Is this true, do Muslims and Iran deny that the Holocaust ever occurred?

Yes; it is true.

Denials of the Holocaust have been regularly promoted by various Arab leaders and in various media throughout the Middle East. Newspapers funded by the Saudi Arabian government routinely deny the existence of the Holocaust, or downplay its significance. Individuals from the Syrian government, as well as the Palestinian political group Hamas have recently published Holocaust denial statements.

In August 2002, the Zayed Center for Coordination and Follow-up, an Arab League think-tank whose Chairman, Sultan Bin Zayed Al Nahayan, served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, promoted a Holocaust denial symposium in Abu Dhabi.

Hamas leaders have also promoted Holocaust denial; Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi held that the Holocaust never occurred, that Zionists were behind the action of Nazis, and that Zionists funded Nazism. A press release by Hamas in April 2000 decried "the so-called Holocaust, which is an alleged and invented story with no basis."

Holocaust denial has also been resisted by prominent intellectual figures in the Arab world; in 2001, an outcry led by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, Lebanese writer Elias Khoury and others brought about the cancellation of a conference the Holocaust denial organization Institute for Historical Review had planned to hold in Beirut.

In 2005 the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leader, Mohammed Mahdi Akef, denounced what he called "the myth of the Holocaust" in defending Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's denial of the Holocaust.

According to the Associated Press, "Ignorance and even denial of the Holocaust is widespread in Palestinian society."and "Holocaust denial is still common in the Palestinian territories".

According to Aziz Abu Sarah, published in Haaretz, "...growing up I did not know much about the Holocaust. As Palestinians, we simply did not learn about it. There was a stigma attached to it, an understanding that Israel would use the Holocaust to lobby for sympathy, then turn and use the sympathy as a terrible weapon against the Palestinian people."

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad frequently denies the Holocaust, although he has on occasion confirmed his belief in it.

Holocaust denial is relatively new to the Middle East, as Kenneth Jacobson, assistant national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said in an interview with Haaretz: "Adopting the theories of Holocaust denial of Western scholars is a relatively new phenomenon in the Muslim world. The accepted attitude had been to say that whereas it was true the Holocaust had taken place, the Palestinians should not have to pay the price. A look at Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's statements shows that he has mixed the two approaches."

In a December 2005 speech, Ahmadinejad said that a legend was fabricated and had been promoted to protect Israel. He said,

“ They have fabricated a legend, under the name Massacre of the Jews, and they hold it higher than God himself, religion itself and the prophets themselves...If somebody in their country questions God, nobody says anything, but if somebody denies the myth of the massacre of Jews, the Zionist loudspeakers and the governments in the pay of Zionism will start to scream. ”

The remarks immediately provoked a blaze of international controversy as well as swift condemnation from government officials in Israel, Europe, and the United States. All six political parties in the German parliament signed a joint resolution condemning this Holocaust denial.

Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal described Ahmadinejad's comments as "courageous" and stated that "...Muslim people will defend Iran because it voices what they have in their hearts, in particular the Palestinian people."In the United States, the Muslim Public Affairs Council condemned Ahmadinejad's remarks.

On April 24, 2006, Ahmadinejad demanded a free evaluation of the real extent of the Holocaust "in order to find the ultimate truth." In a May 30, 2006 interview with Der Spiegel, Ahmadinejad again questioned the Holocaust several times, insisting there were "two opinions" on it. When asked if the Holocaust was a myth, he responded "I will only accept something as truth if I am actually convinced of it".

On December 11, 2006, the "International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust" opened to widespread condemnation. The conference, called for by and held at the behest of Ahmadinejad, was widely described as a "Holocaust denial conference" or a "meeting of Holocaust deniers", though Iran insisted it was not a Holocaust denial conference. A few months before it opened, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi stated: "The Holocaust is not a sacred issue that one can't touch. I have visited the Nazi camps in Eastern Europe. I think it is exaggerated."

Yes some Muslims & the Iranian government deny the Holocaust. The logic goes "Israel was formed because of the Holcoaust (though it wasn't), therefore if it didn't happen it will be easier to Holocaust those Jews again."

You've got a couple of myths mixed in though:

* Iranians themselves tend to believe the Holocaust happened. It's common in the Middle East to deny it in fairly high poll numbers, but many Iranians are more educated & not as intolerant as their government. By contrast Abbas of the Palestinian Arabs did his PhD thesis on Holocaust denial reducing number of victims to less than a few hundred thousand. Now if I was PA Arab & aiming to lead my people - that's what I'd find important to accomplish in my studies?

* UK is NOT removing it from their curriculum. There are variations of that myth that go around. Started with one district & one or two teachers who were yutzes about the Holocaust but was never policy anywhere. The Muslim thing is a new addition. I think Snopes has the details. (I think I learned the accurate details at a Child of Survivors meeting (My father's a survivor.)

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Jimmy C

You are as much into mythology on Israel as Ahemendiajah. It's interesting & you bring up the point - they often deny the Holocaust while claiming, Israel to be the new Nazis. It's that twisted.

Jewish Priests

To the poster with that one - no such thing exists. You're thinking of a religiously fanatical hate group of less than 2000 out of all 14 million Jews. They think Israel shouldn't have been created until the messiah came AND THAT justifies lying & hate behavior to destroy it. They are nuts & even the must religious in Israel agree on that. They'd hug Ahemdinajad while he's denying the holocaust even though they've lost people themselves.

Don

Join the list of Holocaust denier & mythology believers. Calling a people by their perpetrators name shows so little compassion it's mind boggling & ruins the effect of any other claim. In fact that hate lie of calling Israel, Nazi comes from same source as Ahemendianjad & takes not knowing what the Holocaust was. So does equating (sad) deaths in war with systematic state sponsored genocide. We can't learn from the past as humans if we can't even continue to name it.

Iran is a country.... not a person with some sort of thought. :P

Iran's leader denies the holocaust though. As for Muslims, I don't think it's like a law for them to deny the holocaust...

And wow, the UK is debating this?

That's not nice......

There are many muslims and Iranians who accept the Holocaust as a fact. Stop watching the media and just think to yourself for a minute.

Can you please send me a link about "The UK is debating if they should leave out the Holocaust."

Im shocked the rest of us havnt heard that!

Yes.

The President of Iran denies it quite often in public, and wants to cause another Holocaust and wipe Israel off the map.

General Eisenhower told his troops to take lots of photos of the death camps, because as the General said, "one day some son of a ***** is gonna come along and say that this never happend."

Merry Christmas!

They're seriously debating whether to talk about the Holocaust in school in the UK or not?

Just because they don't want to offend their religion? I would scream and cuss if this weren't christmas eve.

Anyone that denies that something like that happen should really question their religion. Are they honestly stupid enough to deny hundreds of videos of jews starving to death?

I'd like to slap those SOBs for saying that didn't happen. It's disrespectful to the people that died at the hands of Hitler to say what happened didn't happen.

I don't know what to say, but it really pisses me off that they're seriously thinking of not teaching it because they "don't want to offend their religion". Well, they offend my religion by saying it didn't happen. So there, now they have to choose between those religions and mine.(being sarcastic)

Still stupid to think of not teaching it when it DID HAPPEN!

I wouldn't say it's all Muslims, anybody can be part of Holocaust denial. But it is true that many deny that it ever happened, despite a whole world war erupting over it.

Yep, some, but not all. And I do not think something so important should be taken out of text books because a group of people are offended by history....

The leader of Iran denies it. As for Muslims, that's up to the individual.

The President of Iran is saying so to attract a reaction from Israel to bait them into a war or enrage them is all.

I suspect no one doubts Jewish slaughter during WWII, even the Iranian President. Just political maneuverings and denouncing Jews to his Iranian folks to their delight.

I think he's a jerk.