Recent debates have swirled over an Iranian conference characterized as “denying the genocide†of the Holocaust. Moreover, the Iranian president, Ahmedinejad, has been repeatedly quoted as calling the Holocaust a myth. Actually, Ahmadinejad called the conference questioning the number of people killed in the Holocaust mainly as a means of challenging boasts about the freedom of expression in Europe.Â
Most histories describe the number of people killed in the Holocaust as 6 million. Some historians would dispute this claim saying that it is exaggerated to provide a stronger case for the existence of the Zionist State. What is missing on both sides of the argument is the value of each individual life. Whether 6 million, 1 million, ten, or one, the murder of innocent civilians whether in Europe under the Nazis, in Palestine, Iraq, Africa, etc. is a crime, deserves justice, and should not be belittled.Â
I don’t know how many were brutally murdered in the Holocaust – that question is in the domain of historians. Yet, historians in Europe who dare to investigate the topic are being jailed and their expression repressed. David Irving, who ‘coincidently’ was unexpectedly released from prison after the Iranian conference, is one such historian. He was sentenced to three years in an Austrian prison for “denying the existence of gas chambers at Auschwitz.â€Â Again, I am not a historian, but I have been to Auschwitz and find it unbelievable for anyone to deny the existence of a gas chamber there. However, should a man really be sentenced to prison for being a bad historian?
Moreover, I find it hypocritical for the Iranians to hold a conference aimed at exposing the lack of European freedom of expression, while in Iran freedom of expression remains stifled. Recently students have braved government restrictions by protesting the decreasing freedom of expression in Iran. “”Freedom of speech is being restricted more than before in Iran,” says Iran’s Nobel Peace Prize winner and human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi.â€Â And students are complaining of being expelled from universities and professors forced to retire for expressing opinions counter to the government line.Â
Isn’t it, then, hypocritical on both the Iranian and European sides to charge the other with denying freedom of expression?
The Holocaust was a tragic and horrible taint on human history, but certainly it was not the first, perhaps was not the worst, and unfortunately was not the last. We say “never again,†but it continues to happen with every rape and death in Africa, Iraq, Palestine, etc. What I find most disheartening is that the legacy of the Holocaust victims has been tarnished with the death of every innocent Palestinian. But, for this, we must be careful to blame Zionism and its supporters, and not Judaism, a respected Abrahamic faith.
-Sarah Swick, Minaret of Freedom Institute–
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