A Nazi-Muslim Brotherhood Partnership Destroyed Chances of Peace in the Middle East

During the middle of the last century the Grand Mufti of the Arab Palestine region, Haj Mohammed Effendi Amin el-Husseini, openly collaborated with Nazi Germany as a part of the Axis powers crew, and considered his personal relationship with Hitler one of his “life's finest."  Mr. el-Husseini also helped create Muslim battalions within the German Waffen-SS.  A cozy relationship indeed.

Does this bit of history have anything to do with today’s Muslim Brotherhood violence against non-Muslims?  In my view, yes it still does.

A bit of history:

Adolf Hitler was an acknowledged expert at getting rid of those who didn’t agree with his beliefs.  Some of those beliefs did not fall far from the tree with el-Husseini and his Muslim followers in the Palestine region.  If still living today, el-Husseini’s followers would be men in their late 80s through early 90s.

Whether still alive or not, most would have already passed along to their children and their children’s children many of those same hatreds, particularly against Jews.  Add in more modern hatred of the non-Muslim West in general. It would also anyone else that gets in their way including other Muslims not supportive of radical Islam, and you have a never-ending cycle of Islamic extremism and violence.

The old Grand Mufti was more than happy providing Hitler anything or anyone he needed.  In fact, el-Husseini was a veteran of instigating mass murders of Jews, having done so at least twice (once before and once during his time as Grand Mufti of Arab Palestine).

From David Storobin’s excellent read, Nazi Influence on the Middle East During WWII, heading to Germany in April 1941, Haj Amin al-Husseini “immediately was brought before the Führer, Adolf Hitler.” Most visitors to the Führer first had a long wait; few were ushered in as quickly as el-Husseini.

According to Storobin: “He (al-Husseini) reportedly sought to discourage the further deportation of Jews from Europe and instead encouraged Germany to seek alternate approaches (what did that mean?).  Some have even suggested that he had a direct hand in the creation of the Concentration Camps.”

Storobin went on to add, “While in Berlin, al-Husseini served as a Nazi propagandist and rallying point for Muslims both in Europe and in the Middle East including regular radio broadcasts urging armed revolts and attacks on Allied and Jewish interests.  In addition, al-Husseini served symbolically as the commander of the notorious all-Muslim Balkan Hanjar Waffen SS division.”

Before the Arabs' open collaboration with the Nazis, and regardless of any regional politics of that war, Hitler was well known far and wide by 1941 as a monster and murderer of many who were not Nazi supporters, especially against Jews.  That was fine with el-Husseini and his followers.  Hitler, of course, increased the body count to somewhere between 6-8 million (mostly Jews) murdered before the end of the war.  I’ve read scholarly studies that put the number of murdered Jews as high as 12 million.

By World War II we have the Nazis and el-Husseini as established blood brothers, so to speak.

Into the tumult of World War II also came the very cozy relationship of the Nazis of Germany and the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt via outright support of Hitler as had been set up between them by secret meetings later discovered and verified by historians.

Perhaps the Nazis and the Muslim Brotherhood were discussing the price of camels, but doubtful.  The same intense hatred for the Jewish people that el-Husseini and his followers practiced, and that Hitler by now had patented, was the unifying cord that bound all three together.

Just prior to and during the war the Muslim Brotherhood distributed throughout parts of Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and the Near East, thousands of Adolph Hitler's tome to personal megalomania, Mein Kampf. The Muslim Brotherhood also promoted and distributed as “truth” the already proven hoax about Jews planning to take over the world, Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The Muslim Brotherhood was in the get-rid-of-the-Jews business all the way up to their elbows.

Why so much hatred still today by many if not most Muslims toward Jews, as if from the playbook of the old alliance of Hitler, el-Husseini, and the Muslim Brotherhood?  Is it because of the “Palestinian situation?”  I don’t think the Muslim Brotherhood, much less the governments of many of the Muslim countries of the Middle East (unless it suits their own purposes), truly cares a wit about the people collectively called Palestinians who reside in the West Bank and Gaza.  The Muslim Brotherhood just hates Jews and Christians, and frankly Westerners in general, with a passion beyond any reason.

Relations didn’t start out that way in the year 622 AD when the Prophet Mohammed was alive.  In fact, he was downright accommodating to the Jews and the Christians of Jerusalem, at least at first.  He honored Jerusalem as a holy city until his death in 632.

Difficulties, however, did arise between the years 622-632 AD.  The Jews opposed Muhammad's growing attempts to lay religious claim over Jerusalem, a city that had already been sacred to Jews for 16 centuries (and to Christians for almost six centuries). Muhammad wisely decided to change course and avoid conflict — it just wasn’t worth it to push the matter.  The strongest signal of this change came in the Qur'anic passage (2:142-52) ordering the faithful “no longer to pray toward Jerusalem, but toward Mecca instead.”

“For political reasons, he (Muhammad) stripped it (Jerusalem) of this [holy city] honor when difficulties arose with the Jewish community there, and designated Mecca to be the new qibla [place towards which Moslems pray]," writes Ghada Talhami in Jerusalem in Islamic Consciousness, Muslim World, 1996.

This action by the Prophet “was widely understood by Muhammad's contemporaries as a sign that he admits that the city is Jewish,” wrote Talhami.

Five years after Muhammad’s death, Muslims physically conquered Jerusalem in 637 AD. For almost 1,400 years, except for moments in history, in particular the Crusades’ years and more recently establishment of the modern Jewish State, Muslims have maintained physical control over Jerusalem. But how did Jerusalem really become so sacred to Muslims since the 7^th century?

Not long after Muhammad's death an Umayyad Caliph, whom had taken control of Jerusalem (a Caliph had become roughly the Muslim equivalent of the Catholic Pope), came into conflict with a leader in Mecca.  From these squabbles the Caliph sought to diminish Arabia's importance, thereby choosing Jerusalem as the “new Islamic holy city.”

They (Umayyad) encouraged an outpouring of literature praising the "virtues of Jerusalem" and circulated accounts of the Prophet's sayings or doings, called hadiths, favorable to Jerusalem.  Cutthroat competitors indeed were the Umayyad.

Critically, the Umayyad followers decided to slightly alter the meaning of the Qur'an to make room for Jerusalem.  The Qur'an, describing Muhammad's Night Journey (isra'), reads in part: “Allah takes His servant [Muhammad] by night from the Sacred Mosque to the furthest mosque.”

When this passage was earlier revealed, somewhere around 621, a place called the Sacred Mosque already stood in Mecca.  The "furthest mosque" was not a place on Earth, but rather meant to be “a place in heaven.”  Moreover, Palestine was called "the closest land" (adna al- ard) in the Qur'an (30:1).

What to do, what to do, what to do...  An “aha” moment came to the Umayyad.

In 688-91, the Umayyad followers built the Dome of the Rock on top of the historic remains of the Jewish Temple and called it “the Furthest Mosque” (al-masjid al-aqsa, or Al-Aqsa Mosque).  The Umayyad inserted Jerusalem into the Qur'an and gave it a prominent role in Muhammad's life.

Clearly, if "furthest mosque" is in Jerusalem, then Muhammad's Night Journey and his ascension to heaven must have also taken place on the Temple Mount, reasoned the Umayyad.

Politics more than religion had ruled the decision to build The Dome of the Rock on top of the Jewish Temple Mount, and an eternal “sharp stick in the eye” to the Jews [and Christians] was born.

Moving forward many centuries and we come to the modern troubles that most, but not all, Muslims today still have with Jews. Jewish control within Jerusalem, and with most of the West which they see as biased supporters of Israel.  Regardless, the various Islamist supported terrorist organizations see the Jews and Westerners as infidels worthy of destruction.

We saw the jihadist need to kill and terrorize take place the past few days in Nairobi, Kenya.  The murderous cowards called al-Shabab, a Somali Islamist terrorist group linked to al-Qaeda, killed and wounded scores of people in a local shopping mall, including women and children.  The terrorists in particular actively sought out Christians and murdered them.

As a U.S. Marine in 7^th Marines Infantry Regiment, I well remember, in 1993, as I left Somalia headed back to the States, that one day there would be an “al-Shabab” within Somalia, and it would help keep Somalia in the dark ages and threaten innocents abroad.  Our forces had stopped the clans’ mass killings and civil war, but all of us knew that total lawlessness would return once the US forces left Somalia.

Their civil war had resulted in no schools, no government services, no currency worth anything, homes totally destroyed, and no real hope for children forced to then live on the streets.  The birthing station of al-Shabab (the Youth) really began to operate 20 years ago.  Those children are now 20 and 30-somethings, and street violence was their PlayStation.  Hooking up with radical Islam has given them focus and “respect” within at least the part of the world that likes to chop off heads, shoot children, and burn people alive in the name of their god.

Islamist kill-the-infidels attitude is also most recently burning Christian churches and murdering Christians in their beds (Pakistan, and also Egypt just before the military took over), amazingly with very little mainstream U.S. media coverage.  If it weren’t for a small handful of balanced news outlets, even fewer people would know about the current mayhem against Christians.

And the Jews?  Islamist terrorists have always considered them “fair game” to kill on sight.  No doubt in my mind that if it were possible for terrorists to somehow herd all 8 million Jews in Israel into one spot, that ovens would again be stoked.  After all, team Hitler almost succeeded before in wiping out much of the Tribes of Israel.  Harsh statement?  No, just pragmatic understanding of Islamist hate.

People of various faiths used to generally get along in the mostly Muslim controlled world of the greater Middle East and North Africa.  Maybe not as bosom buddies mind you, and time to time there’s been outright violence that lasted for years, but they nonetheless got along OK over most of the centuries.  But much of that part of the world’s “go along to get along” ended (hopefully not forever) during the 20^th century with the 1939-1945 partnership of Hitler, el-Husseini, and the Muslim Brotherhood.

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