Aug. 11, 2008
BOOK REVIEW: Nazi Roots of Islamic Terrorism, Hatred Revealed in 'Icon of Evil'
By David M. Kinchen
Huntingtonnews.net Book Critic
One of the horrible ironies of history is the radical Muslim practice of comparing Israelis -- and Jews the world over -- with Hitler and the Nazis. It's a practice that's often indulged in by non-Muslims, Holocaust deniers and a rag-tag band of haters of the 60-year-old state of Israel and anti-Semites -- including more than a few Jewish themselves.
Why is it ironic? As David G. Dalin and John F. Rothmann demonstrate in "Icon of Evil: Hitler's Mufti and the Rise of Radical Islam" (Random House, 240 pages, $26; bibliography, photos, index, appendixes, notes) the real Middle Eastern Nazi was the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, who fled Palestine in 1937 and ended up spending the war years in Hitler's Germany.
In the West -- thanks at least in part to political correctness -- the mufti is scarcely known. Dalin and Rothmann tell us that he's a revered figure in the Arab world, where virulent Israel and Jew hatred is practiced even in countries like Egypt and Jordan that have diplomatic relations with Israel.
The mufti, who was related to Yassir Arafat, his successor in hatred, was born in Jerusalem in 1895 and died in 1974. He served in the Turkish army when the Ottoman Empire controlled Palestine. The Ottomans apparently had a "don't ask, don't tell policy," because the authors imply that al-Husseini was a homosexual and used his "friendships" to advance his career. Another irony: He was named mufti in 1921 by Sir Herbert Samuel, a British Jew who was high commissioner of the British mandate of Palestine at the time. It was an appointment the British would live to regret as al-Husseini provoked and approved of terrorist attacks on Palestine's Jewish community, including the one in 1929 that drove all the Jews out of Hebron, one of Judaism's holiest cities.
The book, drawing on primary sources in several languages, including German and Arabic, grew out of an article by Dalin, "Hitler's Mufti, that was published in the journal First Things. The authors link the fascism of the last century with the terrorism of the 21st Century, including the 9/11 attacks and the successive terrorism campaigns of Israeli civilian targets.
In 1937, after a particularly violent anti-Jewish pogrom, the British had enough and the mufti fled to various Arab countries, including Iraq. He fled Iraq after the British defeated a pro-Nazi regime in a month-long war in 1941 and spent the war years in luxury provided by his Nazi hosts. He befriended Holocaust mastermind Adolf Eichmann, German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, Gestapo chief Heinrich Himmler and Hitler himself, despite the hatred of Muslims the Nazi fuehrer amply outlined in his "Mein Kampf."
Al-Husseini used the Nazis and vice versa, with Hitler figuring that anyone who hated Jews and the West as much as the mufti would be valuable in the Nazi attempt to conquer the world. Dalin and Rothmann show how the mufti organized Bosnian Muslims into a unit of the Waffen-SS that succeeded in murdering 90 percent of the region's 14,000 Jews. They reprint official Nazi photos that show the mufti, dressed in his traditional clerical garb, reviewing Bosnian SS troops.
Dalin and Rothmann show how al-Husseini ingratiated himself with Hitler, becoming, with his blond hair and blue eyes, an “honorary Aryan,” while dreaming of being installed Nazi fuehrer of the Middle East. Al-Husseini would later recruit more than 100,000 Muslims in Europe to fight in divisions of the Waffen-SS, and obstruct negotiations with the Allies that might have allowed four thousand Jewish children to escape to Palestine. Some believe that al-Husseini even inspired Hitler to implement the Final Solution. At war’s end, al-Husseini escaped indictment at Nuremberg and was given luxurious sanctuary in France before being given a hero’s welcome in King Farouk's Egypt.
"Icon of Evil" describes al-Husseini’s postwar relationships with such influential Islamic figures as the radical theoretician Sayyid Qutb and Saddam Hussein’s powerful uncle, General Khairallah Talfah, and his crucial mentoring of the young Yasser Arafat. Finally, it provides compelling evidence that al-Husseini’s actions and writings serve as inspirations today to the leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah, and other terrorist organizations pledged to destroy Israel and the United States.
Those who ask "where are the moderate Muslims and why don't they come forward" may get an answer from al-Husseini's attitude toward King Abdullah of Jordan (Pages 95 ff). Abdullah, the grandfather of King Hussein and the great-grandfather of the present Jordanian king, advocated a moderate approach toward the half million Jews of Palestine and later Israel, saying "the Jews had their rights to their Holy Places in the Old City" of Jerusalem, including the Western Wall. While attending a memorial service for another slain moderate Muslim in the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on July 20, 1951, King Abdullah was murdered by a 23-year-old Palestinian. The 15-year-old Hussein, the father of the present king, witnessed the murder of his beloved grandfather.
"Icon of Evil" is an important work of biography and history that deserves the widest circulation. It appears at a time when the same publisher, Random House, owned by the German firm Bertelsmann, has decided to "indefinitely postpone" publishing a novel scheduled for Aug. 12 release, "The Jewel of Medina," by journalist Sherry Jones. According to a BBC news story, Random house said "it had been advised the book 'might be offensive' to some Muslims, and 'could incite acts of violence by a radical segment.'"
The novel is about prophet Muhammad's child bride A'isha, often referred to as Muhammad's favorite wife, from her engagement at the age of six, until Muhammad's death.
Random House apparently wanted to prevent a recurrence of the Salman Rushdie incident when the Indian-born British writer published a novel, "The Satanic Verses," that was deemed critical of Islam and that resulted in death threats and fatwas against Rushdie two decades ago. I hope Random House publishes "The Jewel of Medina," given the wide circulation of the most vicious anti-Jewish propaganda, including the infamous Czarist forgery "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" in the Islamic world. Radical Islamists want to have it both ways, claiming that the Holocaust never happened and praising Hitler's regime for perpetrating it.
About the Authors
David G. Dalin is the Taube Research Fellow in American History at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He is the author, co-author, or editor of nine books, including Religion and State in the American Jewish Experience (with Jonathan D. Sarna), The Presidents of the United States and the Jews, and The Myth of Hitler’s Pope. His numerous articles and book reviews have appeared in American Jewish History, Commentary, First Things, The Weekly Standard, and the American Jewish Year Book.
John F. Rothmann serves on the faculty of the Fromm Institute at the University of San Francisco. He is an author, teacher, archivist, political consultant, and talk show host on the ABC-affiliated KGO 810-AM Newstalk Radio in San Francisco. He has lectured on American politics and the presidency and the Middle East throughout the United States, Canada, and Israel.
Web site: www.randomhouse.com
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BOOK REVIEW: Nazi Roots of Islamic Terrorism, Hatred Revealed in 'Icon of Evil'
By David M. Kinchen
Huntingtonnews.net Book Critic
One of the horrible ironies of history is the radical Muslim practice of comparing Israelis -- and Jews the world over -- with Hitler and the Nazis. It's a practice that's often indulged in by non-Muslims, Holocaust deniers and a rag-tag band of haters of the 60-year-old state of Israel and anti-Semites -- including more than a few Jewish themselves.
Why is it ironic? As David G. Dalin and John F. Rothmann demonstrate in "Icon of Evil: Hitler's Mufti and the Rise of Radical Islam" (Random House, 240 pages, $26; bibliography, photos, index, appendixes, notes) the real Middle Eastern Nazi was the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, who fled Palestine in 1937 and ended up spending the war years in Hitler's Germany.
In the West -- thanks at least in part to political correctness -- the mufti is scarcely known. Dalin and Rothmann tell us that he's a revered figure in the Arab world, where virulent Israel and Jew hatred is practiced even in countries like Egypt and Jordan that have diplomatic relations with Israel.
The mufti, who was related to Yassir Arafat, his successor in hatred, was born in Jerusalem in 1895 and died in 1974. He served in the Turkish army when the Ottoman Empire controlled Palestine. The Ottomans apparently had a "don't ask, don't tell policy," because the authors imply that al-Husseini was a homosexual and used his "friendships" to advance his career. Another irony: He was named mufti in 1921 by Sir Herbert Samuel, a British Jew who was high commissioner of the British mandate of Palestine at the time. It was an appointment the British would live to regret as al-Husseini provoked and approved of terrorist attacks on Palestine's Jewish community, including the one in 1929 that drove all the Jews out of Hebron, one of Judaism's holiest cities.
The book, drawing on primary sources in several languages, including German and Arabic, grew out of an article by Dalin, "Hitler's Mufti, that was published in the journal First Things. The authors link the fascism of the last century with the terrorism of the 21st Century, including the 9/11 attacks and the successive terrorism campaigns of Israeli civilian targets.
In 1937, after a particularly violent anti-Jewish pogrom, the British had enough and the mufti fled to various Arab countries, including Iraq. He fled Iraq after the British defeated a pro-Nazi regime in a month-long war in 1941 and spent the war years in luxury provided by his Nazi hosts. He befriended Holocaust mastermind Adolf Eichmann, German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, Gestapo chief Heinrich Himmler and Hitler himself, despite the hatred of Muslims the Nazi fuehrer amply outlined in his "Mein Kampf."
Al-Husseini used the Nazis and vice versa, with Hitler figuring that anyone who hated Jews and the West as much as the mufti would be valuable in the Nazi attempt to conquer the world. Dalin and Rothmann show how the mufti organized Bosnian Muslims into a unit of the Waffen-SS that succeeded in murdering 90 percent of the region's 14,000 Jews. They reprint official Nazi photos that show the mufti, dressed in his traditional clerical garb, reviewing Bosnian SS troops.
Dalin and Rothmann show how al-Husseini ingratiated himself with Hitler, becoming, with his blond hair and blue eyes, an “honorary Aryan,” while dreaming of being installed Nazi fuehrer of the Middle East. Al-Husseini would later recruit more than 100,000 Muslims in Europe to fight in divisions of the Waffen-SS, and obstruct negotiations with the Allies that might have allowed four thousand Jewish children to escape to Palestine. Some believe that al-Husseini even inspired Hitler to implement the Final Solution. At war’s end, al-Husseini escaped indictment at Nuremberg and was given luxurious sanctuary in France before being given a hero’s welcome in King Farouk's Egypt.
"Icon of Evil" describes al-Husseini’s postwar relationships with such influential Islamic figures as the radical theoretician Sayyid Qutb and Saddam Hussein’s powerful uncle, General Khairallah Talfah, and his crucial mentoring of the young Yasser Arafat. Finally, it provides compelling evidence that al-Husseini’s actions and writings serve as inspirations today to the leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah, and other terrorist organizations pledged to destroy Israel and the United States.
Those who ask "where are the moderate Muslims and why don't they come forward" may get an answer from al-Husseini's attitude toward King Abdullah of Jordan (Pages 95 ff). Abdullah, the grandfather of King Hussein and the great-grandfather of the present Jordanian king, advocated a moderate approach toward the half million Jews of Palestine and later Israel, saying "the Jews had their rights to their Holy Places in the Old City" of Jerusalem, including the Western Wall. While attending a memorial service for another slain moderate Muslim in the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on July 20, 1951, King Abdullah was murdered by a 23-year-old Palestinian. The 15-year-old Hussein, the father of the present king, witnessed the murder of his beloved grandfather.
"Icon of Evil" is an important work of biography and history that deserves the widest circulation. It appears at a time when the same publisher, Random House, owned by the German firm Bertelsmann, has decided to "indefinitely postpone" publishing a novel scheduled for Aug. 12 release, "The Jewel of Medina," by journalist Sherry Jones. According to a BBC news story, Random house said "it had been advised the book 'might be offensive' to some Muslims, and 'could incite acts of violence by a radical segment.'"
The novel is about prophet Muhammad's child bride A'isha, often referred to as Muhammad's favorite wife, from her engagement at the age of six, until Muhammad's death.
Random House apparently wanted to prevent a recurrence of the Salman Rushdie incident when the Indian-born British writer published a novel, "The Satanic Verses," that was deemed critical of Islam and that resulted in death threats and fatwas against Rushdie two decades ago. I hope Random House publishes "The Jewel of Medina," given the wide circulation of the most vicious anti-Jewish propaganda, including the infamous Czarist forgery "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" in the Islamic world. Radical Islamists want to have it both ways, claiming that the Holocaust never happened and praising Hitler's regime for perpetrating it.
About the Authors
David G. Dalin is the Taube Research Fellow in American History at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He is the author, co-author, or editor of nine books, including Religion and State in the American Jewish Experience (with Jonathan D. Sarna), The Presidents of the United States and the Jews, and The Myth of Hitler’s Pope. His numerous articles and book reviews have appeared in American Jewish History, Commentary, First Things, The Weekly Standard, and the American Jewish Year Book.
John F. Rothmann serves on the faculty of the Fromm Institute at the University of San Francisco. He is an author, teacher, archivist, political consultant, and talk show host on the ABC-affiliated KGO 810-AM Newstalk Radio in San Francisco. He has lectured on American politics and the presidency and the Middle East throughout the United States, Canada, and Israel.
Web site: www.randomhouse.com
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