Iran Holocaust Cartoons Contest - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

International Holocaust Cartoon Contest was a cartoon competition sponsored by the Iranian newspaper Hamshahri
Hamshahri
Hamshahri is a major national Iranian Persian-language newspaper published by the Municipality of Tehran, and founded by Gholamhossein Karbaschi. It is the first coloured daily newspaper in Iran and has over 60 pages of classified advertisement, and is priced at 1000 Iranian rials. Currently, the...

, to denounce what it called 'Western hypocrisy on freedom of speech

Freedom of speech

Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...

'. The event was staged in response to the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy

Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy

The Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy began after 12 editorial cartoons, most of which depicted the Islamic prophet Muhammad, were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on 30 September 2005...

, and to challenge Western accounts of the Holocaust. The event was criticised by United Nations Secretary-General

United Nations Secretary-General

The Secretary-General of the United Nations is the head of the Secretariat of the United Nations, one of the principal organs of the United Nations. The Secretary-General also acts as the de facto spokesperson and leader of the United Nations....

Kofi Annan

Kofi Atta Annan is a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the UN from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2006...

, the Israeli foreign ministry, Reporters Without Borders

Reporters Without Borders

Reporters Without Borders is a France-based international non-governmental organization that advocates freedom of the press. It was founded in 1985, by Robert Ménard, Rony Brauman and the journalist Jean-Claude Guillebaud. Jean-François Julliard has served as Secretary General since 2008...

, the Anti-Defamation League

Anti-Defamation League

The Anti-Defamation League is an international non-governmental organization based in the United States. Describing itself as "the nation's premier civil rights/human relations agency", the ADL states that it "fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects...

and other parties.

The Contest

On February 6, 2006, Farid Mortazavi, graphics editor of Hamshahri, announced a competition for cartoons on the Holocaust. The twelve best contributions were to be rewarded with a golden coin each, which were later increased to $5000 to $12000 prizes for the top 3 cartoons and 3 gold coins each for 12 other cartoonists. Later, Hamshahri published an English introduction to the contest, as well as preliminary rules.

The contest was created in response to the twelve cartoons published by the Danish

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

newspaper Jyllands-Posten
Jyllands-Posten
Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten , commonly shortened to Jyllands-Posten or JP, is a Danish daily broadsheet newspaper. It is based in Viby, a suburb of Århus, and with a weekday circulation of approximately 120,000 copies, it is among the largest-selling newspaper in Denmark...

(see Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy
Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy
The Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy began after 12 editorial cartoons, most of which depicted the Islamic prophet Muhammad, were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten on 30 September 2005...

) to challenge the championing of freedom of speech in the defense of the Jyllands-Posten cartoons. This was done under the notion that those who supported the Jyllands-Posten's right to free speech in matters concerning Islam would be placed in a precarious position were they to condemn the antisemitic cartoons targeted at one of the most sensitive of Jewish topics. In that introductory message for the contest, Hamshahri denounced what they called Western hypocrisy on the freedom of speech, alleging that "it is impossible in the West to joke upon or even discuss certain topics related to Judaism, such as the Holocaust, and the pretexts for the creation of Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

."

On February 14, 2006, the editor in chief of Hamshahri commented in Persian that "the purpose of establishing such a competition is not to offend or ridicule anyone, but to do a discussion about the realities of the Holocaust." He also indicated that Hamshahri tries really hard not to cause pain for anyone and also added that the newspaper has no contention with the Jews in Iran or any other place, but that it has problems with Zionism

Zionism

Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...

. Masood Shojaei, the director of Iran’s Caricature House which cosponsored the competition also said: "Iran’s Caricature House, as the only technically qualified center involved in the competition regards the holocaust topic as a terrible and saddening issue". The exhibition put on by The Iran Cartoon Organisation and Hamshahri newspaper opened on August 14, 2006.

After the winners were announced in November 2006, Shojaei said the competition would become an annual event. The Associated Press quoted him as saying "Actually, we will continue until the destruction of Israel". However, Shojaei categorically denies that he even spoke to the Associated Press reporter.

Conservatives

Conservative newspapers such as Kayhan

Kayhan

Kayhan is an influential newspaper in Iran. Directly under the supervision of the Office of the Supreme Leader, it is regarded to be "the most conservative Iranian newspaper."...

and Jomhouri Eslami have hailed the decision by Hamshahri
Hamshahri
Hamshahri is a major national Iranian Persian-language newspaper published by the Municipality of Tehran, and founded by Gholamhossein Karbaschi. It is the first coloured daily newspaper in Iran and has over 60 pages of classified advertisement, and is priced at 1000 Iranian rials. Currently, the...

for the contest, and their cartoonists, such as Maziyar Bizhani

Maziyar Bizhani

Maziar Bijani is a conservative cartoonist who publishes in Iranian newspapers such as Kayhan. He is known for his bitter criticism of reformers and pro-Western capitalists. Before becoming a cartoonist, he studied politics. Maziar Bijani's work has been featured in various websites promoting...

have actively entered the competition.

Reformers

Several reformers criticized the cartoon competition and also the president's statements about the Holocaust. Emadoddin Baghi, a famous member of religious-intellectuals circle, Ebrahim Yazdi

Ebrahim Yazdi

Ebrahim Yazdi is an Iranian politician and diplomat who served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs in the interim government of Mehdi Bazargan, until his resignation in November 1979, in protest to the Iran hostage crisis...

, the head of Nehzat Azadi Party, Hamid Reza Jalaeipour, a prominent figure of Islamic Iran Participation Front

Islamic Iran Participation Front

The Islamic Iran Participation Front is a reformist political party in Iran...

and Sadeq Zibakalam, a prominent political analyst of the Kargozaran party criticized these new policies by calling them "useless, scientifically-baseless and purely political actions which originates from the authorities' lack of historical knowledge". In an interview with BBC, Nikahang Kowsar

Nikahang Kowsar

Nikahang Kowsar, also known as Nik Kowsar is an Iranian cartoonist, journalist, and blogger, currently living in Toronto, Canada. Kowsar was also a reformist candidate for the second term of city council of Tehran in 2003, an election won by the conservative candidates of Abadgaran.He studied...

, a former cartoonist for Hamshahri, said he thought the competition was the wrong approach. "It's a bad reaction to a bad action coming from the Danish newspaper", he told the BBC. He also claimed in his weblog that, Hamshahri cartoonists will have a bad fate if they refuse to take part in the competition.

Reaction outside of Iran

On February 8, Flemming Rose

Flemming Rose

Flemming Rose is a Danish-Jewish journalist, author and cultural editor at the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. He was principally responsible for the publishing of the cartoons that initiated the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy.- Life :Rose has a major in Russian language and...

(the cultural editor for Jyllands-Posten), told CNN

CNN

Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

: "My newspaper is trying to establish a contact with that Iranian newspaper Hamshahri, and we would run the cartoons the same day as they publish them". Later that day, the paper's editor-in-chief said that Jyllands-posten would under no circumstances publish the Holocaust cartoons.

On February 14, 2006, the Hamshahri website suffered a denial-of-service attack

Denial-of-service attack

A denial-of-service attack or distributed denial-of-service attack is an attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users...

. Simultaneously, the websites of Iran's ministry of education and two major Iranian banks, Sepah Bank

Bank Sepah

-History:The first Iranian bank, Bank Sepah was established in 1925 ; its first branch, in Rasht, opened that year. The bank also has branches in Frankfurt, Paris and Rome as well as a wholly owned subsidiary, Bank Sepah International plc which operates in London. "Sepah" is the poetic Persian...

and Refah Bank, became inaccessible, as they were all hosted by the same backbone

Internet backbone

The Internet backbone refers to the principal data routes between large, strategically interconnected networks and core routers in the Internet...

.

Six of the least controversial cartoons of the International Holocaust Cartoon Competition were republished by Danish Newspaper Dagbladet Information
Dagbladet Information
Information , full name: Dagbladet Information , is a Danish newspaper published Monday through Saturday.Originally established and edited by Børge Outze and published during the World War II by the Danish resistance movement. Information was illegal during the war as it was not regulated by the...

on September 8, 2006 after the editor consulted the main rabbi in Copenhagen, and three cartoons were later reprinted in Jyllands-Posten as well.

The event was also criticised by the then United Nations Secretary-General

United Nations Secretary-General

Kofi Annan

Kofi Atta Annan is a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the UN from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2006...

, the Israeli foreign ministry, Reporters Without Borders

Reporters Without Borders

, the Anti-Defamation League

Anti-Defamation League

and other parties.

The winners

On November 1, 2006, Abdellah Derkaoui

Abdellah Derkaoui

Abdellah Derkaoui is a Moroccan political cartoonist best known for winning the Iranian government's International Holocaust Cartoon Competition....

, a Moroccan, was announced as the winner and received the first prize of $12,000. The second prize of $8,000 was divided between the Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff

Carlos Latuff

Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian freelance political cartoonist. His works deal with an array of themes, including anti-globalization, anti-capitalism, anti-Semitism, and anti-U.S. military intervention. Moreover, the issue that he is best known for, are his images depicting the Israeli–Palestinian...

and Chard

Françoise Pichard

Françoise Pichard , also known as Chard and Pscharr, is a French far-right political cartoonist and illustrator of children books.- Biography :...

, from France. One prize went to Italy, two prizes to Morocco, one prize to Jordan, one to Syria, three to Brazil, and several prizes went to Iranians.

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