Iranian toon revenge
Last February the Iranian newspaper Hamshahiri held a holocaust-denying cartoon competition. The idea was to get revenge for publishing the Mo-toons and to “test the boundaries of free speech”.
The childish caper was somewhat undermined by the instigation of an Israeli Anti-Semitic Cartoon Contest. Now the results of both competitions are set to be displayed. The Iranian efforts will be in a museum in Tehran, and the Israeli ones at the Tel-Aviv Comics, Caricatures and Animation festival on 26-29 August. Which do you think will be the funniest?
The organisers of the Iranian exhibition say they are testing the West’s commitment to free speech. As a measure of this commitment, we shall be keeping count of the number of Iranian embassies burned down and the number of people who are killed in riots provoked by this exhibition. Here is the tally so far:
Embassies torched – 0
People killed – 0
Watch this space!
UPDATE: The Israeli Anti-Semitic Cartoon Contest exhibition in Tel Aviv has been cancelled.
This may put a damper on your anti-Muslim parade but I believe the Iranian newspaper’s position was “The Western papers printed [what you refer to as the Mo-toons] on the pretext of freedom of expression, so let’s see if they mean what they say and also print these Holocaust cartoons,”.
The score on that count: 0
Or, as of today, 1. Doesn’t it feel good to be wrong?