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Wiesenthal Centre to Spanish Foreign Minister: "Close Down Holocaust Denial Protestant Website that Sullies Cordoba Initiative Against Antisemitism"

In a letter to Spanish Foreign Minister, Miguel Moratinos, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's Director for International Affairs, Dr Shimon Samuels, highlighted an attack on the 55 state party OSCE conference on "Antisemitism and Other Forms of Intolerance", hosted by Spain last month in Cordoba.

Samuels stated, "the effort put into that initiative has been sullied, in both Spanish and English, by the website www.protestantedigital.com/hemeroteca/086/enfoque.htm which viciously attacks the Cordoba programme. This is the mouthpiece for Juan Antonio Monroy, former President of the Federation of Evangelical Religious Entities in Spain (FEREDE)."

The letter explained that "Monroy is a violent anti-Catholic, antisemite and Holocaust denier. He is not only an embarrassment to the one and a half million Protestants in Spain, but abuses Spanish freedom of expression by his incitement to Jew-hatred. His article 'Until When the Holocaust?', and his promotion of 'The Myth of the Six Millions' by J.Bochaca (published by Ediciones Bau of Barcelona) are in violation of Spanish law and European Union provisions regarding Holocaust revisionism and genocide apologetics", adding that "above all, Monroy's website is an offense to Spain in its assault on your country's declared policy to contain antisemitism."

The Centre urged the Minister "to publicly condemn the statement of Monroy and to take all measures under Spanish jurisprudence to close his website and charge him for promoting racism."

Monroy's site also mentions that he is "the recipient of a Doctor Honoris Causa" from Pepperdine University and The Theological (Evangelical) Seminary of Puerto Rico.

Samuels also wrote to Presidents Andrew Benton and Sergio Ojeda-Cárcamo, of these two American institutions respectively, noting that "by such

association, Monroy and his website bring offense to your academic reputation by tainting it with racism." The Centre called the campus Presidents "to condemn the statements of Monroy and to strip him of the honorary academic decoration you have accorded to him", emphasizing that "this measure will set a pedagogical example that there is no place for racism in academia."

For further information, please contact Dr. Samuels at +33 6 09 77 01 58.