The daily paper Hamshahri said the contest was designed to test the boundaries of free speech — the reason given by many European newspapers for publishing the Prophet Mohammad cartoons.
“A serious question for Muslims … is this: ‘Does Western free speech allow working on issues like America and Israel’s crimes or an incident like the Holocaust or is this freedom of speech only good for insulting the holy values of divine religions?'” the paper said on Tuesday.
“Hamshahri, far from any conflict-seeking attitude or illogical behaviour, has called on the artists of the world to use free speech to send cartoons on these issues to take part in the contest,” it added.
Newspaper staff could not immediately be reached for comment as the paper was closed ahead of a public holiday on Wednesday.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad provoked international condemnation last year by calling the Holocaust a “myth” and saying Israel should be “wiped off the map”.
Fresh protests erupted across Asia and the Middle East on Monday over the caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad, despite calls by world leaders for calm.
Iran announced it had cut all trade ties with Denmark because of the cartoons and hundreds of protesters hurled rocks and fire bombs at the Danish embassy in Tehran on Monday night.
A Danish newspaper first published the cartoons last September, and newspapers in Norway and a dozen other countries reprinted them last month.
