ADL, AJC slam UNESCO over philosophy event in Iran

World Philosophy Day, a day of debate, will be held in Teheran; AJC: "UNESCO is bolstering Ahmadinejad's propaganda."

By LAHAV HARKOV
Jewish organizations called on UNESCO on Thursday to remove its endorsement from the World Philosophy Day planned to take place in Iran later in November.
A delegation of Anti-Defamation League leaders on a mission to Europe this week raised the issue with high-level government officials in France and Italy.
UNESCO has sponsored World Philosophy Day, which brings together leading philosophers from around the world for a day of debate, since 2002.
“Iran’s long record of suppressing free speech and the rights of certain religious minorities, censoring the media, and inhibiting the free teaching of social sciences and the humanities should not be given legitimacy by UNESCO,” said Robert G. Sugarman, ADL National Chair, and Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. “To do so would seriously undermine the integrity and credibility of the international community’s leading organization promoting media and educational freedom.”
The ADL suggested that a parallel event sponsored by UNESCO could take place in Paris as an alternative to the Teheran conference.
American Jewish Committee President Robert Elman and Executive Director David Harris sent an open letter to Irina Bokova, director-general of UNESCO, saying: "The cruel and sadistic methods employed by the government to quell dissent demand that this regime be ostracized by the international community. To hold the World Philosophy Day in Tehran only frustrates these worthy efforts."
"Tragically, UNESCO's World Philosophy Day Conference in Tehran will serve to bolster the propaganda messaging of President Ahmadinejad, who has already announced that, among the participants, will be Mohammad-Javad Larijani, a proponent of execution by stoning," Elman and Harris wrote. "Larijani will be joined by Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, who once referred to the Jewish people as 'the most corrupt race in the world.'"
"By contrast, the government has ensured that any opposing views will be stifled, having barred the participation of moderate and learned philosophers. In a tragic and ironic twist, just last week, Iran implemented a new round of restrictions on the study of 12 key human social sciences, among them, philosophy and human rights," Harris and Elman continued.