Hitler's Grand Mufti

Fascist Roots of Radical Islam

AntiSemitic Mutual Admiration Society

“Nothing changes until it becomes what it truly is.” ~ Gestalt Psychologist Fritz Perls

The Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians on October 7 prompted me to revisit the old “Exodus” movie from the novel by American Jew Leon Uris to refresh my knowledge of the chaos in the Palestine region before the UN Mandate on the partition of the Palestine Mandate leading up to the British turnover of the region in 1948.

While the movie and novel were fictionalized and told from the Israeli standpoint, they presented a good feeling for the confusion in the region following WWII and the Holocaust in Europe. Blue-eyed Jew Paul Newman and American blonde Eva Marie Saint commandeer a ship and smuggle 611 Jewish refugees out of a British camp in Cyprus for an illegal voyage to Mandate Palestine to increase the Jewish immigrant population before the UN voted on the Partition Plan.

Drama and romance ensue and finally, the ship Exodus triumphantly docks in Palestine with its Zionist cargo of Jewish refugees eager to establish a sanctuary homeland in a very hostile world. It was all standard Hollywood fare so far…

What grabbed my attention was a scene in the desert between Ari Ben Canaan (Paul Newman) and his childhood friend Arab Sheikh Tata. The sheikh is tolerant of the Jews and provides comfort to Ari as he recovers from wounds by the British during a massive jailbreak freeing hundreds of Jewish militias.

But then, a sinister German shows up with orders from the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini, for the Arabs to attack the Jewish kibbutz and slaughter everyone (sounds familiar). Sheikh Tata obeys but warns the Jews so they can evacuate the children and prepare to fight back. Later Tata is found hanged with a Star of David carved in his chest and the German slur “Juden” scrawled on the wall.

This was like a Nazi plot from the Raiders of the Lost Ark movie! Who was this Grand Mufti guy and what were his connections to German Nazis? I know this is historical fiction, but how much is based on true history? If al-Husseini was that influential, why have I never heard of him and his involvement in the birth of Israel and the Palestine partitioning? Combining Nazis and Muslim fundamentalism… what could possibly go wrong?

A quick Google search revealed this guy was very real and hung out with both Mussolini and Hitler during WWII, even touring concentration camps and gathering ideas of how to handle the “Jewish problem.” What part did he play in the rise of radical Islamists such as the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaeda, ISIS, Taliban, PLO, Hamas, and others? Let me grab my Indiana Jones fedora and let’s begin this excavation.

May You Live In Interesting Times

We begin the trail of the Grand Mufti in the chaos swirling in the Middle East with the collapse of 600 years of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of Arab (and Jewish) nationalism throughout the Middle East following the devastation of two World Wars. This is a wild, strange story, but sometimes real life resembles an action movie. Pass the popcorn and let’s begin.

Muhammad Amin al-Husseini (al-Husayni) was born in 1897 optimally timed to live through two World Wars and the collapse of multiple empires. He came from a noble Jerusalem family tracing their origins to the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. He was educated in Islamic, Ottoman, and Catholic schools.

During WWI, he served in the Ottoman army and was trained in German military tactics and culture. The Armenian genocide with the gruesome deaths of over 1.2 million Christians that was carried out with German precision must have made an impression on the young soldier witnessing the systematic elimination and ethnic cleansing of an entire population.

“That the German Reich shared the Ottomans' mistrust of the Armenians was no secret — both feared they were colluding with mutual enemy Russia. Navy attaché Hans Humann, a member of the German-Turkish officer corps and close friend of the Ottoman Empire's war minister, Enver Pasha, said: "The Armenians — because of their conspiracy with the Russians — will be exterminated. That is hard, but useful.”

Rise of Islamic Nationalism

The simultaneous and catastrophic collapse of the Ottoman, Austria-Hungarian, German, and Russian empires unleashed long-dormant nationalistic struggles in former vassal states endangering multitudes of ethnic minorities including many Jewish communities seeking refuge in Israel. Jewish immigration increased and Arab tensions rose.

After the war, Amin al-Husseini ended up in Syria involved in the pan-Arabism movement to create a state of greater Palestine to include Syria, Iraq, Palestine, and Jordan. The Franco-Syrian war put an end to that, and he turned to local nationalism for the Palestine territories under British colonial rule. He was implicated in the 1920 Nebi Musa riots in response to the British Balfour Agreement to a Jewish state in Palestine in 1917. As a result of the riots, trust among the British, Jews, and Arabs eroded. One consequence was that the region’s Jewish community broke away from British protection towards an autonomous infrastructure and security apparatus. An arms war had begun.

In an attempt to pacify the Arab population, the rookie British High Commissioner pardoned al-Husseini and even appointed him Grand Mufti of Jerusalem or chief Muslim cleric hoping to bring order to the growing insurgency. Instead, al-Husseini used the position to rally Arab nationalism against Zionism (the establishment of a homeland for the Jewish diaspora) while mistakenly being considered a compliant ally by British authorities.

Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Muhammad Amin al-Husseini

Meanwhile, eager to stir the pot of Arab rebellion, Fascist Italy under Benito Mussolini provided him substantial funds and promises of support for Arab nationalism. Al-Husseini told Italy’s Consul-General in Jerusalem that “his decision to get directly involved in the revolt arose from the backing of Mussolini’s backing and promises.”

It all came to a head during the 1936-1939 Arab Revolt in Palestine with waves of protest strikes by Arabs and violent attacks against both the British authorities and Jews. Al-Husseini issued a series of warnings (jihads) threatening the “revenge of God Almighty” unless Jewish immigration was halted. Negotiations with al-Husseini proved fruitless, and a deadly guerilla war began.

The rebellion was brutally suppressed by the British Army combined with Jewish forces using repressive measures that were intended to intimidate the whole population and undermine popular support for the revolt. A more dominant role on the Arab side was taken by the rival Nashashibi Clan who quickly withdrew from the rebel Arab Higher Committee, led by the radical faction of Amin al-Husseini, and instead sided with the British. Already the split among Arab factions in Palestine became evident and persists today. Evading an arrest warrant and disguised as a poor Bedouin and traveling on a tramp steamer al-Husseini fled to Lebanon and Iraq until he established himself in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.

“The Enemy Of My Enemy Is My Friend.”

A mutual hatred of the Jews and an opportunity to recruit the Arabs against the British and French forces in the Middle East made strange bedfellows of European fascists and Arab nationalists. The Grand Mufti first met with Mussolini who introduced him to Hitler. Al-Husseini prepared a declaration of German-Arab cooperation:

“Germany and Italy recognize the right of the Arab countries to solve the question of Jewish elements, which exist in Palestine and in the other Arab countries, as required by the national and ethnic interest of the Arabs, and as the Jewish question was solved in Germany and Italy.”

In exchange for Hitler’s backing for Arab independence and support in opposing the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine, al-Husseini made propagandistic radio broadcasts and helped Nazi Heinrich Himmler to recruit Bosnian Muslims to raise three Muslim divisions under German leadership in the interethnic conflict between the region’s Muslim, Jewish, Croat, Roma, and Serb populations. Not much was accomplished except Muslims losing around 85,000 from ethnic cleansing which continues even today in Bosnia.

Al-Husseini reviewing Bosnian Troops Under SS Command

Al-Husseini collaborated with the Germans in numerous sabotage and commando operations in Iraq, Transjordan, and Palestine repeatedly urging the Germans to bomb Tel Aviv and Jerusalem to injure Palestine Jews for propaganda purposes in the Arab world. The proposal was rejected as unfeasible, but Italian Fascists envisioned a project to establish him as head of a North African intelligence center and act as commander of forces carrying out sabotage operations behind enemy lines.

Operation ATLAS was one such operation aimed at establishing an intelligence-gathering base in Palestine, radioing back information to Germany, and buying support among Palestinian Arabs. The plan ended in a fiasco as they received a cold reception in Palestine, three of the five infiltrators were quickly rounded up, and their air-dropped cargo was found by the British.

Meanwhile, al-Husseini used his ties with the Germans to promote Arab nationalism in British-controlled Iraq with its vital oil supplies. He promised German and Italian support to Iraqi nationalist Rashid Ali al-Gailani in his coup against the moderate Prime Minister Nuri al-Said who had to flee for his life. Rashid Ali expelled all the British and immediately made agreements with Germany, Italy, and the rest of the Axis Powers.

The British, although they had their hands full trying to stop Rommel’s Afrika Korps troops from capturing Egypt and the Suez Canal, had to prevent the Iraq oil fields from fueling Rommel’s Panzers and opening a back door into attacking Russia. In desperation, a daring plan, King Column or Kingcol for short, was devised to send a Palestine commando force in a lightning strike across 750 miles of desert to attack and liberate Bagdad with a surprise attack from the rear.

Somehow this motley force of His Majesty’s Life Guards and Royal Horse Guards jostled along in their army trucks beside the Bedouin of the Arab Legion from Jordan racing about in colorful flowing robes under the leadership of eccentric ‘Pasha’ Gibb, an English Arabist cohort of Lawrence of Arabia. More by sheer luck rather than skill, they succeeded in capturing Bagdad and sending Rashid Ali and al-Husseini fleeing to Iran. The surrender of Bagdad changed the war in the Middle East in the Allies’ favor.

Arab Fascist Propaganda

Al-Husseini’s propaganda efforts were more successful and very lucrative to the Mufti who was funded extravagantly by the Reich propaganda ministry. His prolific Arabic radio broadcasts and wildly anti-Semitic pamphlets found a receptive audience among nationalistic Arabs seeking relief from the imperialistic domination of the French and British in the region.

"Sieg Heil" In Arabic

Professor Jeffrey Herf states: “Nazi propaganda left behind traces that became the lifeblood of the minority currently called radical or political Islamism. Some ideas were articulated by radical Islamists during and after World War II that do not derive only from Islamic sources or from the passions of the conflict with Israel, but which have their roots in Europe’s traditions of anti-Semitism.”

Al-Husseini’s main challenge was to transform European white supremacy fascism into something relevant to Muslim Arabs. A lot of Nazi “pretzel logic” went into developing a narrative of anti-Semitism for Jewish Semites only with other races being “different,” but not necessarily “inferior.” Instead, the emphasis turned to nationalism as the common bond and a foundation for non-European forms of fascism. What emerged was a paradoxical “Nazi cosmopolitanism” that allied with non-German supporters in non-German-speaking Europe, Latin America, Japan, and the Middle East. All were bound together in their common hatred of the British, the Soviet Union, the United States, and the Jews supposedly controlling them.

Al-Husseini sums it up well in one of his broadcasts: “Every Muslim should know that an Allied victory will mean a victory for the Jews and the destruction of the Muslims, but Allah will never allow the fire of faith to be extinguished by the enemies of Islam.”

The Grand Mufti had found his mentors and true calling at the feet of the master fascists and he learned to expand his personal hatred into a political and cultural movement. His private racism expanded to become a war of righteousness, a jihad against existential threats to Islam worldwide. And it was no longer limited exclusively to the Jews but included all those kafir, infidels, who supported them – Jews, British, Americans, and Bolsheviks.

A Marriage Made In Hell

The Arab fascist propaganda broadcasts lasted for five years spreading the fascist message combined with the fervor of a rising Islam fundamentalism growing in the region against Western colonial occupation. It found a willing audience and surprisingly easy to dovetail fascist myths of authority and purity with Muslim principles of piety and obedience to Allah. Not only was it a marriage of convenience – defeating the colonial forces of France and England in the Middle East, but a militant merger of forces dedicated to the sacred cleansing and purification of both Europe and the Middle East. Fascism became a religion for Germany and Italy (and most of Europe) and now a boldly militant Allah demanded retribution for Judeo-Christian domination and disrespect of Muslims.

Professor Jeffrey Hoff remarks:
“The fundamental values of Islam – piety, obedience, community, unity – were shared by Fascist Europeans in contrast to liberal European values of skepticism, individualism and division. A striking feature of this message was that it came from Berlin, the capital of the most scientifically and technologically advanced country in Europe. It was a message from the heart of modernity. To its listeners, it conveyed the implicit message that a revival of fundamentalist Islam was a parallel project to the secular political fundamentalism of the Nazi regime. It was not only or primarily a relic of a backward culture but part of a great movement now in power in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Here was a statement that offered evidence of the modernity of Islamic fundamentalism.”

“Germans and Arabs shared many qualities and virtues, such as courage in war… heroism and manly character. They both shared in the suffering and injustices after the end of the First World War. Both great peoples had their honor insulted, their rights were denied and trampled underfoot.”

Thus, the perfect marriage of victimization and martyrdom was consummated, and the union still flourishes today.

Post War Mischief

We all know that the war did not end well for the fascists. One would think that the Mufti being so linked to Mussolini and Hitler would be in serious trouble. Now, I am not a religious man, but al-Husseini certainly seemed to have someone looking out for him from above.

He fled to southern Germany and was trying to get asylum in Switzerland, but they refused not wanting that kind of trouble within their borders. The Allied Forces all wanted him for various war crimes, and he was certainly a ‘person of interest’ along with his Nazi elite pals. Ironically, he was taken into custody at Konstanz, Germany in May 1945 by the French occupying troops, transferred to the Paris region, and put under house arrest.

Great Britain requested al-Husseini's extradition, arguing that he was a British citizen who had collaborated with the Nazis. Yugoslavia and Greece also requested his extradition for his responsibility for the massacres of Serbs, Greeks, and Iraqis. Members of the Jewish Agency loathed Husseini as a Nazi collaborator and gathered war crimes documentation on his role in the Holocaust. An assassination plan was prepared to eliminate al-Husseini, but the mission was canceled by Jewish leadership probably fearing to turn the Grand Mufti into a martyr.

Meanwhile, France newly reunited under Charles De Gaulle was having problems de-colonizing North Africa. Morocco and Tunisia were granted independence after staging bloody revolts. Algeria remained a colony, but unrest was growing. Even in custody, al-Husseini was a lightning rod for conspiracy and rebellion and a thorn in France’s troubled side. Plans were discussed to organize his transfer to an Arab country. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen were considered, and diplomatic contacts were made with their authorities and with the Arab League.

Suspiciously, an influential Moroccan organized al-Husseini’s escape leaving France on a commercial flight to Cairo using travel papers supplied by a Syrian politician who was close to the Muslim Brotherhood. It took more than twelve days for the French foreign minister to realize he had fled.  The British were not able to arrest him in Egypt because he was granted political asylum.

Later, a delegation of the Arab Higher Committee went to Paris and proposed that Arabs would adopt a neutral position on the Algeria question in exchange for France’s support on the Palestinian question. A grand deal had been struck by the Grand Mufti and now he was Britain’s problem again.

With the UN Partition Resolution for Palestine under discussion, the heat was rising in the region and al-Husseini was stirring the pot using his new militant brand of Islamic fascism to unite the Arab factions against the growing waves of Jewish immigration from war-devastated Europe. Arabs attacked the Jews, and the Jews returned the aggression. Both attacked the hapless Brits for being in the way.

Meanwhile, al-Husseini kept a low profile in Cairo collaborating with Sayyid Qutb one of the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, and generally considered the key originator of Islamist ideology and violent jihad against the liberal West which he saw as materialistic and obsessed with violence and sexual pleasures. The Mufti’s message of Islamic fascism obviously found a willing ear with Qutb, the most important intellectual of postwar radical Islamism combining fascist anti-Semitism with “Salafi jihadism", the religious-political doctrine that underpins the ideological roots of global jihadist organizations such as al-Qaeda, ISIL, Taliban, and Hamas.

Palestine Pandemonium

The wartime reputation of al-Husseini was used as an argument for the establishment of a Jewish State during the deliberation at the UN in 1947. An expose document was prepared for the UN with copies of communications between Amin al-Husseini and high-ranking Nazis, his dairy account of meeting with Hitler, several letters to German officials requesting Jews never be permitted to emigrate from Europe to Palestine, and many photographs of al-Husseini and other Arab politicians in the company of Nazis and their Italian and Japanese allies.

Despite the damning evidence, al-Husseini’s popularity in the Arab world had risen during his time with the Nazis, and Arab leaders rushed to greet him on his return and the masses gave him an enthusiastic reception. The Arab Palestinians intentionally or not chose a leader who was unacceptable both to the Zionists and a majority of the West.

Much of Palestine’s problems today stem from a woeful choice of Arab leadership at the beginning of the Partition Plan. How different the result today would have been if there had been an alternative choice of cooperation and mutual respect in developing the solution, but al-Husseini was having none of that. There could be no compromise and a genocidal war was unleashed. This is where the Exodus movie scene of the German conveying orders from the Grand Mufti to attack all Jews finds its historical roots. A vicious anti-Semitic holy war began with al-Husseini’s blessings.

From the beginning, the Zionist Holocaust survivors knew the creation of a Jewish state would likely be violently contested. In preparation for statehood, a trained military was formed, and a unified government was established to step into operation from the first moment of UN approval and a declaration of statehood. At the time, the nascent Israeli military was second only to Great Britain’s in the region.  Their backs were against the wall and there was no option but victory. They were unified and fully prepared for the attacks by the Arab nations, but the same cannot be said for the Palestinian Arabs.

As depicted in the Exodus movie, the Arabs did not dare to oppose al-Husseini, but they did not rally en masse around his flag in the war against the Zionists. King Abdullah of Jordan was particularly hostile against al-Husseini’s radical Arab Palestinian nationalism and secretly contacted Golda Meir suggesting allowing Jordan to occupy the entire region in exchange for a Jewish state within its borders. Seeking broader UN support, it was rejected by the Zionists but King Abdullah’s tepid response to the call for Palestinian Arab nationalism was shared by other Arab states.

On the eve of the UN Partition, the departing British reported that terror and chaos ruled Palestine. From his Egyptian exile, al-Husseini used his influence to encourage the participation of the Egyptian military in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and was involved in high-level negotiations between Arab leaders to organize Palestinian field commands and the commanders of the Holy War Army. In contrast to the Jews, the Arabs splintered their support and al-Husseini’s requests for financial and military support were rejected. Arab Palestinian forces split along tribal lines with commanders refusing to issue arms to anyone except loyal supporters. This partially accounts for the absence of an organized Arab force and for the insufficient supply of arms that plagued Arab defenders of Jerusalem.

Al-Husseini and his followers were caught between the tribal Palestinian culture and the conflicting desires of other Arab states. He understood that if the Arab forces were to come to the support of Palestine their governance would also come. King Abdullah of Jordan would rule Palestine, and the Egyptians would rule Gaza.

The weakness of the Palestinian military force became abundantly clear. 

“They were people who were summoned from the villages; they fought and at the end of the day they went home. It wasn’t a problem of lack of organization, it was a struggle waged by a tribal society, rural and undeveloped, and in the final analysis, they didn’t stand a chance. The whole Husseini army numbered a thousand people, while the Jewish Palmach commandos alone had 5,000 soldiers. While the Palmach’s units were highly mobile – a young Jew from Galilee might be called upon to defend Jerusalem – the Arabs were incapable of transferring forces.”

PLO leader Yasser Arafat was once asked how the Palestinian problem had come into being. ‘The Arabs betrayed us,’ he said. The Palestinians can’t understand how 20 Arab countries and hundreds of millions of people aren’t able to restore their rights. It gives them no rest and fuels their rage and extremism. Palestinian Arabs were then and are now pawns in a much larger geopolitical game of power.

Historian Avi Shlaim describes it: “The decision to form the Government of All-Palestine in Gaza, and the feeble attempt to create armed forces under its control, furnish the members of the Arab League with the means of divesting themselves of direct responsibility for the prosecution of the war and of withdrawing their armies from Palestine with some protection against popular outcry. Whatever the long-term future of Palestine, its immediate purpose, as conceived by its Egyptian sponsors, was to provide a focal point of opposition to King Abdullah and serve as an instrument for frustration of his ambition to federate the Arab regions with Jordan.”

“From The River To The Sea”

In hindsight, it probably was not a good idea to appoint an unapologetic Nazi sympathizer as the leader of negotiations between the Palestinian Arabs and the Jewish Zionists still stinging from the horrors of the Holocaust. Although the Zionists accepted the UN Partition Plan, they were under no illusion that the Palestinian Arab Higher Committee would accept the plan. They also knew from al-Husseini’s previous Nazi anti-Semitic rhetoric that this would be a savage battle of extermination. As historian Benny Morris reminds us of the harsh times at the end of WWII:

“There are circumstances in history that justify ethnic cleansing… when the choice is between ethnic cleansing and genocide – the annihilation of your people – I prefer ethnic cleansing.”

Al-Husseini’s fervent nationalism and Nazi-fueled hatred of the Jews left no room for negotiation. Upon announcement of the UN Partition Resolution, civil war broke out between the Palestinian Arab tribes and the Jewish militias with atrocities committed on both sides. Even with the half-hearted and haphazard support of fellow Arab nations, the ferocity and focus of the Jewish resistance sparked panic in the local population with more than 750,000 Arabs – about half of the population of Mandatory Palestine - fleeing their homes or were expelled by Zionist militias. The Nakba, the “Catastrophe” left the Arabs in the region feeling betrayed, victimized, and enraged – fertile ground for the nascent ultra-nationalistic Islamic fascism al-Husseini was eager to share.

After the defeat of 1948, Amin al-Husseini was chosen as the ‘scapegoat’ for the failure and faded from the political spotlight. The All-Palestinian Government was entirely relocated to Cairo in October of 1948 becoming a government in exile. This, of course, did not stop al-Husseini from participating in Islamist terrorist programs linked to the Muslim Brotherhood both inside Egypt and throughout the region.

He was implicated in the assassination of King Abdullah of Jordan for supporting Israel. Amin al-Husseini’s relations with the radical Muslim Brotherhood wore thin his welcome with the Egyptian government. The All-Palestine Government was dissolved in 1959 by President Nasser who also arrested the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood after a failed assassination attempt.  Al-Husseini’s Islamist collaborator Sayyid Qutb was executed becoming a martyr for the radical Islamist cause.

Al-Husseini moved to Lebanon falling out of favor with the leading Arab leaders and sinking into obscurity. He died in Beirut in 1974 and was buried there after being barred from burial in Jerusalem. Almost all traces of his memory soon vanished from Palestinian awareness and there has been no monument to his memory or books commemorating his deeds.

Like the final scene in the Raiders of the Lost Ark movie with the crate containing the Ark of the Covenant being stored and forgotten in a vast government warehouse, Amin al-Husseini’s corpse today decays in a forgotten grave. But, 75 years after the UN Partition envisioning a two-state Palestine shared by Israelis and Arabs, the ghost of Amin al-Husseini still haunts the region.

The poisons of hate and victimization continue to infect the region. The Palestinian Arab population still has not put aside virulent anti-Semitism and has not united to form a stable Arab government capable of or even willing to share peaceful governance and mutual cooperation with the Israelis.  Also, the roots of Islamic fascism which he fostered continue to spread throughout the Muslim world much to the detriment of hundreds of millions of young Muslims and the threat of international geopolitical instability.

Amin al-Husseini left behind only two radical choices: ethnic cleansing or genocide. Albert Einstein who fled Germany to escape the Nazis offers his wisdom: “Insanity is repeating an action and expecting different results.” Jews and Palestinian Arabs have been repeating al-Husseini’s insane choices for nearly a century now. It is past time to let his evil thoughts die.

Arab Sufi poet Rumi gives us an exit ramp:

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right-doing,
There is a field. I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
The world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase ‘each other’
Doesn't make any sense.