CBNNews.com
December 11, 2006
CBNNews.com -- TEHRAN, Iran -- A controversial two-day Holocaust conference is underway in Iran. It is looking at whether the event happened and if genocide took place. Organizers said the event was an opportunity to discuss questions about the Holocaust away from Western taboos."Review of the Holocaust: Global Vision," was initiated by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has described the Holocaust as a "myth." In the past, he has called for Israel to be wiped off the map.
The conference was organized by the Foreign Ministry's Institute for Political and International Studies. Approximately 67 researchers from 30 countries are in attendance.
In Germany, Austria and France, it is illegal to deny the Holocaust.
"This conference seeks neither to deny nor prove the Holocaust," Mousavi said. "It is just to provide an appropriate scientific atmosphere for scholars to offer their opinions in freedom about a historical issue."
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki dismissed the foreign criticism as "predictable," telling conference delegates in a speech that there was "no logical reason for opposing this conference."
"The objective for organizing this conference is to create an atmosphere to raise various opinions about a historical issue. We are not seeking to deny or prove the Holocaust," Mottaki said.
"If the official version of the Holocaust is thrown into doubt, then the identity and nature of Israel will be thrown into doubt. And if, during this review, it is proved that the Holocaust was a historical reality, then what is the reason for the Muslim people of the region and the Palestinians having to pay the cost of the Nazis' crimes?" Mottaki said.
A statement was issued from Israel condemning the conference saying it is an attempt to "paint extremist agenda with a scholarly brush. an effort to mainstream Holocaust denial."
The conference was expected to receive a message from Ahmadinejad, who has said that the killing of six million Jews by the Nazi German regime during World War II was a "myth" and "exaggerated."
The president has repeatedly questioned why the Holocaust has been used to justify the creation of Israel at the expense of the Palestinians, which is a view popular among Iranian hard-liners.
Iran has spent months preparing for the conference, even publicizing it during the September visit to Tehran of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who contradicted his hosts by saying the Holocaust was a historical fact and that an exhibition of anti-Holocaust cartoons, then on display in the city, promoted hatred.
The conference was condemned by Germany, the United States and Israel.
The Christian Broadcasting Network, Inc. © 2006
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