Alex Linder
December 25th, 2006, 06:48 AM
Prof in trouble for attending Iran's Holocaust conference
By Jim Coggins
SHIRAZ DOSSA, a political science professor from St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, has been severely criticized for being the only Canadian to attend a controversial conference in Iran.
The international event, called 'Review of the Holocaust: Global Vision,' was held December 11 - 12 in Tehran and was sponsored by the Institute for Political and International Studies of the Iranian government's Foreign Ministry. It attracted 67 people from 30 countries.
Those present included David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan leader; several German neo-Nazis; and Robert Faurisson, a French academic who lost his tenured position because of his repeated denials that the Holocaust -- the extermination of six million Jews by the Nazis -- ever happened. However, Khaled Ksab, a Palestinian scholar, was barred from attending, officially because he holds an Israeli passport, but possibly also because he believes the Holocaust did happen.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has denied that the holocaust happened. He has also called for the destruction of the modern state of Israel -- which has a population of just over six million people. Ahmadinejad reportedly told the conference that the days of the Jewish state are numbered. Several government leaders have expressed concerns that Iran may be in the process of developing nuclear weapons.
At the conference, Shiraz Dossa gave a 10-minute presentation on 'Liberalism, Holocaust and war against Muslims.'
Dossa himself has not denied the Holocaust, and before going, he opined that most of those attending the conference were "hacks and lunatics," and said he wouldn't even "shake hands with most of them."
However, Dossa has apparently defended Palestinian positions in the past and has written critically about what he sees as secular, self-centred, Western liberalism's attempts to impose its values on the rest of the world.
In an interview with the Globe and Mail, Dossa said the paper he read at the conference discussed how the Holocaust was used to "justify certain policies by people, some of whom are Zionists," including "the war on terrorism, which is essentially a war on Islam."
Dossa's travel expenses were paid for by the conference organizers. He was born in Uganda, but educated at the University of Toronto. He said he saw the trip as an opportunity to visit the homeland of some of his ancestors.
Because it is illegal in some European countries to deny the Holocaust [illegal to dissent from Jewish Dogma], the Iranian organizers claimed they were defending freedom of speech by hosting their conference. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the intent of the conference was to "create an opportunity for thinkers who cannot express their views freely in Europe about the Holocaust."
However, Iran has been widely criticized by some for mistreatment of dissenters.
The Canadian Association of University Teachers defended Shariz Dossa's right to attend the conference as a question of academic freedom.
However, the conference was strongly criticized by international leaders, including Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who called it "an offence to all Canadians."
Dr. Sean Riley, president of St. Francis Xavier, expressed "shock and regret" that Dossa had attended the conference.
While recognizing the professor's academic freedom, he said Dossa does not speak for the university. The university has declined to comment further, pending meetings with Dossa following his return.
St. Francis Xavier is officially a Roman Catholic institution, but in practice it often operates like other universities, with faculty members holding a wide variety of religious and secular views.
Bernie Farber, CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress, said genuine re-examination of historical facts is legitimate. However, he contended, the Holocaust is "probably the most documented disaster in history," and accurate information about it is freely available on websites such as that of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Yad Vashem museum in Israel.
Therefore, he asserted, it is clear that Holocaust deniers -- or extreme Holocaust minimizers, who say only a few thousand were killed -- are really motivated by anti-Semitism. He maintained that they deny the Holocaust so they can paint Jews as liars and undermine the justification for the existence of the state of Israel as a refuge for a persecuted people.
In doing so, Farber said, they lay the foundation for another holocaust. Noting that his father was the sole Jewish survivor from a whole Polish town, he said it was "soul-tearing" for Jews to hear people say that these atrocities never happened.
Farber said it has been very encouraging to see everyone from the prime minister to representatives of "every ethnic and faith community" condemn the conference. He added, "Good people are no longer remaining silent," and said this makes the Jewish community feel protected and comforted.
Michael Coren, a noted Canadian columnist and a Christian, said the issue should be of interest to everyone -- but particularly to Christians, because they should stand up for truth, and stand against evil.
He said Dossa should at least be suspended from his academic position because, in his view, this is not a matter of academic opinion -- but of associating with people who preach hate, and will carry out real attacks on Jews. "We are talking of evil people," he said.
Christianity, Coren said, "did not produce the Holocaust. Hitler was very pagan. But it happened in post-Christian Europe, and we should never forget that."
He noted that Christians in Germany opposed the Nazi persecution of the Jews, but added: "Churches did more than most people think . . . but not enough."
http://www.canadianchristianity.com/cgi-bin/na.cgi?nationalupdates/061221trouble
By Jim Coggins
SHIRAZ DOSSA, a political science professor from St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, has been severely criticized for being the only Canadian to attend a controversial conference in Iran.
The international event, called 'Review of the Holocaust: Global Vision,' was held December 11 - 12 in Tehran and was sponsored by the Institute for Political and International Studies of the Iranian government's Foreign Ministry. It attracted 67 people from 30 countries.
Those present included David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan leader; several German neo-Nazis; and Robert Faurisson, a French academic who lost his tenured position because of his repeated denials that the Holocaust -- the extermination of six million Jews by the Nazis -- ever happened. However, Khaled Ksab, a Palestinian scholar, was barred from attending, officially because he holds an Israeli passport, but possibly also because he believes the Holocaust did happen.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has denied that the holocaust happened. He has also called for the destruction of the modern state of Israel -- which has a population of just over six million people. Ahmadinejad reportedly told the conference that the days of the Jewish state are numbered. Several government leaders have expressed concerns that Iran may be in the process of developing nuclear weapons.
At the conference, Shiraz Dossa gave a 10-minute presentation on 'Liberalism, Holocaust and war against Muslims.'
Dossa himself has not denied the Holocaust, and before going, he opined that most of those attending the conference were "hacks and lunatics," and said he wouldn't even "shake hands with most of them."
However, Dossa has apparently defended Palestinian positions in the past and has written critically about what he sees as secular, self-centred, Western liberalism's attempts to impose its values on the rest of the world.
In an interview with the Globe and Mail, Dossa said the paper he read at the conference discussed how the Holocaust was used to "justify certain policies by people, some of whom are Zionists," including "the war on terrorism, which is essentially a war on Islam."
Dossa's travel expenses were paid for by the conference organizers. He was born in Uganda, but educated at the University of Toronto. He said he saw the trip as an opportunity to visit the homeland of some of his ancestors.
Because it is illegal in some European countries to deny the Holocaust [illegal to dissent from Jewish Dogma], the Iranian organizers claimed they were defending freedom of speech by hosting their conference. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the intent of the conference was to "create an opportunity for thinkers who cannot express their views freely in Europe about the Holocaust."
However, Iran has been widely criticized by some for mistreatment of dissenters.
The Canadian Association of University Teachers defended Shariz Dossa's right to attend the conference as a question of academic freedom.
However, the conference was strongly criticized by international leaders, including Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who called it "an offence to all Canadians."
Dr. Sean Riley, president of St. Francis Xavier, expressed "shock and regret" that Dossa had attended the conference.
While recognizing the professor's academic freedom, he said Dossa does not speak for the university. The university has declined to comment further, pending meetings with Dossa following his return.
St. Francis Xavier is officially a Roman Catholic institution, but in practice it often operates like other universities, with faculty members holding a wide variety of religious and secular views.
Bernie Farber, CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress, said genuine re-examination of historical facts is legitimate. However, he contended, the Holocaust is "probably the most documented disaster in history," and accurate information about it is freely available on websites such as that of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Yad Vashem museum in Israel.
Therefore, he asserted, it is clear that Holocaust deniers -- or extreme Holocaust minimizers, who say only a few thousand were killed -- are really motivated by anti-Semitism. He maintained that they deny the Holocaust so they can paint Jews as liars and undermine the justification for the existence of the state of Israel as a refuge for a persecuted people.
In doing so, Farber said, they lay the foundation for another holocaust. Noting that his father was the sole Jewish survivor from a whole Polish town, he said it was "soul-tearing" for Jews to hear people say that these atrocities never happened.
Farber said it has been very encouraging to see everyone from the prime minister to representatives of "every ethnic and faith community" condemn the conference. He added, "Good people are no longer remaining silent," and said this makes the Jewish community feel protected and comforted.
Michael Coren, a noted Canadian columnist and a Christian, said the issue should be of interest to everyone -- but particularly to Christians, because they should stand up for truth, and stand against evil.
He said Dossa should at least be suspended from his academic position because, in his view, this is not a matter of academic opinion -- but of associating with people who preach hate, and will carry out real attacks on Jews. "We are talking of evil people," he said.
Christianity, Coren said, "did not produce the Holocaust. Hitler was very pagan. But it happened in post-Christian Europe, and we should never forget that."
He noted that Christians in Germany opposed the Nazi persecution of the Jews, but added: "Churches did more than most people think . . . but not enough."
http://www.canadianchristianity.com/cgi-bin/na.cgi?nationalupdates/061221trouble