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A new book on al-Husseini portrays one of the most monstrous leaders of World War II—the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini. The book, Icon of Evil: Hitler’s Mufti and the Rise of Radical Islam by David G. Dalin and John F. Rothmann, details the frightening precursor to the current Islamic terrorists of our generation. Let’s think about this.
Haj Amin al-Husseini was made the Mufti of Jerusalem by the British government after World War I during the time of the British mandate over Palestine. Quickly, he opposed British rule and would eventually side with Hitler during World War II. Especially because he hated Jews, al-Husseini was a natural supporter of Hitler’s schemes against the Jews. He had been taught that Jews were the natural enemy of Islam and believed strongly that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a horrific anti-Semitic forgery, were true. According to Dalin and Rothmann, al-Husseini led murderous Arab uprisings against the Jews of Palestine in 1920, 1929 and 1936. These tactics of terror set the stage for the intifadas of the 20th and early 21st century sponsored by Yasir Arafat. The goal of these early intifadas was to drive the Jews completely from Palestine. According to Dalin and Rothmann, “At Hitler’s invitation, the Mufti spent the World War II years in Berlin and became part of Hitler’s inner circle, working closely with the top Nazi leaders, including von Ribbentrop, Himmler and Eichmann. He was one of the architects of Hitler’s Final Solution, the mass murder of 6 million European Jews. He visited Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps and encouraged the Nazi leaders to be more efficient in their extermination of the Jews.” Al-Husseini was called the “Fuhrer of the Arab world” because of his obnoxiously pro-Nazi efforts. He was responsible, for example, for the creation of the Muslim Waffen-SS unit that massacred 90% of Bosnia’s 14,000 Jews. He organized and planned a massive propaganda campaign arguing: “Kill the Jews wherever you find them. This pleases God, history and religion.” Yasir Arafat was his devoted protégé and during the 1950s, at al-Husseini’s encouragement, Arafat began recruiting terrorists for the Fatah organization. As they document in their book, the PLO, Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, the Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda derive their inspiration and principles from al-Husseini. The origins of the great terror we face today rest with this most evil man.
See the details of an interview with the authors in World (4/11 October 2008), pp. 28-29.
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