Iranians against the lie (via Normblog)

Right after posting an item about Marjane Satrapi (author of Persepolis), I'm gratified to hear about this admirable statement signed by Satrapi, Azar Nafisi, over 100 other expatriate Iranians. --Jeff Weintraub

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Norman Geras (Normblog)
January 21, 2007
Homage to the memory of the dead

More than a hundred Iranians living abroad - including writers, artists, lawyers, academics and human rights activists - have published a statement deploring 'that the denial of these unspeakable crimes has become a propaganda tool that the Islamic Republic of Iran is using to further its own agendas', and condemning the Holocaust(-denial) conference organized by the Iranian government last month. The text of the statement is here (scroll down for English version). And see this earlier post. (Thanks: M.)

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[The English-language version of the statement follows. --JW]

We the Undersigned Iranians :

Notwithstanding our diverse views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict;

Considering that the Nazis' coldly planned “Final Solution” and their ensuing campaign of genocide against Jews and other minorities during WWII constitute undeniable historical facts;

Deploring that the denial of these unspeakable crimes has become a propaganda tool that the Islamic Republic of Iran is using to further its own agendas;

Noting that the new brand of anti-Semitism prevalent in the Middle East today is rooted in European ideological doctrines of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and has no precedent in Iran's history;

Emphasizing that this is not the first time that the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has resorted to the denial and distortion of historical facts;

Recalling that this government has refused to acknowledge, among other things, its mass execution of its own citizens in 1988, when thousands of political prisoners, previously sentenced to prison terms, were secretly executed because of their beliefs;

Strongly condemn the Holocaust Conference sponsored by the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Tehran on December 11-12, 2006, and its attempt to falsify history;

Pay homage to the memory of the millions of Jewish and non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust, and express our empathy for the survivors of this immense tragedy as well as all other victims of crimes against humanity across the world.