"Holocaust" Cartoon Contest Winner Announced

TEHRAN (Reuters) – A Moroccan won first prize on Wednesday in Iran’s
International Holocaust Cartoons Contest, which had sparked outrage
in Israel, the West and among Jewish groups.

Iran’s best-selling newspaper, Hamshahri, launched a competition in February
to find the best cartoon about the Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews were
killed by the Nazis.

The contest was a retaliation for last year’s publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad in Danish and other European newspapers that angered Muslims worldwide.

Convoluted thinking. A Danish newspaper runs a cartoon that Muslims find offensive. In response thousands take to the street and riot. And then for good measure the head of the Iranian gov’t decides that there should be a contest to come up with a cartoon that would be offensive to Jews and Israel, and if he is lucky the west. He does this in spite of the fact that Jews/Israel were not a part of the Danish cartoon.

It is not just juvenile, it is calculated and well thought out.

Presenting a prize to a representative of Moroccan cartoonist Abdellah
Derkaoui, Culture and Islamic Guidance Minister Mohammad Hossein Saffar-Harandi praised Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who has described the Holocaust as a “myth.”

“Our president was the brave and freedom-seeking person who started
this debate without being concerned about its consequences,” Saffar-Harandi
said.

Ahmadinejad is doing several things. He is testing the water. He wants to see what kind of reaction his actions receive. He is trying to establish new facts that he can use to try to demonize and dehumanize Israel with.

Don’t take this man for a complete fool and don’t be fooled into thinking that he is full of bluster. He means what he says. He is very dangerous.