Iranian Holocaust “Satire” Now in Arabic and English

Haaretz reports:

A student-linked Iranian publisher plans to launch English- and Arabic-language versions of a book of caricatures and satirical writings about the Holocaust, a semi-official news agency reported yesterday.

 …”The presentation ceremony will be held on January 27 … with the attendance of a number of government officials,” said Mohammad-Mehdi Hemmati, who is involved in the project.

…Iran’s IRNA news agency said in September the book had 52 caricatures plus satirical writings over 108 pages. It was published by Martyr Shahbazi Publications and the Islamic student movement of the Science and Industry University.

27 January, of course, is Holocaust Memorial Day in a number of countries, including the UK.

IRNA reported the following about the book in September:

Book on ‘Holocaust’ to be unveiled

A book ‘Holocaust’ featuring caricatures and texts will be unveiled here in Qods Square in a ceremony attended by Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad Hossein Saffar-Harandi on the occasion of International Qods Day (Friday September 26). 

 Announcing this, Afshin Parvinkar, a founding member of Martyr Shahbazi Cultural Institute told IRNA that the book deals with the paradoxes as well as distortions before, after and concurrent with holocaust in a satirical manner.

Stating that the caricature and satire sections have been compiled by Maziar Bijani and Omid Mehdinejad respectively, he further said that the book has been arranged in one-page caricature and one-page satire format.

…The book, which has 100 pages, will be published in 7,000 copies by Martyr Shahbazi Cultural Institute affiliated to Elm-o-San’at (science and technology) University’s Students Basij.

“Basij” are volunteer military reserves that are directed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. According to an AFP report:

Education Minister Alireza Ali-Ahmadi was present in the capital’s Palestine Square for the book’s presentation during the annual Quds (Jerusalem) Day parade.

…The cover shows a Jew with a crooked nose and dressed in traditional garb drawing outlines of dead bodies on the ground.

Inside, bearded Jews are shown leaving and re-entering a gas chamber with a counter that reads the number 5,999,999. 

Another depicts Jewish prisoners entering a furnace in a Nazi extermination camp and leaving as gun-wielding terrorists from the other side.

Yet another shows a patient covered in an Israeli flag and on life support breathing Zyklon-B, the poisonous gas used in the extermination chambers.

One comment in a question-and-answer format reads:  “How did the Germans emit gas into chambers while there were no holes on the ceiling?”

Answer: “Shut up, you criminal anti-Semite. How dare you ask this question?”

There isn’t anything in English on-line about the “Martyr Shahbazi Cultural Institute” (or “Shahid Shahbazi Cultural Institute”) besides reports about the book.

It should be noted that not all Science and Industry University students deserve to be tainted by Parvinkar’s antics; last month Ayatollah Ali Khamenei cancelled a visit to the campus in fear of anti-government student protesters.

I blogged on Iranian Holocaust denial here, and on the regime’s attacks on academia here.

4 Responses

  1. Iran is one of the few countries left in the world where people still have the freedom to print such a satire. Can you imagine such a thing being produced anywhere in the EU? Of course not, we just keep out mouths shut and think what they tell us to think.

  2. Oh yeah, there’s lots of “freedom” in Iran:

    An imprisoned Iranian rights activist and journalist, Mohammad Sadigh Kabudvand, is the latest recipient of a Hellman/Hammett grant, awarded by Human Rights Watch (HRW) to persecuted writers.

    …Considered to be a prisoner of conscience, Kabudvand was sentenced in May 2008 for “acting against national security by establishing the Human Rights Organization of Kurdistan, widespread propaganda against the system by disseminating news, opposing Islamic penal laws by publicizing punishments such as stoning and executions, and advocating on behalf of political prisoners.”

  3. Stephen Sizer – friend of the Iranian regime.

  4. See Harry’s Place also.

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