Iran hosts anti-Islamic State cartoon contest

TEHRAN, June 1 (UPI) -- A cartoon contest, encouraging artwork defaming the Islamic State, is underway in Iran, with the winner to be chosen Sunday.

Iran's state-run, Press TV, reported artists from over 40 countries have submitted anti-IS cartoons. Although Iran does not have a reputation for free speech, with the Committee to Protect Journalists noting it is among the 10 most censored countries and among the world's biggest jailers of reporters, government-sponsored cartoon contests are encouraged as long as the artwork hews to government policy; a recent contest involved the country's official denial of the Holocaust.

Eight hundred entries depicting "crimes committed by the Islamic State" were submitted, and 270 were chosen for the contest. They include depictions of IS members as puppets whose strings are worked by Israel and the United States, and IS ineffectively attacking a pencil, which can be regarded as a cartoonist's weapon of choice.

An anti-IS cartoon political contest in Iran can be seen as appropriate, since Iran's Muslim population is largely Shi'ite, and IS is antagonistic and Sunni.