Tony Blair, David Irving and Holocaust Revisionism

Prime Minister Tony Blair
10 Downing Street
London, SW1A 2AA
United Kingdom

November 21, 2006

Dear Prime Minister Blair,

At the outset, I would like to thank you for having your press secretaries send me two acknowledgements in regard to my open letter to you of November 9, 2006, which was widely circulated over the Internet. Once again, this letter of Novermber 21 will also be widely circulated by way of the Internet.

According to the press reports, one of the reasons you backed the invasion of Iraq was because you wanted to end tyranny and bring democracy and respect for human rights to the Iraqi people. As you know, a truly democratic society respects the individual’s right to freedom of speech and opinion, even if the opinions expressed are completely wrong or thoroughly hated and unpopular. This is precisely why British society tolerates the opinions of, for example, atheists and anti-religious people.

In a word, in a real democracy, a person has the right to be wrong or hold hated, unpopular opinions.

Unfortunately, Prime Minister Blair, there is a serious problem with British government pronouncements about wanting to bring “democracy and respect for human rights to the Middle East.” How can you possibly “teach” the Iraqi people about the value of democracy and respect for human rights, when you are totally silent about a major human rights violation that has been perpetrated upon your famous fellow countryman, historian David Irving.

As I am sure you are well aware, Mr. Irving has been sentenced to three years in prison by the Austrian government because he has publicly rejected certain Jewish Holocaust claims. This is a clear violation of his right to freedom of speech. Even if Mr. Irving’s views on the Jewish Holocaust are 100% wrong, the fact of the matter remains is that in a democratic society he has the right to be wrong or to hold unpopular, hated opinions. As I said, this is precisely why British society tolerates atheism and anti-Christian and anti-Muslim ideas.

Do you see the serious contradiction here, Prime Minister Blair? You want to “teach” the Iraqi people about respect for individual human rights. Yet, you are totally silent when your own countryman Irving has his human right to freedom of speech violated by the Austrian government. What type of message do you think this sends Middle Eastern people about the American and British governments’ campaign to “bring democracy to Iraq.” They see the cant and hypocrisy.

Let us look at this from another angle.

According to a Yahoo news report of June 25, 2006, you were outraged by the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, because of his statements in support of Holocaust revisionism, the theory that the traditional Jewish Holocaust story contains lies and exaggerations. Specifically, the news missive points out that you called Iran’s plans for a Holocaust revisionist conference in December as “shocking, ridiculous, stupid.”

When the famous evolutionary biologist and atheist, fellow Englishman Richard Dawkins, attacked God and the Christian and Islamic religions in his well publicized book and BBC documentary, you were silent. When your fellow Englishman, David Irving, has his right to freedom of speech violated when the Austrian government imprisoned him for criticizing the Holocaust ideology, you were silent. Yet, when the Iranians plan to have a conference in which they will critically examine the evidence for the so-called Jewish Holocaust, you step forward and castigate them.

So let’s get this all straight. The famous atheist, fellow Englander Dawkins, attacks God and religion, and you are silent; the Austrians violate the human rights of British citizen Irving, and you are silent. The Iranians are not violating anyone’s human right to freedom of speech by hosting a Holocaust revisionist conference. Yet, you stepped out and condemned them for so doing!

Your very behavior suggests that the British government has indeed raised this Jewish Holocaust ideology above God, the Christian and Islamic religions, and the cherished human right to freedom of speech.

In view of all this, I am publicly requesting that you disprove what I write, and step forward and publicly defend David Irving and condemn the Austrian government for their oppressive behavior.

Prime Minister Blair—I hold no illusions about this. I know full well that you are not going to step forward and defend David Irving’s right to freedom of speech. But by remaining silent, you will simply lend credence to the suspicions of those who believe that the Zionist/Holocaust lobby has a firm grip on the Blair government.

Sincerely,

Paul Grubach