Islam officially began around the year 600, but its modern-day radical manifestations, starting in the early 20th century, have taken a page or perhaps a whole volume from the annals of Western Fascism. In the 1930s, the Young Egypt Party, or green shirts, resembled German Hitler youth in their ideology and manner of dress. The Syrian Social Nationalist Party had a symbol of a red hurricane which was adapted from a Nazi swastika. Its leader, Anton Saada, claimed Syrians were a superior race, and adopted songs that sounded like Nazi anthems. Egypt’s second president, Gamal Abdel Nasser, expressed regrets that the Nazis had lost. Saddam Hussein’s uncle, Khairallah Talfah, participated in the regime of Rashid All al-Gaylani, who was an Iraqi nationalist and made agreements with the Third Reich in an effort to expel the British from Iraq.
The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini was a high profile Nazi collaborator, and in the famous Himmler to al-Husseini telegram of 1943, Himmler wrote of the “firm foundation of the natural alliance that exists between the National Socialist Greater Germany and the freedom loving Muslims of the whole world.” Muslim Brotherhood Founder Hassan al-Banna was inspired by the Nazi’s emphasis on anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. Like Hitler, al-Banna hated Jews, democracy and mainstream Western culture and wanted to assist German field marshal Erwin Rommel in defeating the Allies in Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood channeled funds to aid Arabs and fight Jews in Palestine. In the 1940s, the Muslim Brotherhood was engaged on two fronts: bombing British clubs and assassinating Egyptian officials loyal to the British; and aiding Palestinian Arabs in their fight against Jews and Zionism.
The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in 1928 as a way of revitalizing Islam, but in the process borrowed some of its ideology and style from radical right and left movements in the West. In its promises to free Muslims from the shackles of Western oppressors, eliminate poverty and promote unity, the Brotherhood absorbed themes from Communist propaganda. The difference between the Muslim Brotherhood’s ideology and that of Communism and fascism is that it eschews secularism and believes that the Arab world should be united under a religious banner. The Muslim Brotherhood, which is Sunni in orientation, revived the religious concept of martyrdom as an honorable and a spiritually exalted condition. Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna was particularly attracted to the idea of martyrdom, and his sentiments are expressed in the motto of Hamas, “We love death more than you love life.”
Haj-Amin al-Husseini shared close ties with the Third Reich. Hitler admired Islam, and the Mufti was inspired by the Nazis’ anti-Semitism, and had Hitler’s Mein Kampf as well as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion printed and disseminated in Arabic. In Jerusalem, the Mufti formed a legion of Bosnian soldiers who fought on behalf of the Third Reich. Al-Husseini described in his memoirs what made him feel that he and Hitler were kindred spirits: “Our fundamental reasons for cooperating with Germany was a free hand to eradicate every last Jew from Palestine and the Arab world. I asked Hitler for an explicit undertaking to allow us to solve the Jewish problem in a manner befitting our national and racial aspirations and according to the scientific methods innovated by Germany in the handling of its Jews. The answer I got was, ‘The Jews are yours.’”
Even before the Nazis rose to power, Haj-Amin al-Husseini organized riots against Jews, who were settling in Palestine in increasing numbers. In the 1920s, the British discovered that the Mufti had a role in terrorist attacks that killed five Jews and left 211 injured, and sentenced him to ten years in prison. Unfortunately, he had already fled to Syria when the sentence was passed in his absence. In 1921, British High Commissioner Herbert Samuel not only gave Arab radicals amnesty, but decided to ignore Haj-Amin al-Husseini’s prior conviction entirely in appointing him Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, which made him spiritual leader of the Sunnis in Jerusalem and gave him authority over all the holy sites. He was also head of the Muslim Council, a first step towards Arab self-governance, and this empowered the Mufti to plan more attacks against Jews, including in the city of Tssat, where 45 were killed, and in Hebron, where 60 perished. The British charged the Mufti again, although allowed him to keep his title—and he escaped once again, to Syria.