Iran Soccer Team Is Welcomed By Protests
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
NUREMBERG, Germany – Iran’s first World Cup game provided the backdrop yesterday for a protest against its Holocaust-denying president by German Jews and politicians.
The protest against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad began well before Iran’s late afternoon 3-1 loss to Mexico. Mr. Ahmadinejad has generated international consternation by dismissing the Holocaust as a myth and calling for Israel’s destruction.
Police estimated 1,200 people gathered in a downtown square. Many waved Israeli flags and were joined by Iranian dissidents. Mr. Ahmadinejad has suggested he might visit his nation’s team, but has announced no specific plans. With no U.N. or European Union travel ban in place, German officials say they couldn’t turn him away.
“It is our job, not just that of us Jews but of all Germans, to tell Ahmadinejad he is an unwelcome person in Germany,” a former deputy leader of Germany’s Central Council of Jews, Michel Friedman, said. He called the Iranian president “the Hitler of the 21st century.”
