A Northwestern University professor known for denying the Holocaust happened has publicly sided with Iran’s hard-line president, who has been on a campaign against Israel.

Engineering professor Arthur Butz said Friday that he agrees with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s remarks calling the Holocaust a “myth.” Butz said his comments supporting the president recently were published by the English-language Tehran Times and Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency.

Butz, a tenured professor whose views have been known in the United States for years, is being promoted by Iranian news sources as one of the world scholars who support Ahmadinejad’s views on the Holocaust.

“I congratulate him on becoming the first head of state to speak out clearly on these issues and regret only that it was not a Western head of state,” Butz said in a Mehr news report. He posted the same comments on his Northwestern-provided Web site.

Jewish leaders expressed fear that support from a United States educator could add credibility to Ahmadinejad’s comments about Israel and the Holocaust.

[…]

Source:

Jodi S. Cohen
Tribune higher education reporter
www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0602040129feb04,1,5661316.story
February 4, 2006