While Holocaust-deniers have suffered setbacks in the United States and Europe in 2005, they made gains in Arab and Muslim countries, according to the 2005 annual report on Holocaust-denial activity around the world released by the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, a research and education institute focusing on America’s response to the Holocaust.
According to the report, in many Arab and Muslim countries, Holocaust-denial continued to enjoy official sponsorship in 2005. Specifically, the regimes in Egypt, Iran, the Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Syria promote Holocaust-denial or defend Holocaust-deniers. The report found that the continued promotion of Holocaust-denial by Egyptian government-controlled publications was particularly alarming in view of the fact that in 2004, Egypt’s Information Minister had, in response to U.S. protests, publicly acknowledged the Holocaust as a historical fact and condemned Holocaust-deniers.
By contrast, in the United States and Europe, Holocaust-deniers suffered a number of setbacks in 2005, as a result of public protests and government action. Protests in the U.S. resulted in C-Span’s cancelation of a broadcast of Holocaust-denier David Irving; the withdrawal by Teen People magazine of an article whitewashing a Holocaust-denying singing duo; and the Jordanian government’s decision to halt an antisemitic and Holocaust-denying television series. At the same time, the governments of Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, and the Netherlands took legal action against Holocaust-deniers, says the report.