Mein Kampf is not the only manifestation of Arab fascination with Hitler. The roots run deep. In the photo above left Palestinians display a homemade Nazi Flag.

  After WW1 Britain and France divided much of the former Ottoman Empire's Middle East holdings between them. Technological developments had made petroleum a strategic, "must have" resource. As a result the major European powers vied for influence over the Middle East's oil fields and trade routes. France and Britain held mandates throughout much of the region. In the 1930's fascist regimes in Italy and Germany looked for greater involvement in the area, encouraging Arab leaders to rise up against their British and French rulers.

  Perhaps the major player in introducing the ideology and tactics of Hitler's National Socialism into the Arab World was Haj Mohammed Effendi Amin el-Husseini, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. Al-Husseini contributed to the development of Nazi style organizations in Arab capitals, acted as a conduit for money confiscated from Jews by the Nazi's during World War II to be used to finance anti-Jewish and anti-Israel activities, and lived in Berlin during the war years where he headed a Nazi-Muslim government in exile.

  The infamous Grand Mufti, who began his public career in the immediate aftermath of World War I and worked tirelessly to advance his cause until his death in 1974, influenced Arab nations and movements toward an embrace of a uniquely Islamic version of National Socialism. The Mufti was successful in imparting his ideas and tactics to the Arab world today.

A Lost Opportunity

  It was by no means pre-destined that the anti-Jewish beliefs held by al-Husseini, would take hold in the post-war Arab world. At this time the Arabs were taking tentative steps toward sovereignty after four centuries of occupation by the Ottomans. Enlightened Arabs hoped their people could embrace modernity and enjoy the benefits of new technologies, communications, free market economics, and democracy.

  An exemplary figure of this mindset was the Emir Feisal Ibn Hussein, King of Hejaz, a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, who was the most recognized and respected leader of the Arab world in his time. Prince Feisal, headed the Arab delegation at the Paris Peace Conference which drew up the Treaty of Versailles ending World War I.

  Feisal sought recognition by the European powers of the national and political rights of the 22 emerging Arab nations. In exchange for this recognition, he formally recognized Palestine as a Jewish State in a signed agreement that carries the weight of international law but one that is rarely, if ever, discussed today.

  Feisal signed a formal agreement in London, 1919, with Chaim Weizmann, head of the Zionist delegation to the Paris Peace Conference. Additionally, in a correspondence with Harvard Professor Felix Frankfurter, Faisal refers to Jewish claims in Palestine as "modest and proper" and offers the Jewish people "a hearty welcome home."

  Emir Feisal, like many Arab leaders of his era, believed that the newly emerging Arab nations would benefit from the economic know-how and modern European knowledge of a Jewish Palestine. Wanting his people to become full members of the modern world, he felt that a relationship with Jewish Palestine would be of great benefit in achieving this goal.

The Mufti Takes Center Stage

  Haj Amin al-Husseini, The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, appeared on the world stage in 1920. He played a significant role in instigating the first large-scale pogrom against Jews in the Arab world in hundreds of years.

  One year later al-Husseini was appointed Grand Mufti of Jerusalem by the British High Commissioner Sir Herbert Samuel (himself a Jew) in spite of vigorous protests by both Jewish settlers and Palestinian Arabs. Over the next several decades al-Husseini instigated violence against the Jewish community of Palestine, instilling a hatred of Jews throughout the Arab world. The Mufti quickly used his new position to set about eliminating rival families.

  The rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany had a major impact on the Mufti and his growing influence. The Mufti played a major role in establishing Arab-Nazi style organizations such as Young Egypt, headed by Abdul Gamal Nasser, one of his protégés and later President of Egypt. Young Egypt adopted the Nazi style slogan "One Folk, One Party, One Leader." The Social Nationalist Party was established in Damascus headed by Anton Saada, known as the Syrian Fuhrer

  The first known direct contact between the Nazis and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem was in 1936 when Francois Genoud, later known as the Swiss Banker of the Third Reich, went to Palestine where he met with al-Husseini. A relationship was established between which lasted well into the 1960's.

  1936 also saw the onset of riots, which flared up intermittently until 1939, against the Jews of Palestine. Al-Husseini, Benefiting from an infusion of cash after meeting with the Nazi banker, was directly involved in planning and organizing the murderous riots. These riots were the first in which suicide bombers were used, primarily against local Arab authorities. The Mufti embraced the Nazi principle of "systematic extermination" of any Arab suspected of disloyalty to him and his increasingly Nazi style agenda.

  In 1937, the infamous Nazi SS Hauptschanfuehrer Adolf Eichmann and his assistant Nazi SS Oberscherfuehrer H. Hagen visited the Mufti in Palestine. Discussions most likely concerned "the Jewish question" as both al-Husseini and Eichmann were obsessed with this idea. It is reported that the Mufti was placed on the payroll of the Nazi secret police serving as a direct conduit for Nazi financial and military assistance to friendly Arab sources. Testimony from both the Nuremberg Tribunal and the trial of Adolf Eichmann attest to this meeting.

  Eventually, due to his involvement in organizing the unrest al-Husseini was forced to flee Palestine. he went to Iraq, another British mandate.

  During the climactic 1941 Battle of Britain, as part of a strategy to isolate the region between the German forces in the Caucuses and pro-Nazi forces in Iraq, Hitler orchestrated the pro-Nazi Rashid Ali coup d'etat against the pro-British Mandatory government in Baghdad. The Mufti secured financial assistance from the Nazis and in May, Luftwaffe aircraft flew to Iraq to help coup plotters known as the Golden Square. One of the plotters and right hand man to the Mufti was General Kharaillah Tulfah who was also Saddam Hussein's uncle, guardian, mentor and later father in law.

  The coup failed after a couple of months; the Mufti again fled, this time to Nazi Germany via Tehran and Italy. En route to Berlin, the Mufti stopped in Rome where he met with Fascist Dictator Benito Mussolini and issued a Fatwa for Jihad against Great Britain.

  Upon his arrival in Berlin, 1941, the Mufti met with Nazi Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbontrop and was then officially received by Adolf Hitler on November 28. He received a hero's welcome from the "Islamische Zentralinstitut" and the entire Islamic community who paraded him as the "Führer of the Arabic world." In an introductory speech he called Jews the "most fierce enemies of the Muslims" and an "ever corruptive element" in the world.

  Al-Husseini was installed in a former Jewish residence as head of a Muslim government in exile. He spent confiscated Jewish monies on a lavish lifestyle and on the launching of an international anti-Jewish propaganda campaign.

   The Mufti, an honored guest of the Nazis, met with Hitler several times. He lobbied Hitler to prevent Jews from leaving Hungary, fearing they would immigrate to Palestine. He also used his influence to prevent Adolf Eichman from brokering a deal with the British government that would have seen 5000 Jewish children exchanged for German POWs, fearing that these children would flee to Palestine. Instead, these children were sent to the death camps in Poland and were among the 1.4 million Jewish children murdered by the Nazis in the holocaust. One German officer noted in his journal that the Mufti would have liked to see Jews "preferably all killed". In a visit to Auschwitz he encouraged the guards to work more diligently. Husseini appeared regularly on German shortwave broadcasts to the Middle East; preaching his Nazi anti-Semitic credo to the Arab masses back home

The Hanzar Brigades

  On April 25th, 1941, the Hitler placed the Mufti in charge of the Bosnian Muslims who had recently fallen under Nazi control in Yugoslavia. In Bosnia, the Mufti assumed the title "Protector of Islam." Over 100,000 Bosnian Muslims signed on with the new Nazi regime after the Nazis promised the Muslims control over all of Bosnia as a Nazi autonomous protectorate.

  The Mufti promoted the "Pejani Plan" which called for the annihilation of the Serbs; the Nazis would eventually reject this plan. While under the control of the Mufti, the Muslim-Nazi government in Bosnia liquidated an estimated 200,000 Serbs, 40,000 Gypsies, and 22,000 Bosnian Jews. Al-Husseini's activities in Bosnia contributed to present-day hatred of Bosnian Muslims for Serbs.

  The Mufti was charged with creating the Hanzar divisions of Muslim SS soldiers in Bosnia, soldiers he referred to as the "cream of Islam." In the photo at left al-Husseini reviews a Hanzar unit. The Hanzars, named for scimitars carried by Ottoman Turkish officers, would grow to 22,000 men becoming the largest single unit in the Nazi army. It is solely responsible for carrying out, per orders of the Mufti, genocide against Bosnian Serbs, Gypsies, and Jews. The left border of this page displays the Hanzars' banner who swore an oath to the Third Reich written by Heinrich Himmler.

  On March 1, 1944, the Mufti delivered a speech from Berlin urging Muslim Hanzar SS troops to "Kill the Jews wherever you find them." He also stated that "This pleases God, History, and Religion, God is with you."

  After the War the Mufti was convicted in absentia as a war criminal at Nuremberg, a warrant was issued for his arrest. He fled to Cairo via Switzerland and France. Al-Husseini received a warm welcome where he lived as a guest of Nasser for the rest of his life. He devoted himself to the destruction of Israel utilizing funds he had received while in Germany financing the Arab Liberation Army which conducted terrorist raids. He helped fund Operation Odessa which aided former Nazis in settling throughout the Arab world.

  Al-Husseini was mentor to Yasir Arafat who shares his name and who is believed by many to be the Mufti's nephew.

  In an interview in August 2002, Arafat called Husseini "our hero" and referred to him as a symbol of standing up to world pressure. Husseini remained an Arab leader despite demands to have him replaced due to his Nazi ties. Arafat compared this to his withstanding of Israeli/American pressure to reform the Palestinian authority, which now include his replacement.

   Today the radical left remains the primary booster of Muftism, or Islamic Nazism in the Arab and Islamic world. Muftism bears a large responsibility for modern terrorism and fanatic Islamic movements. While Europe was largely de-Nazified after the war, Muftism remains a major political and philosophical force. While Arab peoples continue to groan under oppressive regimes Mufti-influenced pan-Arabists continue to wage war against non-Islamic nations and peoples.