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 TEHRAN, Feb 7
(Reuters) - Iran's best-selling
newspaper has launched a competition to find the best cartoon about the
Holocaust in retaliation for the publication in many European countries of
caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad.
The daily paper Hamshahri said the contest was
designed to test the boundaries of free speech -- the reason given by many
European newspapers for publishing the Prophet Mohammad cartoons.
"A serious question for Muslims ... is this: 'Does Western free speech
allow working on issues like America and Israel's crimes or an incident
like the Holocaust or is this freedom of speech only good for insulting the
holy values of divine religions?'" the paper said on Tuesday.
"Hamshahri, far from any conflict-seeking
attitude or illogical behaviour, has called on the artists of the world to
use free speech to send cartoons on these issues to take part in the
contest," it added.
Newspaper staff could not immediately be reached for comment as the paper
was closed ahead of a public holiday on Wednesday.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
provoked international condemnation last year by calling the Holocaust a
"myth" and saying Israel should be
"wiped off the map".
Fresh protests erupted across Asia and the Middle East on Monday over
the caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad, despite calls by world leaders for
calm.
Iran announced it
had cut all trade ties with Denmark because of the
cartoons and hundreds of protesters hurled rocks and fire bombs at the
Danish embassy in Tehran on Monday
night.
A Danish newspaper first published the cartoons last September, and
newspapers in Norway and a dozen
other countries reprinted them last month.
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