The Nazi Influences of Islamic Terror
My father’s side of my family lived in Italy when Benito Mussolini was dictator. When Il Duce‘s regime was on the verge of collapse Hitler sent troops into Italy making the country’s government a puppet to Nazi Germany. While growing up my father told my brother and I of numerous atrocities Nazi soldiers committed against the people of my dad’s southern Italian hometown. As it turns out once Hitler’s Germany fell, Nazism’s influence did not end up in the dustbin of history where it belonged. Instead Nazism migrated to the Middle East thanks, in large part, to a little known Muslim cleric named Muhammed Amin al-Husseini who not only contributed to the radicalization of Muslims but also to the Holocaust itself.
Future of Freedom Foundation President Jacob Hornberger is right to scold FDR and Churchill for refusing to allow Jews to migrate out of Nazi Germany in order to settle in England and the United States. However, his fundamental mistake is attributing both leader’s refusal to allow Jewish migration from Germany and it’s occupied territories as a primary reason for the Holocaust. While immoral, FDR and Churchill’s refusal to accept European Jews in Nazi captivity was not the sole reason for Hitler carrying out his Final Solution. It is highly unlikely Hitler would have released the Jews he imprisoned and Muhammed Amin al-Husseini may have played a central role in Hitler’s change of plans regarding incarcerated Jews. Husseini’s influence was significant at the time. He was awarded the rank of General in the Nazi SS by Heinrich Himmler himself and convinced Fascist leaders in other European countries (possibly including Hitler) to cancel plans of forced repatriation of their Jewish populations in which European Jews were redirected to concentration camps.
Prior to his activities in Nazi Germany Husseini was appointed Grand Mufti of Palestine by the British government to be a liaison to regional Muslims so they would not become violent and to help reinforce or communicate British policies to them. However, after being charged with inciting riots among Muslims and while sought for arrest by British troops for his encouraging violence, Husseini escaped to Syria continuing his anti-British activities even going so far as to instigate a coup in Iraq that involved Saddam Hussein’s uncle Kairallah Talfah. Husseini eventually traveled to Europe in which he was not only able to meet with Benito Mussolini but also with Adolf Hitler.
In exchange for guarantees of a Muslim state in the Middle East Husseini agreed to help German Nazis in their cause since their goals were similar. Germany was in need of troops in which the country suffered serious losses during the war especially after Hitler’s failed attempt to conquer Russia. Husseini subsequently recruited Balkan and Soviet Muslims for membership in regiments of the Nazi SS. He not only encouraged efforts by European Fascist leaders to slaughter Jews in captivity and recruited Muslims for the Nazi German armed forces but Husseini also went so far as to go on radio programs funded by the German government. The radio broadcasts were transmitted to the Middle East urging Muslims to kill Jews and rebel against the British because to do so pleases Allah. In one broadcast Husseini said:
Arise, Oh Sons of Arabia! Fight for your sacred rights. Slaughter Jews wherever you find them. Their spilled blood pleases Allah, our history and our religion. That will save our honor.
When the Nazis were defeated Muhammad al-Husseini escaped to Egypt where he was given a hero’s welcome. He continued his activism and in 1946 he resumed his activism working closely with the Nazi sympathizing Young Egypt group and at one point helped raise money for the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Support for Nazism among Muslims was not only limited to Husseini. Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna was a Nazi sympathizer, so was Syrian Ba’ath Party founder Sami al-Joundi who openly lauded Nazism and helped contribute to the translating Nazi literature (including Mein Kampf) into Arabic. Gamal Abdel Nasser and his friend and fellow future Egyptian President Anwar Sadat both supported Hitler’s efforts and were members of Young Egypt too. In an open letter to Adolf Hitler whom he assumed was still alive that was published in a local Egyptian periodical September 18, 1953, Sadat is quoted as saying:
My dear Hitler,
I congratulate you from the bottom of my heart. Even if you appear to have been defeated, in reality you are the victor. You succeeded in creating dissensions between Churchill, the old man, and his allies, the Sons of Satan.
Germany will win because her existence is necessary to preserve the world balance. Germany will be reborn in spite of the Western and Eastern powers. There will be no peace unless Germany once again becomes what she was.
Egypt’s dirty little secret is that quite a few Nazis took up refuge there. Many continued pro-Nazi/anti-Semitic activities including (but not limited to) training the Egyptian military and local police forces. Joseph Goebbels confidant Johann Von Leers, for example, arrived in Egypt in the 1950’s and was appointed information minister by Gamal Abdel Nasser in which Von Leers primarily managed anti-Israel propaganda. In 2009 Simon Weisenthal Nazi hunters discovered that Austrian-born concentration camp doctor Aribert Heim (known as the Butcher of Mauthausen) resided in Cairo until his death in 1960 in which both Heim and Von Leers converted to Islam.
An internet search for pictures of Hamas and Hezbollah rallies reveals both group’s military members saluting in a Nazi-style manner. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and other anti-Semitic propaganda have been produced and broadcast as live re-enactments on Gaza TV stations. Pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories are published and sold openly not only in Gaza, but also in Syria, Libya under Ghaddafi and Iraq under Saddam Hussein. All of this is the result of the efforts of one man who also contributed to Muslim radicalization which, in turn, results in Islamic terrorism against the United States, Europe, and Israel.
Husseini is ultimately responsible not only for the perpetuation of anti-Semitism and conspiracy theories among the Middle East’s Muslim population but also for helping further the resurgence of jihadism in Islam. The activities of two other groups the Wahhabis in the Sunni sect and the Muslim Brotherhood among the Sunnis and Shi’ites help support Islamic jihad too. As a result of both group’s efforts along with Husseini’s influence, leaders and clerics in the Middle East who purport jihadism are able to easily identify and select Muslims ripe to be manipulated into being terrorists. More recently, thanks to the internet some can be radicalized just by watching a couple of YouTube videos which is what happened to Times Square car bomber Faisal Shahzad.
A recent British television documentary about Husseini points out that Muslims in the region were initially wronged by the English government issuing the Balfour Declaration after the English assured regional Arabs they would have their own countries. In my opinion, the U.K. occupation of the region itself was a mistake. Ultimately the English ended up giving Palestinian Muslims just about everything they wanted including curbing Jewish migration. But, as the film points out, Husseini made a conscious, informed choice to conduct his abominable activities ultimately grounded in his hatred and anger which were sanctioned by his devout religious beliefs.
It is because of the influence of people such as Husseini, groups like the Wahhabis and Muslim Brotherhood who are enabled from the financing both groups receive from regimes like Iran and Saudi Arabia, the bloody history of Islam and the religion’s scripture makes it abundantly clear that the reason for Islamic terrorism is due to their religion as well as influences imported from Nazi Germany. The Quran and the Hadith are to be read together as they direct the ummah to go to war against and kill infidels (i.e. non-Muslims) if they refuse to convert or submit to dhimmitude. Let me stress that not everyone who converts to Islam or is a Muslim is a terrorist or a Fascist. However, if you want to understand the root cause of Muslim aggression you need look no further than Islam’s holy texts and the influence of people like Muhammad Amin al-Husseini.
Like I indicated earlier, my family saw numerous people in their hometown in Italy arrested, tortured and even executed by Nazi German soldiers. If Islamist regimes and groups they support are successful in conquering Western Civilization imagine what my family went through and people like ex-Muslim Ayaan Hirsi Ali experienced will be done on a grand scale. Nazism’s influence shifted to the Middle East thanks to a man PLO leader Yasser Arafat (al-Husseini’s nephew) called a hero. The reason for the popularity of Nazism in Islamic culture is due in large part to the authoritarian inclinations of both philosophies in addition to the ardent anti-Semitism that is the basis for Nazism and Islam’s books sanction. The evil and conspiratorial views Hitler espoused and heavily promoted by Husseini prevail in much of the Arab world today and, unfortunately, such points of view can be seen in leftist and (in some cases) libertarian literature including both camp’s social and intellectual circles.
The intermingling of Nazism, Communism, and Islam results in the perpetration of a victimization mythology as well. From the Nazi perspective Muslims are victims of exploitation at the hands of the Jews. To the Communist, Muslims are victims of oppression or exploitation at the hands of the wealthy capitalist. The majority of wealthy capitalists, of course, being Jews and it is no surprise that anti-Semitism is rooted heavily in leftist thought as much as it is in Nazi philosophy. All three philosophies encompass a totalitarian vision of a world where the individual’s will is subordinated to a collective consciousness be it the state or Allah.
I will never understand libertarians whose philosophy supports retaliation against unprovoked attacks against individuals and countries that do so yet ignore the reality that Islamists are at war with the West due to the mandates of their religion. Libertarians insist that Islamic terrorism and violence is the result of U.S. foreign policy despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. But if they are individualists why are libertarians siding with groups, like Hamas? Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad not only seek to destroy Israel by any means necessary, kill it’s Jewish population and take the Islamic view to subordinate mankind to Islam by force or deception all of which is sanctioned by their faith. It makes no sense for libertarians to champion the cause of Gaza Palestinians since they are in the situation they are in because of Hamas and not Israel. It is high time for libertarians to face the truth they continuously claim they want to know. The fact is Islam and its Nazi influences (not U.S. foreign policy) is the sole reason for terrorism on the part of Muslims. If they do not wake up, libertarians will be no better than the Nazi and even Communist enablers of Islamists and regimes that support them since they made the demise of Western Civilization possible.
The United States went to war against Nazism before and it is doing so again. The lessons of the past and the events of today surrounding Islamic terror and the influences it draws from makes conflict with Islamist groups and regimes that support them not only legitimate in terms of retaliatory force but ever more evident if not outright urgent if Western Civilization is to survive. Libertarians would do well to keep the points I have raised in mind since as a result of the facts outlined in this essay they can no longer claim that events like what happened on September 11, 2001 and recent events involving homegrown jihadism are the result of U.S. foreign policy.