Holocaust Remembrance Day

Today isn't just another day in the Bay Area. Today is a source of nasty political and religious debate. Today is an opportunity for anti-Semitism to rear its ugly head yet again. Why? Because today is Holocaust Remembrance Day.
 

David Irving Is A Holocaust Revisionist

Many Muslims in the San Francisco area deny that the Holocaust even happened, that it was all a hoax. Holocaust denial, also known as Holocaust "revisionism," tries to present the viewpoint that the Jewish community falsified the event and/or greatly exaggerated the casualties of it to gain sympathy and support for the statehood of Israel, along with the "Zionist agenda."
 

Hamas Dancers

The Palestinian political group Hamas is one of the main voices in the Islamic world espousing this viewpoint, releasing an official statement in 2000 stating that the Holocaust was "an alleged and invented story with no basis."

 

The Anti-Christ

Hamas isn't the only one, though. Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared that "if someone were to deny the myth of the Jews' massacre, all the Zionist mouthpieces and the governments subservient to the Zionists tear their larynxes and scream against the person as much as they can."

200,000 Went Into Bergen Belsen's Oven

Statements like these beg a much bigger question to be answered: How do you fake something such as the Holocaust? How do you fake the torture, terror and tears of entire communities?

Ask A Holocaust Survivor

So-called "brothers" or "sisters" who deny the Holocaust, walk up to a nice Jewish grandmother - one who happens to be a Holocaust survivor - and tell her that she's a liar. Go ahead and tell her that she was just imagining things when she saw the lifeless bodies of her family being shoved into ovens or buried in mass graves like they were just garbage. Go ahead and laugh in her face when she talks about having numbers tattooed into her arm.

Sterilized By Nazi Doctors

What do you tell this grandmother when she cries about adopting her children because she was sterilized against her will. Can't do it, can you?

Pictures Don't Lie

It is truly evil to deny the pain and suffering of the survivors and of the slain, to say that they're just "making it up." It's appalling to think that the entire ummah (Islamic community) is just sitting back on its collective *** and not taking a more pro-active role in combating Holocaust denial, er, "revisionism." Ummah, how would you like it if members of the Jewish community said, "Those people that claim they lost loved ones under Saddam Hussein's regime are liars - the Muslim community is just doing it for sympathy."

You wouldn't like it very much, would you? Then, knowing how it feels, why would you do it to someone else?

Holocaust Remembrance Day isn't about supporting Israel, homosexuality or unpopular political viewpoints, if that's what this Holocaust revisionism is really all about. It's about laying aside selfish political agendas and prejudice to remember those courageous souls who paid the ultimate price for bigotry and apathy. It's also about remembering those who made the ultimate sacrifice to save others, even when it would have been easier to just "give them up" to the "authorities."

Here Is Proof

It's having the knowledge that you could meet the same horrific fate as the frightened souls you're protecting, but still disregarding your personal safety because your faith in God gives you the strength to do what is right, not what is popular. It is about standing up to people like President Ahmadinejad, who put love of power and its resulting corruption over piety and tolerance, the true hallmarks of the Islamic faith. When was the last time we heard THAT in the masjid (proper term for the mosque)?

Speaking as a Muslim who's disgusted and ashamed by the petty politics and cultural biases in our faith, this is the jihad I call all Muslims to. Remember those lost in the Holocaust. After all, how can we expect mercy on the Last Day if we show none to our fellow man?

Erin Caballero is a Spartan Daily co-opinion editor. "Erin Out the Details" appears every Tuesday.