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Iran's Ahmadinejad (right) with Neturei Karta delegate at Shoah conference (archive photo)
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Arab columnists slam Iran conference

Saudi journalist: New Nazis met in Tehran to promote hatred, propaganda, and defend Nazi crimes

A number of Arab columnists have attacked the Holocaust-denial conference which took place in Tehran last December. Their works have been translated by MEMRI  - the Middle East translation service.

 

Saudi journalist Yusuf Al-Sweidan, writing in the Kuwaiti al-Sayassah newspaper, described the conference's attendants as "the new Nazis."

 

Al-Sweidan said the conference's participants were "the new extremist Nazis in turbans," and "were not ashamed to open that wretched conference in Tehran on December 11, 2006 (with the intent) of spreading hate and tendentious propaganda and defending the heinous crimes of the Nazis..."

 

Al-Sweidan also slammed comments by Iran's Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, describing his explanation of the conference as "strage," "ludicrous, and repulsive."

 

"For Tehran, as everyone knows, is not (exactly) an oasis of freedom, democracy, and cultural and ideological pluralism," Al-Sweidan wrote.

 

'Lack of cultural, human sensitivities'

He added that "the timing, goals, and topics of this conference, and the evil and loudmouthed (individuals) who stood on its podium, fully (confirm) that 'Iran poses a strategic danger to the entire Middle East,' as (British Prime Minister) Tony Blair said. This (threat) becomes blatantly clear when (Iran) causes mayhem and exports violence and terror through its servants, proxies, and allies..."

 

Writing in the London based Arabic newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat, British journalist Adel Darwish said the Iranian president caused diplomatic damage to his own country with the conference, during a difficult period for Iran's foreign affairs.

 

Darwish added that Ahmadinejad caused even more damage to Muslims when he created a political-cultural atmosphere in which feelings of hatred hid the humanitarian feelings of Muslims as human beings.

The Kuwaiti columnist, Dr. Khaled al-Janfawi, also writing in al-Sayassah, said that "holding a conference devoted to Holocaust denial reflects a lack of cultural and human sensitivity which may exacerbate hatred among human beings..."

 

He added that "we Muslims need to display human, cultural, and moral sensitivity in order to be a positive force in a humane world that no longer tolerates ethnic and religious conflict."

 


פרסום ראשון: 01.15.07, 19:55
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