First Holocaust cartoon in
2006-02-14 10:45
Tehran - A Brazilian was the first to officially enter an Iranian newspaper's contest for cartoons about the Holocaust, said Masoud Shojai, head of the contest secretariat, on Monday.
The contest was devised by Hamshahri, one of Iran's top five newspapers, in response to publication in the West of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
The newspaper said its contest was a test of the Western world's readiness to print cartoons about the Nazi slaughter of six million Jews in World War II.
The first entry depicts a man, smoking a cigarette and wearing a blue and white striped prison uniform, with a tall wall and guard tower in the background.
The man, with a moustache, is wearing a white keffiyeh (fez) and has his right hand over his forehead and eyes.
On his chest is a red Muslim crescent with a letter "P". Below that is the number 7 256, the significance of which was not immediately clear, although Israel is said to be holding about 8 000 Palestinian prisoners.
The Brazilian artist listed as the author of the cartoon could not be reached to confirm the entry was by him.
Scientific evidence
The contest was officially opened with a posting on the Hamshahri website on Sunday. It called for cartoons under the title: "What is the Limit of Western Freedom of Expression?"
The website that carried a reproduction of the first entry also printed a notice at the top of the page that indicated it might also be connected to an Iranian foreign ministry sponsored conference to examine what it called the scientific evidence surrounding the Holocaust.
The English-language notice read: "Attention. Regarding to clarification of the issue of 'Holocaust' this website possibly will be closed by United States." It then provided links to three other sites.
No date or place has been give for the Holocaust conference, nor is it known who might be asked to attend.
The official opening of the cartoon contest was also announced on page 31 of the print version of the paper.
"We don't intend retaliation over the drawings of the prophet. We just want to show that freedom is restricted in the West," said Davood Kazemi, executive manager of the contest and cartoon editor at the paper since 1992.
The contest opened more than four months after the caricatures of the prophet were printed in Denmark and just days after widespread protests in much of the Muslim world, where the cartoons were deemed insulting to Islam.
Last fall Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad provoked similar outrage in Europe when he said Israel should be "wiped off the map" and that the Holocaust was a "myth".
- AP