Jyllands-Posten reconsiders printing holocaust denial cartoons

February 8, 2006

Jyllands-Postens (The Jutlands Post)'s editor-in-chief, Carsten Juste has scrapped supposed plans to publish holocaust-denial cartoons simultaneously with Iranian paper Hamshahri. The message currently on the front page of their website indicates that the news was "based on an over-interpretation of a statement made by Culture Editor Flemming Rose". Juste emphasizes that the cartoons will under "no circumstances" be published by the paper prior to seeing them.

Jyllands-Posten, Denmark's most widely-circulated newspaper, has come under criticism for its original publishing of the so-called "Mohammad Cartoons". Originally published with the intent of sparking debate about the image of Mohammad, the Last Prophet of Islam, the images have instead sparked a series of dangerous, sometimes bloody riots throughout the Middle East following their republishing in newspapers throughout Europe and the Arab world.

Hamshahri's announcement concerning the publishing of cartoons questioning the reality of the Holocaust came in response to the cartoons, which have been viewed as highly offensive and insulting to many Muslims throughout the Middle East and the world at large. The announcement follows a brief period earlier this year when the government of Iran faced worldwide rebuke when its President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, referred to the Holocaust as a myth fabricated by the West to secure a Jewish homeland in the state of Palestine.

According to the Associated Press, the Post's culture editor, Flemming Rose had offered to print the planned holocaust-denying cartoons commissioned by Iranian paper Hamshahri as a response to the riot-provoking cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed. In an interview with CNN's American Morning on Wednesday, Rose said that Jyllands-Posten would contact Hamshahri to print the pictures the same day.