IRANIAN COCKROACHES

"... a cartoon published on the editorial page of the Columbus Dispatch on Sep. 4 has created a furor amongst Iranians worldwide. The cartoon by staff member Michael Ramirez portrayed Iran as a sewer with the word "extremism" on its lid. Cockroaches are shown spreading out across the region and infecting Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan with "extremism".... Ramirez is... well-known for a series of provocative cartoons defending the George W. Bush administration and its "war on terror".

"Comparing people to cockroaches happened during the Nazi era and before the Holocaust in Germany. A similar pattern happened in Rwanda before the genocide in 1994 -- a comparison between Tutsis and cockroaches.When you dehumanise a group of people, then you can nuke them, you can kill them, you can destroy them, and unfortunately that process is moving forward."
--Ali Sheikholeslami, executive director of the Islamic Cultural Centre of Northern California

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39305