International Holocaust Cartoon Competition

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Cartoons by Iranian cartoonist Maziyar Bizhani, submitted to the controversial cartoons of the Holocaust in Iran.

International Holocaust Cartoon Competition was a cartoon contest sponsored by the conservative Iranian newspaper Hamshahri, to denounce what it called 'Western hypocrisy on freedom of speech'.

The Contest

On February 6, 2006, Farid Mortazavi, graphics editor of Hamshahri, announced a competition for cartoons on the Holocaust, in response to the twelve cartoons published by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten (see Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy), to challenge Western use of the Freedom of Speech. 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. In that introductory message for the contest, they 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."

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. 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.

Reactions in Iran

Conservatives

Conservative newspapers such as Kayhan and Jomhouri Eslami have hailed the decision by Hamshahri for the contest, and their cartoonists, such as Maziyar Bizhani 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, the head of Nehzat Azadi Party, Hamid Reza Jalaeipour, a prominent figure of Islamic Iran Participation Front 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, 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 (the cultural editor for Jyllands-Posten), told CNN: "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. Simultaneously, the websites of Iran's ministry of education and two major Iranian banks, Sepah Bank and Refah Bank, became inaccessible, as they were all hosted by the same backbone.

That same day, an Israeli group announced an anti-semitic cartoon contest open to Jews only. One of the two founders of this group was quoted as saying "We’ll show the world we can do the best, sharpest, most offensive Jew hating cartoons ever published! No Iranian will beat us on our home turf!".

Six of the least controversial cartoons were republished by Danish Newspaper Dagbladet Information 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 Winners

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Cartoon by Abdellah Derkaoui, winner of the competition, shows Al-Aqsa Mosque being blocked by a concrete wall with a picture of Auschwitz concentration camp.

On November 1, 2006, Abdellah Derkaoui, 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 and A. Chard, aka Françoise Pichard (fr.), from France. Most of the other prizes went to Iranians.

See also

• Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy
• Israeli Anti-Semitic Cartoons Contest
• Blasphemy laws in Islamic Republic of Iran

External links

• The Winners of the Competition (mirror)
• The Iran Cartoon Organisation (Persian)
• The Iran Cartoon Organisation (English)