“We must make sure that their deaths have posthumous meaning. We must make sure that from now until the end of days all humankind stares this evil in the face … and only then can we be sure it will never arise again”

– President Reagan, during remarks given at the site of the U.S.
Holocaust Memorial Museum, October 5, 1998.

Since President Ahmadinejad came to power in Iran, he has become known for three things: pursuing Iran’s nuclear program; promising to destroy Israel; and denying the Holocaust.

To the shock of the civilized world, Mr. Ahmadinejad first made headlines denying the Holocaust on December 14 – and proceeded to repeat the sentiment at later dates. “They have invented a myth that Jews were massacred,” he said.

An Iranian affairs specialist, Ali Nourizadeh, appeared on Abu Dhabi TV on December 24 to explain what motivated Mr. Ahmadinejad’s speeches. Calling his words “no slip of the tongue,” Mr. Nourizadeh said the Iranian leader is working to coax America and Israel to attack Iran “because Ahmadinejad and his gang need a new ‘Karbala’ in Bushehr.”

Mr. Nourizadeh warned that Mr. Ahmadinejad and his cohorts want to create “a new legend” to incite Iranian zealots who “believe that their war [with the West] is coming, and that the Hidden Imam [Messiah] will appear after this war. This is the backward belief that Ahmadinejad defends.”

Since he was elected last summer, there has been an unprecedented wave of Holocaust denials coming out of Iran, including those in the form of government-sponsored symposia and cartoon contests.

Recently, Western Holocaust deniers also have been quoted extensively and celebrated in the Iranian press, including David Irving; Fredrick Toben of the Adelaide Institute in Australia; professor Robert Faurisson of France; the director of Canada’s Association for Free Expression, Paul Fromm, and Roger Garaudy, who, on December 13, said on Iran’s TV Channel 1: “No Jews or other prisoners were killed by poisonous gas – not in Dachau, Bergen, or Buchenwald.”

In recent months, American Holocaust deniers have also been covered by the Iranian press, including a California-based Saudi professor, Dr. Abdullah Muhammad Sindi; a Northwestern University professor, Arthur R. Butz, and a former Associated Press writer, Michael Hoffman II.

The following are examples of homegrown Holocaust denial from the Iranian press:

* “If the issue of the Holocaust was true, Europeans would not be afraid of investigating about it.” The Majilis speaker, Gholam-Ali Haddad Adel, IRNA, April 16.

* “Following World War II, the Jews …tried to present themselves as oppressed … They invented a false claim. They said that Hitler burned 6 million Jews in crematoria. They tried very hard to convince the world that this issue, this lie, was true, and they succeeded.” Ayatollah Ali Meshkini, Iranian Channel 2, December 17.

* “If 6 million people had died, wouldn’t there be a record somewhere of at least a hundred names?” Dr. Majid Goudarzi, Iranian TV Channel 2, January 5.

* “The killing of 6 million Jews in the crematoria is a myth, not a fact … For hygienic reasons, they used to burn the bodies of those who died of … contagious disease … this means the crematoria were used for hygienic, not political purposes … the gas chambers were used for disinfecting the clothes.” Dr. Hosein Rouyvaran, an Iranian political analyst, IRINN TV, December 27.

* “Historians and eyewitnesses … who saw with their eyes what happened 70-80 years ago … deny the existence of crematoria at a place called Auschwitz … a case of burning people has been registered in history … the people who were burnt were in fact Christians … They were burnt by … Jews.” Dr. Ali-Reza Akbari, Jaam-e-Jam 2 TV, December 20.

* “The rooms where gas was supposedly injected from above had no holes for gas injection … No holes, no Holocaust.” Amir Mohebbian, an Iranian political analyst, IRINN TV, January 3.

A spokesman for Germany’s oldest Muslim organization, the Islamic Archiv-Deutschland Central Institute, responded to Mr. Ahmadinejad’s Holocaust denial in February, calling it a “disgrace to all Muslims.” The spokesman went on to invite the Iranian leader to tour the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp with his organization, and challenged Mr. Ahmadinejad, “In this place of horror he can again deny the Holocaust, if he has the courage.”

Sadly, the statement against Mr. Ahmadinejad and his Holocaust denial is an exception. As Tuesday marks Holocaust Remembrance Day, one can only hope other voices from the Muslim world will follow.

Mr. Stalinsky is the executive director of the Middle East Media Research Institute.