British Prime Minister Tony Blair joined a firestorm of indignant voices across Europe yesterday, denouncing a gathering of Holocaust deniers in Iran as "shocking beyond belief" and proof of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's extremism. David Duke, an ex-Klan leader and former Louisiana state representative, was among those at the two-day conference in London.
"I mean, to go and invite the former head of the Ku Klux Klan to a conference in Tehran which disputes the millions of people who died in the Holocaust ... what further evidence do you need that this regime is extreme?" Blair asked in London.
Although organizers touted it as a scholarly gathering, the meeting angered many in countries such as Austria, Germany and France, where it is illegal to deny aspects of the Holocaust and the Nazis' systematic extermination of 6 million Jews.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her country repudiated the conference—which gathered 67 writers and researchers from 30 countries, most of whom argue that either the Holocaust did not happen or that it was vastly exaggerated.
"We absolutely reject this. Germany will never accept this," Merkel told reporters as she stood alongside visiting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who denounced the meeting as a "danger" to the Western world.
Anger over the conference could further isolate Iran as the West considers sanctions in the standoff over Tehran's nuclear program. Yesterday, Ahmadinejad said Israel will one day be "wiped out" as the Soviet Union was, drawing applause from conference participants. He appeared to revel in meeting delegates, shaking hands with American participants and sitting near six anti-Israel Jewish participants dressed in black ultra-Orthodox coats and hats.
Ahmadinejad announced the conference would set up a "fact-finding commission" to determine whether the Holocaust happened and "help end a 60-year-old dispute."
The White House condemned Iran for convening a meeting it called "an affront to the entire civilized world."
Soeren Espersen of the Danish People's Party, which staunchly defended the publication early this year of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, said again that people should have the right to speak their minds—even at a "hideous" conference like this one. "We believe in freedom of speech also for nut cases," he said.
Deborah Lipstadt, a professor of Holocaust studies at Emory University in Atlanta, drew a distinction. "It's one thing to poke fun at a faith—even Judaism," she said.
"It's a different thing to lie about history." (AP)
More from Today's Diversity News
<< PREVIOUS ITEM | NEXT ITEM >>
