A conference opened in Tehran, Iran today with the intent of providing a forum for “thinkers and researchers” who question the accuracy and scope of historical accounts regarding the Holocaust.  Billed as “Review of the Holocaust: global vision&…

If Ahmadinejad wants true freedom of expression, then why doesn’t he just hold his own Muhammad cartoon contest.

Being deliberately offensive and insulting is now the epitome of “freedom of expression?”

I’m gonna have to disagree here. When you’re free to do what you wanna do, it doesn’t mean you should take advantage of that freedom by acting rude and intentionally offensive. Freedom of expression should be mainly used for educational purposes, and expressing intelligent opinions rather than being like “HAHA UR PROPHET IS A PERVERT HAHA I BET HE WEARS A SKIRT. I SHOULD DRAW THAT FOR THE NATIONAL PAPERS. HAHA I MAKE FUNNY.”

Yeah, that might be freedom of expression. But it’s a dumb way to apply it, and any dumb person who resorts to that should expect dumb reactions in return, which happened. A bunch of toothless people ran around with carton boxes that read “you is infidel we kill you with swords mwahah islam 4eva” and of course, all media outlets ran the story of Islam vs. World. Typical. But hey, a great way to increase readership, I would’ve manipulated people too through catchy headers and images of homeless unwashed people right smack in the middle of some isolated Pakistani village going insane.

These cartoons are the worst examples of freedom of expression and these reactions will happen everywhere. Those few illiterate, unemployed, and bored Muslims are just itching for a sequel of these cartoons to get off their asses and do something fun for a change. Give them something to go mad about and they will, but don’t use them as an example and don’t claim that all Muslims react like that. They hardly represent anybody, and it doesn’t make us any less capable of taking good advantage of freedom of expression where we don’t use it as a tool to insult others just for the sheer sake of it. Dumb cartoons result in dumb reactions, same thing with dumb racist claims resulting in violent threats. It’s that simple.

“Perhaps you see Holocaust denial as an expression of support for the Palestinians,” he writes. “Here, too, you are wrong. We struggle for our existence and our rights, and against the historic injustice that was dealt us in 1948.

“Our success and our independence will not be gained by denying the genocide perpetrated against the Jewish people, even if parts of this people are the very forces that occupy and dispossess us to this day.”

Mr Safadi says that reading the works of Arab intellectuals helped convince him that the Holocaust was a historical fact.