02 November 2006
A Moroccan has won a Holocaust cartoon contest sponsored by the Iranian government, JTA reports. Abdullah Derkaoui took the prize money of US$ 12,000 in a contest launched by the official Iranian newspaper "Hamshari" which stirred international controversy. Iran called the contest a response to Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that had led to violent protests in the Muslim world earlier this year. Derkaoui's cartoon shows a wall, with a gate resembling the entrance to the Auschwitz death camp, separating the Al-Aksa Mosque from the rest of Jerusalem. The award ceremony was administered by Iran's Culture and Islamic Guidance minister Mohammed Hussein Saffar-Harandi, who said the contest had broken the "taboo" on questioning whether the Holocaust took place. Organizers said there had been 1,193 entries from 62 countries to the contest
