David Irving, 70, spoke Wednesday at St. Stephen of Hungary Parish, a Catholic church on East 82nd Street. A clergyman there said the church was not aware of Mr. Irving's views on the Holocaust and was told that a small group wanted the space to discuss a book.I am not sure how the church could not have known who David Irving was or the group he represents? Irving is one of the most notorious Holocaust deniers in the world, and the Austrian government sentenced him to three years in prison for spewing his hatred and revisionist pablum there. He served only one year after appealing to the Austrian high court.
"We had no idea whatsoever, and in fact they never told us the nature of their meeting," Father Eric Carpine told The New York Sun. "We would never sponsor anyone who would ... discriminate against people."
More than half a million Hungarian Jews died in the Holocaust, according to the Web site of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
A journalist, Max Blumenthal, attended the event for a documentary he is making on Mr. Irving, and said that Mr. Irving refused "to even use the term 'Holocaust'" in his lecture.
"He said a lot of notable things that should keep him out of certain countries in Europe," Mr. Blumenthal said.
This isn't a function of free speech, but rather denying him a private platform from which to speak. If he wants to stand on a street corner and spew his rantings, that's fine by me, but no one should provide him a forum in which to spread his revisionist history.
It would appear that the church simply took Irving at his word that he would be using the church space to discuss a book when even a cursory Google search would have revealed his background.
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