200 submit Holocaust cartoons

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-holo14.html

March 14, 2006

TEHRAN, Iran -- An Iranian newspaper's contest for Holocaust-related cartoons has drawn entries from 200 people, with some drawings mocking the World War II slaughter: One entry shows Jews going into a gas pipeline.

Most contest entrants are Iranian, but six are Americans and a few cartoons have been submitted from as far away as Indonesia and Brazil, according to the Hamshahri newspaper. A few of the drawings have been posted online.

Hamshahri began the contest last month as a test of the West's readiness to print cartoons about the Nazi killing of 6 million Jews in World War II. The contest comes in response to caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad printed in Europe.

One submission reflects the opinion of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The cartoon shows a circle of nine Jewish men entering and leaving a gas chamber that shows a counter reading ''5,999,999,'' implying that Jews have inflated the number of Holocaust victims.