TEHRAN, Iran - Iran opened a conference Monday to discuss whether Nazis used gas chambers to kill Jews and debate other facts about the Holocaust, drawing condemnation in the West and criticism from Iran’s Jewish community.

Jewish rabbis were present at the government-sponsored event “Review of the Holocaust: Global Vision” alongside academics from Europe, where some countries have made it a crime to deny the Nazi killing of 6 million Jews from 1933 to 1945.

“The aim of this conference is not to deny or confirm the Holocaust,” Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said in a welcome address. “Its main aim is to create an opportunity for thinkers who cannot express their views freely in Europe about the Holocaust.”

The conference was inspired by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who since coming to power in August 2005 has sparked international condemnation with comments referring to the Holocaust as a “myth” and calling Israel a “tumor.”

The event has drawn widespread criticism from Holocaust survivors, Jewish organizations, human rights groups and Western governments.

Among the participants was U.S. academic David Duke, a former Louisiana Republican Representative and Ku Klux Klan leader. He praised Iran for hosting the event.

“There must be freedom of speech, it is scandalous that the Holocaust cannot be discussed freely. It makes people turn a blind eye to Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people,” Duke said.

‘Enormous lie’
French writer Georges Thiel, who has been convicted in France for spreading revisionist theories about the mass extermination of Jews, said the Holocaust was “an enormous lie.”

“Jewish people have been persecuted, that is true, they have been deported, that is true, but there was no machinery of murder in any camp -- no gas chambers,” he said.

Sessions at the two-day conference, held at the Foreign Ministry’s Institute for Political and International Studies, were to include “Holocaust: Aftermath and Exploitation” and “Demography: Denial or Confirmation?”

Participants included at least five rabbis clad in long black coats and black hats, some wearing badges depicting the Israeli flag crossed out.

“We came here to put the Orthodox Jewish viewpoint regarding the attitude to the Holocaust,” said British Rabbi Ahron Cohen. “We certainly say there was a Holocaust, we lived through the Holocaust. But in no way can it be used as a justification for perpetrating unjust acts against the Palestinians.”

The conference has upset Iran’s 25,000-strong Jewish community, said Moris Motamed, the sole Jewish representative in Iran’s parliament.

“Denying it (the Holocaust) is a huge insult,” he told Reuters. “By holding this conference, they (the government) are continuing to insult the Jewish community.”

Many ordinary Iranians admitted to embarrassment about the event, which follows Iran’s decision to hold a competition for cartoons about the Holocaust in October.

A former senior government official, who declined to be named, told Reuters that hosting the conference was unwise given diplomatic pressure on Iran over its nuclear program.

“Holding such conferences, at a time when we face political international pressure, just creates more tension and will lead to more pressure. Such conferences should not be held,” he said.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16149717/

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I am sure ordinary Iranians are disgusted at the newest specticle attracting NeoNazis and weirdos from all round the world... betchya JS Mac Jackass can give us all an update from the conference where he and his Nazi buddies can deny the holocost and blame the footage on liberal assed media.... haha...

Iranian P.M. Assmehadyed is really pushing it..... Its an insult to Jewish People no doubt, and also the rest of the free world who had to place their loved ones into harms way to stop Nazi Germany...

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many of them are vary of Ahmadinejad and he's opinions.
but in the same time, they would like to "wait him over"
if you know what i mean.

Torps, you mean "wait him out"... Hope he goes away.... Maybe... Personally I think hes in a power struggle with the Mullahs... I will get his own way for now, but even if he goes, the Mullahs will remain... policy may go more hardline, since the Mullahs engineered Arsebanditisya's assent to power... Iran was reforming until the Mullahs called it to a halt....

they will not let go of the power... its addictive, like they need a Frodo to carry the ring of power.... if not, Middle earth will fall...

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"Barrel High, Powder Dry!"

"Illic est haud effrego ex Veneratio"

Iran was reforming until their security was threatened. When that happened the public voted in a hardliner - just like the US public re-elected a hardliner in '04 because we felt threatened, and thought he claimed he was 'tough on terrorism'. I think it was a mistake on both our parts. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next election there.

Really, how did you come to that tremendious conclusion.... was it the 911 attacks or the Taliban that roasted the reformer govt and put the Mullahs hardline puppet in the driving seat... Iran is NOT interested in Afganistan until the Allies landed, when they were doing them a favour in tieing up the Taliban who are not shi'ite..... The Reform movement in Iran was doomed LONG before the Invasion of Iraq, the supression of Student Protests in 03/04 was testament to that fact and the fact that the fall of the reformist govt was leading upto the Invasion of Iraq is coincedential..... nothing more... You can blame the US for allot of things, but regime change in Iran is not one of them...

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"Barrel High, Powder Dry!"

"Illic est haud effrego ex Veneratio"

indeed. im still after many years having some problems with "over above and
those terms.. "over here" is a strange term to my ear since our language
tends to work a bit differently with the placement terms.

I hear ya man... when I was speaking English as a boy I used to get the words the wrong way around.... like "house public" instead (Irish word layout) of "public house"(English word layout). I got out of that habit when I was 7/8 yrs old and can barely speak Irish now... haha... funny old world isnt it...

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"Barrel High, Powder Dry!"

"Illic est haud effrego ex Veneratio"

yeah what i mean with "wating over" would be in our langage.. "wait him across over"..
if thats anywhere near.. anyhows.. indo-european and Fenno-uralic are not exactly
straight compatible.

Bring out ze secret weapon

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