Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Sauce for the Goose

Iran retaliates against the Mohammad-as-terrorist cartoons with cartoons mocking the holocaust:

IRAN'S largest selling newspaper announced today it was holding a contest on cartoons of the Holocaust in response to the publishing in European papers of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed.

"It will be an international cartoon contest about the Holocaust," said Farid Mortazavi, the graphics editor for Hamshahri newspaper - which is published by Teheran's conservative municipality.
He said the plan was to turn the tables on the assertion that newspapers can print offensive material in the name of freedom of expression.

"The Western papers printed these sacrilegious cartoons on the pretext of freedom of expression, so let's see if they mean what they say and also print these Holocaust cartoons," he said.
Stupid as it may seem, this is actually a step up for the Islamists. Turning the tables on Western ridicule is a much healthier response than the typical fire-bombing-rioting-beheading schtick.

Still, one might find fault with the choice of subject matter. If it had been an Israeli newspaper publishing the original cartoons, mocking the holocaust might have made a certain amount of sense -- but Denmark? I am not aware that Denmark, or Europe in general for that matter, is particularly sensitive about aspersions being cast on the Jews. In fact, Europe has its share of holocaust-deniers and anti-semites, so the parallel to mocking Mohammad is pretty obviously off-target.

Or is the subtext another lame Jews-secretly-control-the-world conspiracy theory? Gotta get over that, Farid. Besides the fact that we've all heard it before, you have to ask yourself what difference it will make. Where is the retaliation if when we (speaking broadly on behalf of Western Civilization) mock your prophet, you ... do pretty much what you've been doing all along?

Still, nice try. If you manage to avoid getting yourselves nuked in the next few years, maybe this will mark the beginning of your return to civilization.

5 comments:

sonia said...

For Iran to host a contest about the Holocaust is like for Turkey to host a contest about the Armenian genocide - they are asking for cartoons about an event they claim has never happened! So unless all those cartoons will all deny the Holocaust, it might actually be an interesting (and, for Iran, progressive) exposition.

JackOfClubs said...

Excellent point. Although you assume that logic plays a significant role in the thinking of these folks. I have lost count of the times that I have read screeds to the effect that the holocaust never happened, it was all the Jews fault and Hitler should have finished what he started.

sonia said...

I read them too, though usually not by the same people...

There are neo-Nazis who claim the first, there are non-Nazi anti-semites who claim the second and the hard core, 'honest' Nazis who say the third.

But some manipulators say all three things, though usually to different audiences (the first to mainstream audiences, the second to fellow-travellers and the third to the inner circle).

JackOfClubs said...

You are right that it is rare to find all three statements in a single speech, but it does occur. Here is a recent example from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:

"Hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who said the Nazi attempt to eradicate Jews in the Holocaust was a “Myth,” has now charged that European countries sought to complete the genocide by establishing Israel, a Jewish state in the midst of Muslim countries.

[...]

According to the ISNA news agency, Ahmadinejad said the crimes committed by Zionists against the Palestinians were the same as the crimes committed by the Nazis in the Second World War." Well, 2 out of 3 anyway.

JackOfClubs said...

Melvyn: My point exactly! And welcome.