If you want a crash course on the history of radical Islam in the 20th century and its extensive ties to the German Third Reich and European fascism, go read Eye on the World’s March 25 post, Islamonazism.
It begins with a look at Islamist-Nazi connections prior to and during WWII, focusing on the somewhat well-known story of the Jerusalem Grand Mufti, Haj Muhammed Amin al-Huseini, but with much more detail than I knew. For instance, I knew al-Huseini spent much of the war in Berlin as Hitler’s guest and that he worked to recruit Muslims to the Nazi cause throughout Islam (with a great deal of success, by the way). But I didn’t know how closely involved and enthusiastic he was about the "Final Solution" (emphasis added):
At the Nuremberg Trials, Eichmann’s deputy Dieter Wisliceny (subsequently executed as a war criminal) testified:
"The Mufti was one of the initiators of the systematic extermination of European Jewry and had been a collaborator and adviser of Eichmann and Himmler in the execution of this plan. … He was one of Eichmann’s best friends and had constantly incited him to accelerate the extermination measures. I heard him say, accompanied by Eichmann, he had visited incognito the gas chamber of Auschwitz."
OK, al-Huseini was obviously a very evil man, you might shrug, but that was more than 60 years ago. Well, I suggest you look at how broad and deep his influence was in the Arab world. He was treated as a pan-Arab hero after the war and never prosecuted for war crimes (although indicted) because the allies feared the Arab reaction. He passed along his Nazi ideology, including his rabid hatred of Jews and commitment to exterminating them, to a host of proteges, including Gamal Abdul Nasser, Saddam Hussein, the first chairman of the PLO, Ahmad Shukeiri, and the founders of the Ba’ath Party, who bragged openly of being racist Nazis.
Oh, and then there was a young man named Rahman Abdul Rauf al-Qudwa al-Husseini. Born in Cairo in 1929 and brought up in the Gaza Strip, he was a nephew of Muhammed Amin al-Huseini — and a great admirer of the Nazi mufti. He dedicated his life to following in his uncle’s footsteps and annihilating the Jews. But first, upon enrolling at the University of Cairo in 1951, he changed his name — to Yasser Arafat.
There’s much, much more. RTWT. Bookmark it for future reference. Send the link to people you know. Western Civilization could in the long run be in trouble if too few of us understand the true nature of our enemy and what’s at stake in this war they’re waging.
(I owe someone a hat-tip for the link to this important post, but I’ve lost the source, and Eye on the World doesn’t have trackbacks.)