On Wednesday, Sohrab Ahmari, editorial page writer at The Wall Street Journal, tweeted a link to an article from the Washington Post about Iran’s Holocaust-denial cartoon contest. The article explained:
In early May, organizers in Tehran will stage the Second International Holocaust Cartoon Contest… An exhibition will feature some of the 839 pieces of "artwork" submitted as part of the contest by artists from more than 50 countries, reports Iran's semiofficial Fars News Agency.
Ahmari tweeted, “Moderate Iran organizes Holocaust-denial cartoon contest.”
That’s when Alireza Tabatabaeenejad decided to sound off:
USC prof @alirezat says Holocaust denial and moderation are mutually compatible. Then deletes tweet. Not so fast. pic.twitter.com/6fByYZZ7Km
— Sohrab Ahmari (@SohrabAhmari) April 8, 2015 @SohrabAhmari Holocaust denial or recognition is not a measure of moderation.
— Alireza Taba (@alirezat) April 8, 2015 Tabatabaeenejad is a research professor at USC in the Department of Electrical Engineering, specializing in electrophysics. USC has not yet commented on the radicalism of its professor. The professor continued to tweet long into the afternoon about why Holocaust denial did not demonstrate radicalism:
@johnpaulpagano @SohrabAhmari Holocaust happens, but someone denies it. His reasoning: Unknown. Why call him extremist, and not ignorant?
— Alireza Taba (@alirezat) April 8, 2015 Some journalists have agenda against #IranDeal. They use every dirty trick and card they can to undermine Iranians' hope for peace.
— Alireza Taba (@alirezat) April 8, 2015 @TayNez81 @SohrabAhmari I don't know. Does that make a person who denies the Holocaust through, say his paintings, an extremist?
— Alireza Taba (@alirezat) April 8, 2015 @SohrabAhmari I deleted it because of a typo. I repeat my question: Why is an exhibition to deny holocaust anti-moderate? Answer please.
— Alireza Taba (@alirezat) April 8, 2015