- At the invitation of Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, convicted Holocaust deniers and racist leaders are gathering in Tehran to "discuss myths" surrounding the Nazi slaughtering of millions of Jews. Serious researchers were not invited or denied entry, as was the case of a Palestinian who has documented the Holocaust for his fellow Arabs.
President Ahmadinejad had convened the "Holocaust conference" as a tit-for-tat response to this year's controversial Mohammed caricatures, which were defended by European governments as a consequence of freedom of speech. Iran, he said, practiced even more freedom of speech, and would therefore allow gagged Western critics of what he called the "myth" of Holocaust to present their views in Tehran. Denying the Holocaust is illegal in several European countries, including Germany and France.
It was therefore an astonishing mix of "experts" that arrived the Mullah regime to attend the conference, many of which nurture racist prejudices against the peoples of the Middle East. Scholars, reputed scientists and let alone Holocaust victims were not on the guest list as the conference kicked off in Tehran yesterday.
Among the most remarkable guests is David Duke, a former leader of the illegalised US racist action group Ku Klux Klan, which attacked, killed and flogged blacks during the civil rights campaigns. Mr Duke calls himself a "white nationalist" but critics label him a "white supremacist". His only knowledge of the Holocaust are his many statements in support of Ernst Zündel's Holocaust denial campaign.
Known and convicted Holocaust deniers also are attending the conference. These include French author Georges Thiel, who has called the Holocaust "an enormous lie". Further, Australian citizen Frederick Toben, who has served a prison sentence in Germany for inciting racial hatred, claimed that "the Holocaust dogma" was a "mental rape" and tried to prove that gas chambers could not have existed in Nazi extermination camps.
A more curious group attending the conference are US and European rabbis from the ultra-Orthodox group Neturei Karta. While insisting the Holocaust has happened and is well documented, this Jewish fringe group claims it has been misused to justify an Israeli state and to abuse Palestinians. The religious sect holds that it is not up to mankind to establish a new Israel, but that this will be done when the Messiah arrives.
More interesting, however, are those not invited to Tehran. The Israeli Arab Khaled Mahmaid, who is working to enlighten his fellow Arabs on the bloody history of the Nazi empire with his own Holocaust documentation in Nazareth, was unwelcome. The brave Palestinian lawyer wanted to publicly rebuke President Ahmadinejad and therefore was refused entry to Iran.
Also missing are representatives of the victims of the mass slaughtering, who otherwise always stand central when an act of crime is to be discussed or analysed. No wonder, then, that Iran's only Jewish MP, Moris Motamed, termed the whole event "an insult" to the Jewish people.
While protests from the entire world are ticking in to Tehran over its Holocaust denial conference, even most Iranians see the presidential initiative as extremely bad tasted. President Ahmadinejad at a Tehran university therefore today for the first time was attacked by student protesters, chanting "death to the dictator" and wearing posters protesting the "shameful" event.
Despite the President's "free speech" motives, critics of his Holocaust denial view had not been allowed to confront the "Nazis and racists" brought into the country, protesting students said.
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