she plans to wipe out Cambodia off the map.
Yes we try to do our best, but even rantlust has its limits
Not to defend Ahmedinejad, but I think the Western media jumped on his “raving Ayotallah” comment, while ignoring the predominant ‘Arab’ viewpoint he was voicing: “Why are Palestinians suffering today for Europe’s crimes of the Holocaust”, as a response to the use of the Holocaust to justify the creation of Israel. On a recent trip to Israel, I got lathi-charged by my Israeli guide for suggesting that perhaps the Palestinians living in Jerusalem had a right to be there. He all but branded me an anti-semite.
While the emotional scars of the Holocaust have obviously not healed in the western conscience, it just doesn’t elicit as much emotion in the East, which is probably used to death in large numbers. Holocaust denial is officially a crime in Germany. In the East, people casually chalk it down along with the the Great Bengal famine(1942-43: 3 million deaths), the Great Leap forward (1959-62: 25 million deaths), Killing fields (3 million) and several other that tansen pointed out, and wonder what the fuss is all about.
How many Brits today would express surprise on hearing that world war II hero Winston Churchill was atleast responsible by wilful negligence of 3 million Indian deaths in the Great Bengal Famine. By semitic logic, they’d be anti-Bengalites?
Hello stranger sanu. Welcome to rantlust! So I did some poking around regarding Ahmadinejad’s statements, and there seems to be at least some difference in emphasis regarding what he said. For example, an AP report (links at the end) does not seem to indicate that he denied the Holocaust at all. So to your first point, I am willing to concede that the western media may have ‘conveniently’ ignored the thrust of his argument (though he did not do himself any favors through his earlier remarks).
I also agree with your and tansen’s remarks that the Holocaust (and holocaust denials) gets more play than other disasters of similar magnitude.
I do not agree with some of your other comments, particularly equating ignorance (perhaps unconscionable) of lay people to a leader’s wilful denial. So no, your hypothetical suprised Brit would not be anti-Bengalite. A better but not exact analogy (to me) would be Tony Blair declaring that he plans to remove Punjab from the map and denying the Jalianwallah Bagh massacre.
AP report - http://snipurl.com/kp38
Interesting Arab reaction - http://ncr-iran.org/content/view/666/1/
Well looks like this story won’t die easily. In case anybody had doubts, Ahmadinejad has explicitly stated that the Holocaust is a myth - so it is hard to conclude that the western media is playing up that part of his statements.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4527142.stm
His rationale boggles my mind. If he wants to make the ‘European guilt’ argument I would imagine that he would want the Holocaust to not be a myth.
Because Germans victimized Jews the Palestinians must now pay the price:
http://www.knesset.gov.il/process/docs/safe_passage_eng.htm
I hope I don’t sound like a broken record here. I have no problems with arguments around Palestinian suffering and the legitimacy of Israeli claims (the latter part was duly noted in the original blog).
Just heard that Ahmadinejad has banned playing tunes like those from KennyG and Wham in Iran - normally used as background music in TV Shows and Malls.
When will we in the US be so blessed?
Throw in Barry Manilow and Barry White here as well. I want to live in a country free of such music.
Now, a conference to examine the “scientific” evidence of the Holocaust.
Pretty stunning case of David Irving being sentenced to 3 years in prison for holocaust denial. There was a detailed discussion about this on NPR’s ‘Talk of the Nation’. The guy went to Austria after publicizing that he was going to speak at some right wing gathering, inspite of knowing that there was a warrant out for his arrest.
[...] Moving on from one nutcase dictator to another… The Iranian president (I find it difficult to spell out his last name) has written a letter to ‘Noble Americans’. It’s full of his usual anti-Bush rhetoric. Well, at least this guy likes writing letters and he even has a blog. And he doesn’t look as clownish as Kim Jong-Il. [...]