Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
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Born:
28 October 1956
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Birthplace:
Garmsar,
Iran
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Best Known As:
President of
Iran, 2005-present
In August of 2005 Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was sworn in as the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Trained as an engineer, Ahmadinejad entered the political arena after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. He joined the Revolutionary Guard and, according to some reports, worked covert operations in the 1980s during
Iran's war with
Iraq. After four years as a provincial governor (1993-97), Ahmadinejad became a lecturer at
Tehran's
University of
Science and Technology. He kept his hand in politics and was elected mayor of
Tehran in 2003. He was not well known internationally until June of 2005, when he won
Iran's presidential election. It is widely held that Ahmadinejad's support comes in part from those who oppose
U.S. foreign policy, and early on President Ahmadinejad's rhetoric matched his promises to defy the
U.S., most notably on the issue of
Iran's plans for nuclear technology. In October of 2005 he made headlines and earned a United Nations rebuke when he publicly opined that
Israel should be "wiped off the map." In December of 2005 he described the Holocaust as a "myth" in statements subsequently condemned by the
United States and its allies.
Soon after he took office, questions were raised about Ahmadinejad's role with the radical student organization that seized the
U.S. embassy and held its 53 occupants hostage from 4 November 1979 until 20 January 1981; some former hostages claimed he was one of their captors, a claim denied by Ahmadinejad... In December of 2005 it was reported that Ahmadinejad had ordered a ban on "western" music, a move reminiscent of Ayatollah Khomeini's 1979 ban on music.
Holocaust denial and demands to relocate Israel
In a speech given on 14 December,
2005 in the city of
Zahedan, and carried live on Iranian television, Ahmadinejad reportedly made the following comments:
According to the
Iran's official news agency:
If the Europeans are telling the truth in their claim that they have killed six million Jews in the Holocaust during the World War II - which seems they are right in their claim because they insist on it and arrest and imprison those who oppose it, why should the Palestinian nation pay for the crime. Why have they come to the very heart of the Islamic world and are committing crimes against the dear
Palestine using their bombs, rockets, missiles and sanctions. [...] The same European countries have imposed the illegally-established Zionist regime on the oppressed nation of
Palestine. If you have committed the crimes so give a piece of your land somewhere in Europe or
America and
Canada or
Alaska to them to set up their own state there. Then the Iranian nation will have no objections, will stage no rallies on the Qods Day and will support your decision.
According to
United States media:
They have invented a myth that Jews were massacred and place this above God, religions and the prophets. The West has given more significance to the myth of the genocide of the Jews, even more significant than God, religion, and the prophets, (it) deals very severely with those who deny this myth but does not do anything to those who deny God, religion, and the prophet. If you have burned the Jews, why don't you give a piece of Europe, the
United States,
Canada or
Alaska to
Israel? Our question is, if you have committed this huge crime, why should the innocent nation of
Palestine pay for this crime?
The remarks were condemned immediately by the Israeli government. Mark Regev, spokesman for
Israel's Foreign Ministry stated:
In an interview on January 14 2006, Ahmadinejad said "I've just asked two questions. But I have not received any clear answers." referring to his previous statements on Holocaust. He added "I will not make any historical argument. European scientists are in a position to answer these questions". Referring to Europeans, Ahmadinejad added "I want them to offer a clear answer to these questions... what ever they say I would agree".
According to Aftab News, Mohammad-Ali Ramin, a political analyst and an advisor to Ahmadinejad, was the one who initiated the idea of relocation of
Israel and also the idea that holocaust is a myth. He himself accepted the full responsibility of this action, as Aftab News reported. In an interview with Financial Times, Mohammad-Ali Ramin stated that he has also initiated Holocaust commission in
Iran and he is the founder of the Conference on Holocaust in
Tehran. Ramin praised Ahmadinejad for having voiced his doubts over the Holocaust and the need for relocating the Jews to
Europe if Europeans really did the massacre during the Second World War.
In February 2006, Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying: "Now, in the West, insulting the prophet is allowed, but questioning the Holocaust is considered a crime. We ask, why do you insult the prophet? The response is that it is a matter of freedom, while in fact, they are hostages of the Zionists." In the same month,
Poland banned visas to Iranian researchers who were planning to visit
Auschwitz.
In a press conference in
Tehran on April 24, 2006, Ahmadinejad declared that "
Israel can ultimately not continue its existence" and said:
Anti-Semitism in Europe has forced Jews to leave their countries of origin, but what they did instead was occupy a country which is not theirs but that of Palestinians
We are sorry for any human being killed in the two world wars. We respect Moses as we respect Jesus, but it is just unacceptable that the Palestinians should suffer from the aftermath.
He stated his belief that the
Middle East conflict could be settled only within a "just peace plan,"
but reaffirmed that this must be preceded by the return of all Palestinians to their homelands.
In a May 30 interview with Der Spiegel Ahmadinejad again questioned the Holocaust several times, insisting there were "two opinions" on this. When asked if the Holocaust was a myth, he responded "I will only accept something as truth if I am actually convinced of it", and further stated:
We are saying that if the Holocaust occurred, then Europe must draw the consequences and that it is not
Palestine that should pay the price for it. If it did not occur, then the Jews have to go back to where they came from.
On August 15
2006 a contest for best holocaust caricatures was officially opened in
Tehran. This was Ahmadinejad's "retaliation" for the Danish Paper Muhammad caricatures. 204 holocaust denial caricatures were presented.
The International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust was a two-day conference that opened on December 11,
2006 in
Tehran,
Iran. The Iranian Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, said the conference sought "neither to deny nor prove the Holocaust ... [but] to provide an appropriate scientific atmosphere for scholars to offer their opinions in freedom about a historical issue."[2] The 67 attendees from 30 countries [3] included Rabbis Yisroel Dovid Weiss and Moshe Aryeh Friedman of Neturei Karta; David Duke, former Louisiana Republican state representative and Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, and Holocaust deniers Robert Faurisson and Fredrick Töben.
Iranian responses to Holocaust controversy
In March 4 2006,
Iran's parliament speaker, Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel, said "the Western media empire is trying to portray
Iran as an anti-Semitic country. However, our support for Palestinians should not be interpreted as anti-Semitism". He added "If our president questions Holocaust, It does not mean that
Iran believes in anti-Semitism. In our history, there were no anti-Semitism and genocide".
Iran parliament speaker said according to ISNA.
Regarding Ahmadinejad's position on the Holocaust, sole Jewish Majlis MP Maurice Motamed has expressed some concerns, noting that "Denial of such a great historical tragedy that is connected to the Jewish community can only be considered an insult to all the world's Jewish communities." He also criticised Iranian television for broadcasting anti-Semitic programmes.
Also, the head of
Iran's Jewish community, Haroun Yashayaei, sent a letter to Ahmadinejad in early 2006 that read, in part, "How is it possible to ignore all of the undeniable evidence existing for the exile and massacre of the Jews in
Europe during World War Two? Challenging one of the most obvious and saddening events of 20th-century humanity has created astonishment among the people of the world and spread fear and anxiety among the small Jewish community of
Iran."
In February 2006, former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami made remarks affirming the Holocaust but decrying what he described as the connection between the Holocaust and present-day persecution in
Palestine "We should speak out if even a single Jew is killed. Don't forget that one of the crimes of Hitler, Nazism and German National Socialism was the massacre of innocent people, among them many Jews."[
Israel has] made a bad use of this historic fact with the persecution of the Palestinian people."
Reaction to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke
On January 4, 2006, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a massive haemorrhagic stroke and was widely reported to be dead or near death. The next day President Ahmadinejad spoke to Shi'a clerics in the city of
Qom. Speaking of
Sharon he said:
Hopefully, the news that the criminal of Sabra and Shatila has joined his ancestors is final.
The
United States quickly condemned Ahmadinejad's comment as "hateful and disgusting" and U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack called Ahmadinejad's remarks "part of a continuing stream of hateful invective that has come from this president."
