Stupid Is As Stupid Does

So, Iran is trying to be all controversial, kind of like performance artists in New York or any large city. They think it is somehow making a point to be offensive for the sake of being offensive... or for what they are calling freedom of speech.

Iran has decided to have a cartoon contest were contestants send in their best holocaust cartoons. They are claiming that they want to challenge the west's ideals on the holocaust and the amount of sanctity we place on the event.

Citizens in Iran should have every right to submit, and the newspapers should have every right to publish such cartoons. Freedom of speech compels this right, whether or not we agree with the moral obligation not to publish something.

Here is where Iran goes wrong and is setting themselves up to look like fools.

A) I will guarantee that no Jews will run out and burn down Iranian embassies around the world, regardless of how offensive the cartoons are. Muslims have already shown that they cannot be offended and peacefully disagree with the offenders. Muslims killed foreigners, and sacked embassies then a Dutch paper ran cartoons of Mohammad. There was no respect for freedom of speech.

B) Freedom of speech that Iran is triumphing as their motivation behind the cartoon contest is still a far cry from true freedom of speech. No news paper in Iran would be permitted to run a cartoon of Mohammad. No news paper would be permitted to run and anti-revolutionary guard cartoon.

Since the west will object peacefully and freedom of speech will continue to be curtailed in Iran, they only are being jerks for the sake of being jerks, and we all know it. While we may have the right to freedom of speech, we also have the obligation of respect. Iran is really doing neither.

Iran seeks to test taboos with Holocaust cartoons
By Parisa Hafezi

TEHRAN (Reuters) - At the exhibition entrance, a poster shows a helmet with the Star of David lying on top of others carrying a Nazi Swastika. Inside, the Statue of Liberty is pictured holding a Holocaust book while giving a Nazi salute.

Organizers say displaying more than 200 entries from Iran's International Holocaust Cartoons Contest aims to challenge Western taboos about discussing the Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews died but which Iran's president called a "myth."

"This is a test of the boundaries of free speech espoused by Western countries," said Masoud Shojai-Tabatabai, head of the Cartoon House which helped organize the exhibition, as he stood next to the Statue of Liberty drawing.

Iran's best-selling newspaper Hamshahri in February launched a competition to find the best cartoon about the Holocaust in retaliation for the September publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad in Danish and other European newspapers.
(Full Story)