ABSTRACT
Iran's machinations lie at the center of world politics. But only rarely is attention paid to the unique ideological atmosphere that makes the Iranian nuclear program especially dangerous. Holocaust denial is certainly the cruelest aspect of this ideology. Since December 2005, the "lie about the Holocaust" has become a regular topic of televised Friday sermons in Iran. Ahmadinejad is the first to celebrate the intellectual and moral crime of Holocaust denial in the stance of a freedom fighter. Until 2006, the Holocaust deniers, ostracized by society as obscurantists, had to struggle for every millimeter of respectability they could muster. The "Holocaust International Cartoon Contest" announced by the Iranian newspaper Hamshahri in February 2006 confirmed this new form of Holocaust denial: creative, modern, unrestrained, and extremely self-assertive. The elimination of Israel, the demonization of Jews, and Holocaust denial- these are the three elements of an ideological constellation that collapses as soon as one of the elements is removed.
