Marking International Human Rights Day with a Holocaust conference in Iran is a farce

EDITOR:
To mark today's observance of International Human Rights Day, scholars from around the world will gather at an international conference on the Holocaust - in Iran. There is something wrong with this picture.
Claiming only that he wants to provide an open venue for "honest research" by those who question the existence of the Holocaust, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, an avowed Holocaust denier, a loather of the United States and the freedoms for which it stands, a known seeker of the destruction of Israel, and an overt abuser of human rights, has called for papers to be presented which deny the existence of the Holocaust.
Ahmadinejad claims academic freedom as his mask for his hate speech. This is not the first time Ahmadinejad, who asserts that the conference will not encourage anti-Semitism, has fabricated an "academic" forum to promote hate. In October 2005, he sponsored a so-called "academic" conference, "A World Without Zionism," at which he incited students to scream "death to the Jews." The notion that Ahmadinejad's Holocaust denial conference should be protected under the veil of "academic freedom" is a perversion since it is not a legitimate conference, but is rather, as are other Iranian government-sponsored "conferences," nothing more than a thinly veiled hate propaganda opportunity. Just as we should not condone a conference convened by a known racist denying the horrors of slavery, we should not condone this.
The real purpose of Holocaust revisionism (or denial) is to make National Socialism an acceptable alternative again. Roger Bowen, general secretary of the American Association of University Professors, so aptly characterized academic conferences and their sponsors. Bowen said, "With academic freedom comes academic responsibility. And that requires them to teach the truth of their discipline, and the truth does not include conspiracy theories, or flat Earth theories or Holocaust denial theories."
Sadly, perpetrators of genocide and their allies regularly deny the atrocities committed - often even as the crimes are taking place.
Today, International Human Rights Day, we should not use the history of the Holocaust to promote hate, but instead, we should urge advocacy to end the genocide in Darfur where innocent men, women and children are being slaughtered. This is a day to focus on the rights of those being massacred, not a day for denying the suffering of others.
BONNIE DEUTSCH BURDMAN
Liberty
Dr. HELENE SINNREICH
Youngstown
Atty. Burdman is director of the Jewish Community Relations Council, Youngstown Area Jewish Federation, and Dr. Sinnreich is a history professor and director of Judaic Holocaust Studies at Youngstown State University and a member of the Jewish Community Relations Council Board of Directors.