Iran daily holds contest for Holocaust cartoons

Testing the bounds of freedom of speech with Holocaust cartoons

Iran's best-selling newspaper has launched a competition to find the best cartoon about the Holocaust in retaliation for the publication in many European countries of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed.

The daily paper Hamshahri said the contest was designed to test the boundaries of free speech, the reason given by many European newspapers for publishing the Prophet Mohammed cartoons.

"A serious question for Muslims is this: '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?'" the paper said today.

Testing free speech
Hamshahri, far from any conflict-seeking attitude or illogical behaviour, has called on the artists of the world to use free speech to send cartoons on these issues to take part in the contest," it added.

Newspaper staff could not immediately be reached for comment as the paper was closed ahead of a public holiday tomorrow.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s president, provoked international condemnation last year by calling the Holocaust a "myth" and saying Israel should be "wiped off the map".

Fresh protests erupted across Asia and the Middle East yesterday over the caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, despite calls by world leaders for calm.

Iran announced it has since cut all trade ties with Denmark because of the cartoons and hundreds of protesters hurled rocks and fire bombs at the Danish embassy in Tehran last night.

A Danish newspaper first published the cartoons last September, and newspapers in Norway and a dozen other countries reprinted them last month. – Reuters