Holocaust Cartoons Displayed in Tehran

August 15, 2006

Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4795709.stm

On August 15, 2006 BBC News reported, "More than 200 Holocaust cartoons from around the world are on display at a museum in the Iranian capital, Tehran. Organisers of the exhibition say they are testing the West's commitment to freedom of speech.

A competition to choose the drawings was announced in February, in response to caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad published by European newspapers.

Israel's Holocaust authority, Yad Vashem, criticised the exhibition, calling it a 'flashing red light.'

The drawings were chosen from nearly 1,200 entries received from various countries including the United States, Indonesia and Turkey.

One of the cartoons shows the Statue of Liberty holding a book on the Holocaust in one hand and giving a Nazi salute with the other.

The Iran Cartoon Organisation and Hamshahri newspaper are putting on the exhibition.

Organiser Masoud Shojai said: 'You see they allow the Prophet to be insulted. But when we talk about the Holocaust, they consider it so holy that they punish people for questioning it.'"