Political cartoonists from around the world are flying into Iran, not exactly a bastion of free speech, to take part in a competition featuring anti-ISIS cartoons.
Can this be the same country that hosted a competition for cartoons that questioned the Holocaust?
Well, yes, it can.
And believe it or not, it is possible to criticize ISIS -- the barbaric group also known as ISIL and the Islamic State that is aiming to create a caliphate in the Middle East -- without actually making sense. Some of the cartoons submitted as part of the contest, for example, depict ISIS as a puppet whose strings are pulled by none other than the United States and Israel.
The contest called for cartoons showing "crimes committed by the Islamic State." The winners will be selected on Sunday. More than 1,000 drawings from around the world were submitted from places as far-flung as Italy, the UK, Peru and Australia, according to Press TV, an Iranian channel. And 270 were chosen for the competition.
"ISIL tries to associate itself with Islam but in essence has no idea about Islam," Massoud Shojael Tabataii, a graphic artist who is a member of the jury, told Press TV.
Some of the cartoons submitted show ISIS destroying historical artifacts, as the group has done in places like Mosul, in northern Iraq. Others depict the group's attack on a pencil, the tool of cartoonists, as futile. And one drawing showed members of ISIS leaving their hearts and brains at the door.
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/31/middleeast/iran-cartoon-competition/
