I am NOT ashamed
The Holocaust is a fact. Discussing it will not diminish its gravity. So why are Western governments trying to put a muzzle on people wanting to discuss it?

Mazdak Maleki
December 21, 2006
iranian.com

Iranians abroad are ashamed these days. This is a new shame involving the Holocaust conference held by the Iranian foreign ministry. It replaces the past year's shame over the way Ahmadinejad dresses and how he looks. The shame before that was the Iranian support for the Hezbollah Shiite movement in Lebanon.

There have always been reasons for shame among the Iranians abroad ever since the revolution of 1979. The reaction to this felt shame has been two sorts of denial. One is the outright denial. Here I'm talking about those who are chelokabab eating, doogh drinking by day and Italian by night. They deny their nationality if the situation demands it. The other is blaming it on the "Arabs, and their "second invasion." If only we could get rid of the "Arabs," then everything would be OK. Honey would flow in the joobs, and people would be farting Gol'ab while promenading on the once again called Khiyaban Pahlavi. This denial wants to give the impression that it is only a minority of Iranians who adore and worship the "rule of the Arabs", and that the majority are true blue descendents of Cyrus the Great.

Here is a wake up call. You are the minority! All this "good old times" under the Shah was only for a couple of million privileged people. The rest are the people that you are ashamed of. I know that most of us outside Iran, now have, after all these years, either the citizenship of the country we are residing in or have some kind of permanent residentship. Why don't we just say it as it is, when we are asked about our nationality? "We are former Iranians that left the country because we did not fit in the new Iranian society."

Now back to the Holocaust conference. There were some dubious characters present at the conference, and inviting them was a mistake. What bothers me most about these shame letters avalanching Iranian.com these days is the lack of objectivity. Common for all these letters is the expressed shame. Not one of them discusses the various opinions and analysis put forward in the conference. Typical American yellow journalism where the essence is left out and only characters are discussed. What did people say in the conference? What, if any, new facts were presented?

The Holocaust is a fact. Discussing it will not diminish its gravity. So why are Western governments trying to put a muzzle on people wanting to discuss it? Why should people be put in prison wanting to examine the details of the Holocaust?

I agree completely with the motto of Iranian.com. Nothing is nor should be sacred. Shutting people up who have a different opinion will only make heroes out of them. Do you think, that if the conference attendees, could have expressed themselves in their respective countries, they would have associated themselves with this conference?

The Iranian government is using all venues to defend itself and keep its enemies at bay. Holding this conference was one of them, telling the rabid Israeli/Neocon alliance that disinformation is not solely their domain. For God's sake, there have been hundreds of conferences and gatherings in the US, discussing regime change in Iran, legitimacy of the Iranian government, preventing "Shiite domination" of the region, curbing Iranian influence in the Middle East, etc. But there is no shame there? They discuss causing an Iraq-like situation in Iran, and no shame is felt for that either among Iranians.

They are discussing the legitimacy of the Prophet Mohammad in Europe, sometimes calling him a pedophile, sometimes depicting him as a donkey. What is the European public reaction to that? Nothing. They call it freedom of expression. Their governments say they "regret the reaction" of Muslims to these publications, but never regret their publication, which is how it should be.

So here I declare that I only regret the effect of this conference on Jews and fellow former-Iranians, but I do not regret either the holding of the conference nor am I ashamed of it. My character is not defined by what governments do. Comment