THE JERUSALEM POST: Three weeks after former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami visited Germany, the Central Council of Jews in Germany has launched a bitter assault on Social Democratic Foreign Ministry State Secretary Gernot Erler and the Green Party's mayor of Freiburg, Dieter Salomon, for welcoming him, accusing them of "pure appeasement" politics toward the Iranian regime.
Khatami, who served as president of Iran from 1997 to 2005, is now jockeying to replace the current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
On October 28, Khatami was invited by the University of Freiburg, in southern Germany, to deliver a lecture on "Dialogue between the Islamic and Western World."
Salomon praised Khatami's tenure as Iranian president, saying it represented "more rule of law, democracy and freedom for the [Iranian] people." He told the Badische newspaper, "We feel very honored" by Khatami's visit.
Khatami was also welcomed by Erler, Freiburg University dean Hans-Jochen Schiewer and the Reverend Wolfgang Sauer of the archdiocese in Freiburg.
His visit attracted barely any media attention and produced little controversy at the time, even though Khatami has described Zionism as the "continuation of fascism" and defended the French Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy.
In the wake of the visit, however, a public letter issued by the Central Council of Jews in Germany, co-headed by Dieter Graumann, has asserted that by hosting Khatami, Erler and Salomon aligned themselves with his reactionary politics. As outlined in the letter, Khatami advocates the death penalty for homosexuals, opposes women's rights, and represses minority religious and ethnic groups in Iran. >>> By Benjamin Weinthal, Jerusalem Post Correspondent in Berlin | November 23, 2008
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