Ayatollah blasts publication of cartoons

The West’s publication of the Prophet Mohammed cartoons was an Israeli conspiracy motivated by anger over Hamas’ win in the Palestinian elections, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said today.

Speaking to Iranian air force personnel, Khamenei said the cartoons were a scandal, particularly as they came “from those who champion civilisation and free expression.”

The cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed have led to demonstrations, boycotts and attacks on European embassies across the Islamic world. They were first published in Denmark in September and then reprinted recently by numerous European newspapers in the name of free expression.

“The West condemns any denial of the Jewish holocaust, but it permits the insult of Islamic sanctities,” Khamenei said.

The cartoons have offended many Muslims because most Islamic teachers forbid any illustration of the prophet and because several drawings depict Mohammed as a man of violence.

The caricatures amounted to a “conspiracy by Zionists who were angry because of the victory of Hamas,” he said, referring to the Palestinian militant group that won a surprise landslide victory in last month’s elections.

A prominent Iranian newspaper says it is going to hold a competition for cartoons on the Holocaust to test whether the West will apply the principle of freedom of expression to the Nazi genocide against Jews as it did to the caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed.

Hamshahri, which is among the top five of Iran’s mass circulation papers, made clear the contest was a reaction to European newspapers’ publication of Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, which have led to attacks on European embassies across the Islamic world.

The newspaper said the contest would be launched on Monday and would be co-convened by itself and the House of Caricatures, a Tehran exhibition centre for cartoons.

Both the paper and the cartoon centre are owned by the Tehran Municipality, which is dominated by allies of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is known for his opposition to Israel.

Hamshahri invited foreign cartoonists to enter the competition and said it wanted to see how open the West was to such drawings.