There are serious questions to be raised regarding Europe's treatment of its Jewish citizenry -- such as whether the Holocaust justified resettling much of Europe's Jewish population in the area that is now Israel and the Israeli occupied territories along with the resulting eviction of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and whether those evicted Palestinians and their descendants should now be allowed to return to their homeland. Challenging whether the Holocaust ever occurred is not among them.

While President Ahmedinejad mouths politically correct platitudes about academic freedom and freedom of expression, the conference is clearly a thinly veiled attempt to provoke Europe, Israel and their supporters. Most telling is the list of invitees -- a handful of Jewish rabbis who will express the opinion that Israel has cynically used the Holocaust to justify atrocities against the Palestinians; David Duke, a former president of the KKK, and notorious racist; Dr Toben who not only denies the Holocaust ever happened but claims that Germany was forced to invade Poland by England, France and their allies in order to open the way for "Jewish" communism...

The list of speakers makes it clear that the agenda of the conference is not honest academic or philosophical inquiry but blatant antisemitism and revisionist history. Antisemitism has become a severe problem within the Muslim community, an ahistorical trend caused in part by the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The PMU denounces antisemitism in all its forms, just as we denounce Islamophobia in all its forms. While we take issue with many of Israel's tactics and positions with regards the Palestinians, we believe that opposition to the policies of a particular government can never justify hatred of a people or of a religion.