Keep the Holocaust-Denying President of Iran Out of Germany

June 6, 2006

Keep the Holocaust-Denying President of Iran Out of Germany
Sign the petition to German Chancellor Angela Merkel now

Your early support and activism, along with 25,000 other Simon Wiesenthal Center petitioners to the head of FIFA, helped force the international community to focus on the issue of allowing the Holocaust-denying President of Iran to attend this month's World Cup. Now, according to news reports, President Ahmadinejad has said that he would go to Germany if the Iranian team advances into the second round.

FIFA’s President Joseph Blatter has now responded to the Wiesenthal Center in a letter stating, “FIFA does not extend invitations to government representatives or heads of state.  Such invitations and arrangements are always made by the government of the hosting country.”

Therefore, we are now turning to German Chancellor Angela Merkel to urge her to keep Ahmadinejad from attending the World Cup, the world's most-viewed sporting event. A letter has just been sent to the Chancellor by Center Dean and Founder, Rabbi Marvin Hier. We now ask you to again join with us by using this link to send your petition directly to Chancellor Merkel.

Although the German government cannot refuse Ahmadinejad entry into the country because as a Head of State he does not need a visa, Germany has a moral obligation to state unequivocally and publicly that a visit by a head of state who denies the Holocaust and has called for the obliteration of the State of Israel is not welcome.

If President Ahmadinejad pays no penalty for his antisemitism, Holocaust denial and genocidal threats against Israel, then we legitimize his message by allowing him to sit in the VIP section of the World Cup before a viewing audience of billions.

Seventy years ago, the nations of the world came to Berlin to participate in the 1936 Olympics hosted by Nazi Germany.  Then, too, many said that their motivation was sports, not politics.  But Hitler used the Olympics to prop up his stature as an international statesman. That is exactly what Ahmadinejad will do unless Germany tells him that proponents of antisemitism and genocide have no place at the World Cup.

Please act immediately by signing the petition to Chancellor Merkel. Your activism makes a difference!

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AFP Story

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LOS ANGELES (AFP) - A leading US Jewish group has written to German Chancellor Angela Merkel urging her to take a tough stance against any plans by football-mad Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to attend the World Cup.

The head of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center wrote to Germany's leader on Monday after Iranian officials were quoted by media as saying their president would attend the football fiesta in Germany if Iran's team advances to the second stage.

"President Ahmadinejad has denied the Holocaust and called for the obliteration of the state of Israel," wrote Rabbi Marvin Hier, the center's founder and dean in the letter to Merkel obtained by AFP.

"It is inconceivable that a head of state who advocates those policies would be received at a world sporting event by the same country where the Nuremburg Laws were proclaimed and where Adolf Hitler first enunciated his policies that led to the 'Final Solution'.

"Such a visit would desecrate the memory of the millions murdered in the gas chambers and contradict the very foundation upon which the post-war Federal Republic of Germany was built," Hier added in the strongly worded letter on behalf of the center's 400,000 members.

Hier said the outspoken Iranian leader's possible presence at the global gathering would give him a similar public platform to that Hitler assumed when he hosted the Berlin Olympics of 1936.

While as a head of state Ahmadinejad does not require an official invitation from Germany to accept the games, Hier said he believed Berlin had a "moral obligation to state publicly that his visit would be unwelcome.

"I feel that the international community, and in this case Germany as the host country, have to say something and it's not good enough to say they are hoping he won't come," Hier told AFP, adding it was unacceptable to say that any World Cup visit by Ahmadinejad would be a matter of sports, not politics.

"I feel very strongly about it because everyone is passing the buck: Germany has not yet made a strong public statement against the prospect of such a visit," Hier added.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter on Monday distanced world football's governing body from the brewing row surrounding the possible attendance of the hardline Iranian leader, insisting it was not a footballing matter.

"Iran has qualified from the Asian zone and therefore their squad has been invited to the World Cup," said Blatter.

"Chancellor Angela Merkel was interviewed and she replied that the team has been invited by FIFA and all the qualified teams are welcome in Germany," he said.

"Everything else is politics. We are a sporting movement."

Ahmadinejad sparked worldwide controversy when he suggested the Holocaust was a "myth" and called for the destruction of Israel, prompting calls from several leading German politicians for Iran to be banned from the finals.