Posted on 12/10/2006 3:20:05 AM PST by MadIvan
DEFYING international condemnation, Iran will open a conference tomorrow questioning whether the Holocaust — in which millions of Jews and other minorities were killed by the Nazis — really happened.
An official at the Iranian foreign ministry claimed that delegates from 30 countries, including Britain, would attend the conference, initiated by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The president, who claims the Holocaust is a myth used to justify the occupation of Palestinian land, has called for Israel to be wiped off the map and suggested that its citizens could be resettled in Alaska.
Among the first arrivals in Tehran for the two-day forum, called Studying the Holocaust: An International View, was Frederick Töben, who describes himself as an “expert”. Töben, an Australian Holocaust denier, brought his own model of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. He claimed that it proved there would have been no room for the Jews — at least 1.1m — whose deaths there were documented in Nazi records.
Asked why western countries were so outraged, he replied: “The Holocaust equals a lie. Therefore Israel is built on a lie.”
The agenda is chilling. The Iranians have presented the forum in the banal manner of international conferences where experts examine evidence in open debate.
The seminars could have been designed to cause maximum pain to Holocaust survivors and their descendants. Gas Chambers: Denial or Confirmation, is the title of one. Others are entitled Freedom of Speech and the Stance of Holocaust Deniers in the West, and The Current Laws Against Holocaust Deniers.
With no trace of irony, Iranian officials said the conference — sponsored by the Institute for Political and International Studies, a foreign ministry think tank — would include archives, photographs and demographic evidence to establish whether the number of victims was exaggerated.
“Our aim is scientifically to study the Holocaust and listen to both sides before reaching a conclusion,” said Manouchehr Mohammadi, the foreign ministry spokesman for research. “We weren’t involved in this event so we can be a neutral judge. If we conclude that the Holocaust happened, we will admit it, but we are still going to ask why the Palestinians have to pay the price.”
Iranian sources said the conference emerged from a behind-the-scenes struggle. Foreign ministry officials are well aware that it will have a negative impact on the country’s image at a time when Iran is already under pressure at the United Nations over its nuclear programme, support for Hezbollah in Lebanon and Shi’ite groups in Iraq.
Hence, although Ahmadinejad has been publicly flagging the conference for almost a year, foreign ministry officials who were supposed to organise it have been dragging their feet. Forced to go ahead by the president, the foreign ministry tried to portray the conference as an exercise in free speech. It was at pains to point out that Iran has a community of 25,000 Jews. who are protected by the government.
One foreign ministry official said: “Does this conference make sense politically for Iran? No. The conference is being held to answer the questions of the president.” Tony Blair, who was invited, called it “shocking, ridiculous and stupid”.
One doesn't have to lie or make stuff up about Muhammad.
Read this debate between former Muslim Ali Sina and Iranian Ayatollah Montazeri.
http://www.faithfreedom.org/debates/montazeri.htm
If one has the supposedly revealed truth straight from God's mouth, one doesn't chop and change. This is marketing. To my knowledge, God doesn't do that.
Regards, Ivan
Read the url I left at post #81.
"if brains were dynamite they couldnt blow their noses"
God, I love that line!!! May I use it from time to time? That's the best one I've heard all day.
Be my guest.
And these are the people Baker wants us to negotiate with...
One great debate at your link. Al Sini has a great project going on.
His Islamic debate partners have a lot of class, manners wise. More than Al Sini.
But Al Sini has a lively mind, great energy, and the "winning" side of this debate.
I'm glad you took the time to visit his site. I hadn't been there myself in a long time. He is prepared to always be right, isn't he? :) But he is doing well. His new site looks great. I joined, but haven't had an opportunity to post there yet. And yes, he does have the winning side - or maybe I should say he has the right side and that I pray he wins.
Oh, riiight............those invertebrates in Congress wanted to be loved and respected by thugs the world over.
It's worked quite well, hasn't it.
But, really....what do you expect from a nation that was once a decent culture, until those damned Arabs/Muslims came along and bastardized it. I mean, they're still in a tailspin, trying to figure out what the hell went wrong. Cyrus, Darius and Xerxes would look upon modern "Persians" and wet themselves laughing at their "boldness".
Multi-Bumperoo
LOL, you are just laying back and taking it easy tonight!!
I won't post a discriptive gif..
You took the words out of my mouth. When is the world going to see how dangerous this man is? He is the Adolf Hitler of the 21st century.
LOL, I need to reverse my missiles so they point UP!!
They are working their way down the page now!
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