TEHRAN – The Art Bureau of Iran’s Islamic Ideology Dissemination Organization has announced a plan to organize another Holocaust denial exhibition of cartoons in the response to French President Emmanuel Macron’s defense of the insulting cartoons on the Prophet Muhammad (S).

“The French president has ignored the over 1.5 billion Muslim population of the world,” the director of the bureau’s Visual Arts Office, Masud Shojaei-Tabatabai, said in a press release on Tuesday.

“It’s really obvious that we Muslims face a scenario promoting Islamophobia, hate-mongering and racism,” noted Shojaei-Tabatabai who is also a veteran cartoonist.

“In an exactly similar form, our program is to publish serious artworks challenging the Holocaust; for one insulting cartoon, we will publish ten cartoons in social media and other virtual spaces; this current will show how much Macron and his friends have tolerance for freedom of speech,” he added.       

“We plan to retaliate through the language of the cartoon,” he stressed.

Earlier in September, Shojaei-Tabatabai said that the Art Bureau plans to organize an international cartoon exhibition on the Holocaust in response to the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo’s republication of cartoons insulting Prophet Muhammad (S).

The Art Bureau has previously organized two international cartoon contests to challenge the Holocaust.

The bureau also held the international cartoon exhibition “I Can’t Breathe” during June to highlight protests against racism in the U.S.

Shojaei-Tabatabai initiated the International Trumpism Cartoon and Caricature Contest in 2017 and 2019 to criticize U.S. capitalism and hegemony around the world.  
 
The Art Bureau also plans to organize an international cartoon, caricature and poster contest to show solidarity with the oppressed people of Palestine.

The event named “Palestine Is Not Alone International Cartoon, Caricature and Poster Contest”.

Photo: A cartoon by Iranian artist Mohammad-Ali Rajabi.

MMS/YAW