Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist (Nazi) Party is perhaps the most potent symbol of fascism in the 20th century. For those that argue that Islamic militants and white supremacists do not collaborate should take note of the relationship the Third Reich had with the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin Husseini. In their quest for global dominance, the Nazis collaborated and cultivated pro-axis leaders around the world including the Middle East. Several prominent Arabs saw in Hitler the chance to rid themselves of British and French dominion. They included a young Egyptian signals officer Anwar Sadat, a group of Iraqi officers who led an uprising in 1941, and the most zealous collaborator the Palestinian Mufti Haj Amin Husseini.
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In 1913, Amin Husseini traveled to Mecca for his pilgrimage, which earned him the title of "Haj". As World War I was imminent, he was called for military duty in the Ottoman Army, entering the College of Reserve Officers. Nine months later, Haj Amin graduated a non- commissioned officer and joined the 46th Infantry Regiment stationed at Izmir in Southwest Turkey and a follow-on assignment to the 47th Infantry Regiment stationed in the Turkish city of Smyrna. Husseini was in the Ottoman military during the time of the mass genocide of the Armenians who were considered collaborators to the allied cause. There is no proof documenting Amin Husseini participation in this event, but it made an impression on non-Turks serving in the Ottoman forces.
In 1916, he left the Ottoman Army on disability leave and returned to Jerusalem where he remained until the conclusion of World War I. After the Treaty of Versailles he became embittered by the sidelining of the Arab Revolt and by the influx of Jewish immigrants into British mandated Palestine. British colonial authorities considered Haj Amin Husseini a chief instigator of riots between Arabs and Jews. For his part in inciting violence, Haj Amin fled to Syria and was sentenced in absentia to ten years imprisonment on charges of incitement to violence and civil disorder.
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Husseini, making use of his new position, took an active role organizing anti-Jewish riots in 1929. The British hope of giving him responsibility backfired, as he resorted to his original tactics of incitement and violence. This appeasement of Husseini only made him worse. He was among the leaders that formed the Arab Higher Committee that incited and managed the 1936 rebellion in Palestine. The following year (1937), the British outlawed his committee and he escaped to Damascus, Syria once again where he continued his rebellion against British authorities (Internet source Britain, Haj Husseini and the Arab Riots of 1920 & Who was the Grand Mufti, Haj Muhammad Amin al- Husseini?).
Evolving in a parallel track was the Egyptian Hassan el-Banna who established the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo in 1928. The organization would become the first Islamist political party and one in which the Mufti would play a role.
&&&&& The Brotherhood had established links to Husseini, while Grand Mufti, and worked with him in Palestine. Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood sent fedayeen (volunteers) to support the Palestinian uprisings in 1936, 1939, and during the 1948 war (Internet source The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and the Nazification of the Arab world). This is the earliest example of an attempt to bring outside Islamists throughout the Arab world to agitate for the Palestinian cause and the tactics are eerily similar to the Arab jihadists coming into Iraq today. Any Palestinian-Israeli settlement must include a promise not to import jihadists into any future Palestinian state.
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After years of violence against the British and the Jews and following an assassination attempt on the British Inspector-General of the Palestine Police, the British authorities declared the Arab Higher Committee illegal and the mufti fled Palestine for good in 1937. He stopped in Beirut, Baghdad and Tehran before settling in Berlin in 1941. One of the most essential of these stops was Baghdad. Where in April 1941, a group of army officers led by an Iraqi Lawyer and politician, Rashid Ali Al-Gaylani, seized power and established a pro-axis regime. One of the officers supporting the Gaylani coup was a young officer Khairallah Tulfah, who would become better known as the uncle, paternal mentor and later father in law of future Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
Rashid Al- Gaylani (1892-1965) and his officers led attacks against British airbase of Habbaniya, on the outskirts of Baghdad and ambushed British soldiers traveling in Transjordan to crush Gaylani and his coup. The Iraqi leader appealed to Hitler for aid to drive the British from Iraq. Hitler ordered military advisors, a few planes and arms to be sent to Baghdad in support of Gaylani. "I have decided to encourage developments in the Middle East by supporting Iraq"
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Despite some aid to the Iraqis from Syria, which was still controlled by the pro-Axis French Vichy government, the Germans were unable to maintain the Gaylani coup, which was crushed by British forces. In Syria, a committee was being formed to mobilize support for the pro-axis regime. This inevitably was the core of what later became the Ba'ath party today. Rashid Ali Gaylani later joined up with Haj Amin Husseini in Berlin where both sought political protection from Nazi Germany (Lewis, Bernard. 348-49).
Upon Haj Husseini's arrival in Berlin in 1941, the Mufti met with Nazi Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and was officially received by the Fuhrer Adolf Hitler on November 28, 1941. He also conducted meetings SS Head Heinrich Himmler.
The Mufti's years in Nazi Germany, was spent in a confiscated Jewish mansion in Berlin as head of Nazi- Arab Cooperation Section, there he continued his anti-Jewish propaganda campaign. With his introduction to Himmler he would be enticed in grotesque campaign against European and Slavic Jews known as the "Final Solution."
&&&&4 The Nazis recruited two SS divisions from Yugoslavia's Muslim population. They were the Bosnian 13th Waffen SS Hanzars (Dagger) Division, the Bosnian 23rd Waffen SS Kama Division, and the Albanian Skanderbeg 21st Waffen SS Division. Husseini used his prior military training and religious credentials to involve himself in the training of these divisions. Each Division would grow to about 22,000 and carried out orders of the Mufti. These ordered included genocide against Bosnian Serbs, Gypsies, and Jews.
The Hanzars swore an oath to the Third Reich specifically written by Heinrich Himmler. Himmler had this to say about Islam: "I have nothing against Islam because it educates the men in this division for me and promises them heaven if they fight and are killed in action. A very practical and attractive religion for soldiers." No doubt, Himmler's attitudes were shared by the Nazi elite and express an intimate understanding regarding an aspect of Islam that can be manipulated by the Nazis.
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After World War II, Husseini fled to Switzerland, then Paris before settling in Cairo. He escaped house arrest in Paris where he was sentenced by the Yugoslav Supreme Military Court to three years imprisonment and two years of deprivation of civil rights after his conviction as a war criminal. At the Nuremberg Tribunals, Eichmann's deputy Dieter Wisliceny testified that the Mufti was one of the initiators of the extermination of European Jewry and a collaborator and adviser of Eichmann and Himmler in the execution of the "Final Solution." Husseini was one of Eichmann's closest friends and had constantly incited him to speed the extermination process. According to the Dieter testimony, he overheard Haj Amin and Eichmann visiting gas chambers at Auschwitz to learn its operation and possibly create a replica in Hebron. The Mufti established the Islamishe Zentralinstitut or "Islamic Institute" in Dresden, which served as grooming grounds for future Muslim-Nazi leaders. (Internet source The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and the Nazification of the Arab world). Had the Third Reich continued to exist beyond 1945, one could only imagine the types of new Arab leadership that would import Islamo-fascist ideals in various Arab lands as they gained independence in the fifties and sixties.
In 1946, Husseini was appointed a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, then fostered by Egypt's King Farouk as a counter to British control over his country anti-monarchist groups within Egypt. He was invited to settle in Cairo the same year. When Gamal Abdel-Nasser gained control of Egypt in 1952, he lived in Cairo until his death in 1974. The Allies preoccupied with German and Japanese war criminals made no effort to bring Husseini to justice. Allies were likely deterred by Husseini's prestige in the Arab world. From Egypt, Husseini would sponsor the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. When the Jordanian monarch Abdullah I gave the position of Grand Mufti of Jerusalem to another, Haj Amin al-Husseini was involved in the conspiracy that led to the assassination of the King in 1951. Haj Husseini was denied entry into Jordanian-controlled Jerusalem by Abdullah's son King Talal and later his grandson the late King Hussein (Internet source The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and the nazification of the Arab world & Who was the Grand Mufti, Haj Muhammed Amin al-Husseini?).
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The Husseini family continued to play an active part in Arab-Israeli affairs. Abdel Kader Al-Husseini, is a cousin of the mufti who led the mufti's guerrilla forces, known as "The Army of Salvation" he had undergone a degree of military training with the Germans during World War II. In January 1948, Abdel Kader Husseini and a force of 1,000 attacked on Kfar Etzion, approximately 14 miles south of the Tel Aviv. The Arab attack on Kfar Etzion was thwarted by Jewish settlers, who held positions until it was ambushed by the Palmach force In early April, 1948, Abdel Kader was involved in "Operation Nachshon", he had been in Damascus gathering financial support and additional weapons. He returned to Jerusalem to lead the attack on Kastel, an Arab village that was captured by Haganah forces. Abdel Kader was killed approaching a position thought to have been taken by Arab forces in the battle for Kastel. Demoralized at the death of Husseini, the Arab forces fell back (Herzog, Chaim 21-22).
Among the many who supported and sympathized with Nazi Germany were some familiar faces. Nasser expressed his disheartenment at the Third Reich's demise in 1945. Sadat was a voluntary cooperator in espionage on behalf of Germany against British Forces in Egypt. Abdul-Aziz Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia, Nur Al-Sa'id of Iraq as well as Nahas Pasha of Egypt all tried on occasions to make contact with Berlin. It is said that Egyptian strongman Nasser's brother had published an Arab edition of Hitler's Mein Kampf in 1939, describing its author as the "strongest man in Europe" (Lewis, Bernard, 348-350 and internet source, "The Role of the Catholic Church in Yugoslavia's Holocaust"). However, Haj Amin al-Husseini was perhaps the most intimate collaborator of Third Reich to emerge from the Middle East.
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As U.S. forces involve itself in the Middle East it is vital to examine the past to discover that Islamic militants, violent Arab nationalists and European fascists have collaborated when their interests merge. Those who said Shiite and Sunni Islamic militants could not cooperate because of their theological differences were proven wrong as Bin Laden considers Hizbullah and its military leader Emad Mughneia someone to emulate. Reading about Husseini one also gain an appreciation that the initial British tactic of appeasing Islamic radicals with titles and positions is not effective, he merely used his legitimacy to pursue the tactic he knew best which was not negotiation but violence. Husseini also offers a template for organized incitement and violence, a technique used to this day by Palestinians in dealing with the Israelis. It is a tactic that predates the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Yasser Arafat or the current Intifadah (uprising). Finally, note Husseini's obsession with the Nazi Final Solution, this obsession with Hitler and the Final Solution is still found in Islamic militant websites and literature, Until 2004, Egypt's former Anti-Corruption Czar was Hitler Tantawi, who was given his first name at a time when dozens of Egyptians felt the Nazis were a way to get the English out of the Middle East. Husseini is a perfect manifestation of how jihadists, violent Arab nationalists and fascists collide. It is also another tragic example of an Arab leader choosing a negative path in the quest for Palestinian independence. There are leaders who work towards positive change and other who do not. Arab masses and intellectuals must recognize those who have had a negative impact on their modern historical development and cease their praising of such figures as Haj Amin Husseini, who represents the kind of Arab leaders who negatively influence events for their people.
Basil H. Aboul-Enein holds a
B.Sc in Family and Consumer Sciences from the University of Central Arkansas
and currently completing M.Sc. in Nutrition at the Texas Woman's University and
hopes to earn an officer's commission upon graduation in the U.S. Air Force or
Navy Medical Service Corps. Having been raised in the Middle East, the author
has a passionate interest in Arab political history.
LCDR Youssef H. Aboul-Enein, US Navy, is Basil's older brother and a Medical
Service Corps and Navy Middle East Foreign Area Officer. He is specially
assigned as Director for North Africa and Egypt and Special Advisor on Islamic
Militancy at the Office of the Secretary of Defense for International Security
Affairs. He is a frequent contributor of reviews and essays to the Foreign Area
Officer Journal.
This essay is a result of numerous discussions between Basil and Youssef over
Arab political affairs and books on Middle East issues.
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References
Lapidus, I.M. (1988). A history of Islamic societies. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Herzog, C. (1982). The Arab-Israeli wars. New York: Vintage Books-Random House Inc.
Lewis, B. (1995). The Middle East: a brief history of the last 2000 years. New York, NY: Scribner-Simon & Schuster Inc.
Shirer, W.L. (1990). The rise and fall of the third Reich-a history of Nazi Germany. New York NY: Touchstone-Simon & Schuster Inc.
Hourani, A. (1991). A history of the Arab peoples. New York, NY: Warner books Inc.
The Grand Mufti Hajj Amin Al-Husseini. Retrieved July 7, 2004, from http:www. jerusalemites.org/leaders/Amin_Al_Husseini.htm
The Arab/Muslim Nazi Connection. Retrieved July 7, 2004 from http://www.eretzyisroel.org/~jkatz/recruited.html
Amin al-Husayni. Retrieved July 7, 2004 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haj_Amin_Al-Husseini, retrieved July 28, 2004.
Britain, Haj Husseini and the Arab Riots of 1920. Retrieved July 30, 2004 (http://www.eretzyisroel.org/~samuel/britainriots.html).
Who was the Grand Mufti, Haj Muhammad Amin al-Husseini? Retrieved July 30, 2004. (http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_mandate_grand_mufti.php). The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and the Nazification of the Arab world. Retrieved July 30, 2004. (http://www.shalomjerusalem.com/jerusalem/jerusalem96.html).
The Role of the Catholic Church in Yugoslavia's Holocaust. Retrieved July 30, 2004 (http://www.holocaustrevealed.org/_domain/holocaustrevealed.org/ Yugoslavia/Yugoslavia-Croatia.htm).