From Europe News:
Iran’s policies now lie at the center of world politics. Far too little attention, however, is being paid to the unique ideological atmosphere that makes the Iranian nuclear weapons program so dangerous.[1]
Holocaust denial is certainly the cruelest aspect of this ideology, for whoever denies the Holocaust kills the victims a second time. The denial of the Holocaust is also its most bewildering aspect – no other crime in history is better documented.
It is human nature to shy away from things that are especially cruel or incomprehensible. When Mahmoud Ahmadinejad first embarked on his Holocaust-denial campaign, there were protests and even expressions of outrage. Subsequently, however, the issue was quickly dropped. It plays next to no role in the current controversy over the Iranian nuclear weapons program, as if Holocaust denial were no more than a temporary mental aberration of the Iranian president.
This attitude is understandable, yet unjustified. It is essential to take the Iranian leader’s Holocaust denial seriously, since it embodies an entire worldview with its own principles, history and internet presence. We have to discuss its effects even if this involves facing up to facts that may send a shiver down the spine.
Mahmud Ahmadinejad’s portrayal of the Holocaust is neither a new nor a personal obsession but rather an intensification of themes long prominent in the Islamic Republic’s ideological discourse.
From the 1990s onward, Iran has gone further than any Arab country in hosting and officially endorsing Western Holocaust deniers who are shunned in their home countries. In 1998, President Mohammad Khatami grieved over the prosecution of "a thinker” like French Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy, and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei even met Garaudy in person. In 2001, the Tehran Times among others called the findings of the Nuremberg trials about Auschwitz "the biggest lie in history".[2]
Under Ahmadinejad, however, Iranian Holocaust denial has taken a substantive leap forward. Since 2006, he has developed a new style and added a new dimension to this abhorrent phenomenon that warrants further scrutiny.
Holocaust Denial as Liberation Struggle
Addressing a rally on February 11, 2006, Ahmadinejad mocked the Europeans by proclaiming that, "it is a crime [in Europe] to ask questions about the myth of the Holocaust. … They are allowed to study anything except for the Holocaust myth. Are these not medieval methods?”[3] Here, Ahmadinejad had found the theme to which he would subsequently return at every opportunity: the fusing of Holocaust denial with a rhetoric of liberation. This attitude not only masks Holocaust denial with academic and scholarly respectability, but also celebrates the deniers as freedom fighters.
Before 2006, Holocaust deniers, ostracized by society as obscurantists, had to struggle for every iota of respectability. Since then, Ahmadinejad has reversed the customary roles. It is not the Holocaust denier who must now struggle for his personal freedom; in his discourse, it is the non-deniers who are deemed unfree.
Thus, in January 2006, the Iranian government invited then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair to participate in a Holocaust seminar in Tehran, because, as the Iranian Foreign Ministry explained, only here would Blair be able to "say the kind of things he cannot say in London” – because of Zionist pressure.[4]
Of course, as we know, Holocaust deniers are anything but free. They are trapped in the ideological straitjacket of antisemitism, which systematically distorts their grip on reality. Thus, in a conversation with the editors of the German news weekly Der Spiegel, the Iranian President reacted as follows to the remark that Israel’s right to exist is not questioned by the magazine: "I am glad that you are honest people and say that you are required to support the Zionists.”[5]
This sort of circular reasoning is not susceptible to refutation. The louder the liberal West protests against Iran’s Holocaust denial or threats to destroy Israel, the clearer for Ahmadinejad is the proof of Zionist domination. Only when we, too, finally accept that the Holocaust is a Jewish lie will Ahmadinejad be convinced that we are academically credible and politically free.
However ridiculous all this may seem, it would nevertheless be a mistake to underestimate the effects of this liberation rhetoric. It may well have contributed to the fact that now even the people running Facebook no longer view Holocaust denial as an expression of intense antisemitism, but as a normal, albeit controversial, opinion.
In July 2011, Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said, "We have come to the conclusion that the mere statement of denying the Holocaust is not a violation of our terms. We think that there is a meaningful difference between advocating violence against a group of people and expressing an opinion on … historical events.”[6]
Here, Facebook seem to be viewing Holocaust denial as an expression of ignorance – a kind of intellectual error, to which counter-speech is the best response. However, in the world of social networking, ideas gain legitimacy simply because they are discussed. Here, bizarre notions that would never be taken seriously in the mainstream media are accepted as "possible truths.” In permitting Holocaust denial, Facebook has made a major concession to the Iranian leadership’s demagogic campaign to "at last” be allowed to start. This is not only wrong, but also dangerous, as becomes clear when we look at the motives behind Iranian Holocaust denial.
Holocaust Denial and Israel
Why does the Iranian leadership call into question the reality of the Holocaust? The answer should be looked at on two planes: The regional and the global. The regional one is most obvious and admitted by the regime: The direct purpose of Holocaust denial is to contribute to the destruction of Israel.
Up until now, Holocaust deniers have wanted to revise the past. Today, Iran’s Holocaust deniers want to shape the future by eradicating Israel. "Breaking the padlock of the Holocaust and reexamining it will be tantamount to cutting the vital arteries of the Zionist regime,” explained the Iranian president in 2009.[7]
Tehran was the venue of the infamous Holocaust deniers’ conference, which took place in December 2006. The destruction of Israel was the common denominator uniting all the participants in this conference, including the crackpot followers of the Jewish Neturei Karta sect. In his opening speech, Iranian Foreign Minister Manucher Mottaki described the conference’s rationale as follows: If "the official version of the Holocaust is called into question”, then "the nature and identity of Israel” must also be called into question.[8] In his closing speech, Ahmadinejad took this idea one step further: "The life-curve of the Zionist regime has begun its descent, and it is now on a downward slope towards its fall. … The Zionist regime will be wiped out, and humanity will be liberated.”[9]
This sentiment – liberation through destruction – is the one for which the celebrated Holocaust historian Saul Friedlaender coined the term "redemptive antisemitism”. It is not so far from that expressed in a Nazi directive of 1943: "This war will end with anti-Semitic world revolution and with the extermination of Jewry throughout the world, both of which are the precondition for an enduring peace.”[10]
True, Ahmadinejad is not a racist Social Darwinist, who wants to eliminate every last trace of "Jewish blood” as Hitler did. He does not attack "the Jews,” but rather "the Zionists.” He does not say "Jews” are conspiring to rule the world. Instead he says, "Two thousand Zionists want to rule the world.”
However, the Iranian leader invests the word "Zionist” with exactly the same sense as that with which Hitler once invested the word "Jew”: namely, that of the incarnation of all evil. Thus, just as Hitler’s utopia, his "German peace,” required the extermination of the Jews, so too does the Iranian leadership’s "Islamic peace” depend upon the elimination of Israel.
Here we see again that Holocaust denial is not an "opinion,” but an integral part of an exceptionally aggressive program. Denying the Holocaust is the means, and "advocating violence against a group of people"the purpose. Israel, however, is just the Middle-Eastern facet of the matter. The title of the Holocaust denial conference of December 2006 was "Review of the Holocaust: Global Vision”. One shudders to think of just what kind of "global vision” its organizers had in mind. (...)
Iranian Holocaust Denial and the Internet
Matthias Kuentzel 15 February 2012
Holocaust denial is certainly the cruelest aspect of this ideology, for whoever denies the Holocaust kills the victims a second time. The denial of the Holocaust is also its most bewildering aspect – no other crime in history is better documented.
It is human nature to shy away from things that are especially cruel or incomprehensible. When Mahmoud Ahmadinejad first embarked on his Holocaust-denial campaign, there were protests and even expressions of outrage. Subsequently, however, the issue was quickly dropped. It plays next to no role in the current controversy over the Iranian nuclear weapons program, as if Holocaust denial were no more than a temporary mental aberration of the Iranian president.
This attitude is understandable, yet unjustified. It is essential to take the Iranian leader’s Holocaust denial seriously, since it embodies an entire worldview with its own principles, history and internet presence. We have to discuss its effects even if this involves facing up to facts that may send a shiver down the spine.
Mahmud Ahmadinejad’s portrayal of the Holocaust is neither a new nor a personal obsession but rather an intensification of themes long prominent in the Islamic Republic’s ideological discourse.
From the 1990s onward, Iran has gone further than any Arab country in hosting and officially endorsing Western Holocaust deniers who are shunned in their home countries. In 1998, President Mohammad Khatami grieved over the prosecution of "a thinker” like French Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy, and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei even met Garaudy in person. In 2001, the Tehran Times among others called the findings of the Nuremberg trials about Auschwitz "the biggest lie in history".[2]
Under Ahmadinejad, however, Iranian Holocaust denial has taken a substantive leap forward. Since 2006, he has developed a new style and added a new dimension to this abhorrent phenomenon that warrants further scrutiny.
Holocaust Denial as Liberation Struggle
Addressing a rally on February 11, 2006, Ahmadinejad mocked the Europeans by proclaiming that, "it is a crime [in Europe] to ask questions about the myth of the Holocaust. … They are allowed to study anything except for the Holocaust myth. Are these not medieval methods?”[3] Here, Ahmadinejad had found the theme to which he would subsequently return at every opportunity: the fusing of Holocaust denial with a rhetoric of liberation. This attitude not only masks Holocaust denial with academic and scholarly respectability, but also celebrates the deniers as freedom fighters.
Before 2006, Holocaust deniers, ostracized by society as obscurantists, had to struggle for every iota of respectability. Since then, Ahmadinejad has reversed the customary roles. It is not the Holocaust denier who must now struggle for his personal freedom; in his discourse, it is the non-deniers who are deemed unfree.
Thus, in January 2006, the Iranian government invited then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair to participate in a Holocaust seminar in Tehran, because, as the Iranian Foreign Ministry explained, only here would Blair be able to "say the kind of things he cannot say in London” – because of Zionist pressure.[4]
Of course, as we know, Holocaust deniers are anything but free. They are trapped in the ideological straitjacket of antisemitism, which systematically distorts their grip on reality. Thus, in a conversation with the editors of the German news weekly Der Spiegel, the Iranian President reacted as follows to the remark that Israel’s right to exist is not questioned by the magazine: "I am glad that you are honest people and say that you are required to support the Zionists.”[5]
This sort of circular reasoning is not susceptible to refutation. The louder the liberal West protests against Iran’s Holocaust denial or threats to destroy Israel, the clearer for Ahmadinejad is the proof of Zionist domination. Only when we, too, finally accept that the Holocaust is a Jewish lie will Ahmadinejad be convinced that we are academically credible and politically free.
However ridiculous all this may seem, it would nevertheless be a mistake to underestimate the effects of this liberation rhetoric. It may well have contributed to the fact that now even the people running Facebook no longer view Holocaust denial as an expression of intense antisemitism, but as a normal, albeit controversial, opinion.
In July 2011, Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said, "We have come to the conclusion that the mere statement of denying the Holocaust is not a violation of our terms. We think that there is a meaningful difference between advocating violence against a group of people and expressing an opinion on … historical events.”[6]
Here, Facebook seem to be viewing Holocaust denial as an expression of ignorance – a kind of intellectual error, to which counter-speech is the best response. However, in the world of social networking, ideas gain legitimacy simply because they are discussed. Here, bizarre notions that would never be taken seriously in the mainstream media are accepted as "possible truths.” In permitting Holocaust denial, Facebook has made a major concession to the Iranian leadership’s demagogic campaign to "at last” be allowed to start. This is not only wrong, but also dangerous, as becomes clear when we look at the motives behind Iranian Holocaust denial.
Holocaust Denial and Israel
Why does the Iranian leadership call into question the reality of the Holocaust? The answer should be looked at on two planes: The regional and the global. The regional one is most obvious and admitted by the regime: The direct purpose of Holocaust denial is to contribute to the destruction of Israel.
Up until now, Holocaust deniers have wanted to revise the past. Today, Iran’s Holocaust deniers want to shape the future by eradicating Israel. "Breaking the padlock of the Holocaust and reexamining it will be tantamount to cutting the vital arteries of the Zionist regime,” explained the Iranian president in 2009.[7]
Tehran was the venue of the infamous Holocaust deniers’ conference, which took place in December 2006. The destruction of Israel was the common denominator uniting all the participants in this conference, including the crackpot followers of the Jewish Neturei Karta sect. In his opening speech, Iranian Foreign Minister Manucher Mottaki described the conference’s rationale as follows: If "the official version of the Holocaust is called into question”, then "the nature and identity of Israel” must also be called into question.[8] In his closing speech, Ahmadinejad took this idea one step further: "The life-curve of the Zionist regime has begun its descent, and it is now on a downward slope towards its fall. … The Zionist regime will be wiped out, and humanity will be liberated.”[9]
This sentiment – liberation through destruction – is the one for which the celebrated Holocaust historian Saul Friedlaender coined the term "redemptive antisemitism”. It is not so far from that expressed in a Nazi directive of 1943: "This war will end with anti-Semitic world revolution and with the extermination of Jewry throughout the world, both of which are the precondition for an enduring peace.”[10]
True, Ahmadinejad is not a racist Social Darwinist, who wants to eliminate every last trace of "Jewish blood” as Hitler did. He does not attack "the Jews,” but rather "the Zionists.” He does not say "Jews” are conspiring to rule the world. Instead he says, "Two thousand Zionists want to rule the world.”
However, the Iranian leader invests the word "Zionist” with exactly the same sense as that with which Hitler once invested the word "Jew”: namely, that of the incarnation of all evil. Thus, just as Hitler’s utopia, his "German peace,” required the extermination of the Jews, so too does the Iranian leadership’s "Islamic peace” depend upon the elimination of Israel.
Here we see again that Holocaust denial is not an "opinion,” but an integral part of an exceptionally aggressive program. Denying the Holocaust is the means, and "advocating violence against a group of people"the purpose. Israel, however, is just the Middle-Eastern facet of the matter. The title of the Holocaust denial conference of December 2006 was "Review of the Holocaust: Global Vision”. One shudders to think of just what kind of "global vision” its organizers had in mind. (...)
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