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Icon of Evil: Hitler's Mufti and the Rise of Radical Islam
A chilling, fascinating, and nearly forgotten historical figure is resurrected in a riveting work that links the fascism of the last century with the terrorism of our own. Written with verve and extraordinary access to primary sources in several languages, Icon of Evil is the definitive account of the man who during World War II was called “the führer of the Arab world” and whose ugly legacy lives on today.
In 1921, the beneficiary of an appointment the British would live to regret, Haj Amin al-Husseini became the mufti of Jerusalem, the most eminent and influential Islamic leader in the Middle East. For years, al-Husseini fomented violence in the region against the Jews he loathed and wished to destroy. Forced out in 1937, he eventually found his way to the country whose legions he desperately wished to Nazi Germany.
Here, with new and disturbing details, David G. Dalin and John F. Rothmann show how al-Husseini ingratiated himself with his hero, Adolf Hitler, becoming, with his blonde hair and blue eyes, an “honorary Aryan,” while dreaming of being installed Nazi leader 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 harbored in France before being given a hero’s welcome in Egypt.
Icon of Evil chronicles 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.
Revelatory and unsettling, Icon of Evil reveals an essential character in the worst crimes of the modern era. It is an important addition to our understanding of the past, present, and future of radical Islam.
In 1921, the beneficiary of an appointment the British would live to regret, Haj Amin al-Husseini became the mufti of Jerusalem, the most eminent and influential Islamic leader in the Middle East. For years, al-Husseini fomented violence in the region against the Jews he loathed and wished to destroy. Forced out in 1937, he eventually found his way to the country whose legions he desperately wished to Nazi Germany.
Here, with new and disturbing details, David G. Dalin and John F. Rothmann show how al-Husseini ingratiated himself with his hero, Adolf Hitler, becoming, with his blonde hair and blue eyes, an “honorary Aryan,” while dreaming of being installed Nazi leader 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 harbored in France before being given a hero’s welcome in Egypt.
Icon of Evil chronicles 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.
Revelatory and unsettling, Icon of Evil reveals an essential character in the worst crimes of the modern era. It is an important addition to our understanding of the past, present, and future of radical Islam.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2008
31 people are currently reading
193 people want to read
About the author
David G. Dalin
15 books9 followersRabbi David Gil Dalin is a Conservative rabbi, and author and co-author of several books on Jewish history. He is currently a professor of history and political science at Ave Maria University, and was previously associate professor of American Jewish history at the University of Hartford.
Dalin received a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Berkeley, a master's and doctorate from Brandeis University, and his Rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
-Wikipedia
Dalin received a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Berkeley, a master's and doctorate from Brandeis University, and his Rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
-Wikipedia
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July 17, 2023
This fascinating and revealing book outlines the life and career of the malignant Mufti Haj Al Husseini, a close collaborator of Hitler and a violent hater of Jews and Zionism.
It explores explores his legacy of hate and terror that permeates the Islamic jihad and venomous and bottomless against Jews and Israel up to and including today.
The extent of the Mufti's role in genocide against Jews and his collaboration with Nazi Germany has been deliberately concealed and it is works like these that help to bring it to light. Amin Al Husseini was born in 1895 and learned his hatred of Jews at an Islamic school in Cairo.
He read the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as a young man.
Al-Husseini took the lead in raising the banner of jihad against the Jews and organized the April 1920 pogrom against the Jews in Jerusalem.Posters were displayed across Jerusalem with the slogan : "Kill the Jews, there is no punishment for killing Jews". What more proof is needed that the very roots of the Palestinian movement against a Jewish home in Israel is pure anti-Semitism?
Jews were attacked and killed in Jerusalem, and Jewish women raped.
This was known among the Arabs as the First Intifada and can effectively be reagarded the date of the beginning of the Arab jihad against the Jews of Israel, rather than the War of Independence 28 years later.
The 1929 bloody pogroms in Jerusalem, Safed and Hebron were also a result of the Mufti's perfidious propaganda.
The so-called Arab Revolt or Third Intifada resulted in attacks on and burning of Jewish homes and farms, and the killing of hundreds of Jewish men, women and children.
In 1941 the Mufti aided in a Nazi-backed plot to overthrow the British government in Iraq. When the plot failed he fled to Iran and then to Nazi Germany where he formed a close friendship with Adolph Hitler and attended Nazi rallies as an honored guest.
.
At his meeting with Hitler, the mufti pledged the allegiance of the Arabs to and cooperation with Nazi Germany, and Hitler promised to help the Palestinian Arabs to liquidate the Jews of Palestine once he had won the war in Europe and dealt with the Jews there.
Amin-al Husseini personally visited Nazi death camps including Auschwitz and he urged the Nazis to speed up their Final Solution. In 1943 Husseini personally influenced Reich Foreign Minister Ribbentrop to prevent four thousand Jewish children being sent to Israel, instead diverting them to Hitler's death camps where they perished.
Heinrich Himmler was the Nazi leader who the Mufti most closely worked with and together they planned the extermination of Palestinian Jewry once Axis forces had captured the Middle East.
After the war the Mufti escaped to France and then Egypt.
It was the Mufti who led `Palestinian' Arab forces against the fledgling Jewish state, and who mentored and taught his nephew, later to be PLO leader Yasser Arafat, for who Al Husseini was a much admired and beloved figure.
Due to Al Hussein's unceasing efforts the Protocols of the Elders of Zion would be published in Arabic many times and .enjoy best-selling status across the Islamic world.
As the author brings to light 'Hamas which evolved from the Muslim Brotherhood and which the mufti had promoted enthusiastically since it's inception, invokes the protocols in Article 32 of it's charter, stating that the ongoing conspiratorial conduct of world Zionism, Israel and the Jewish people "is the best proof of what is said (in the
Protocols), Spokesmen of the government of Iran, from the era of Ayatollah Khomeini to the present have embraced the protocols.most recently it was made available in English at the Iranian exhibition booth at the 2005 Frankfurt book fair.'
Not far behind in popularity in the Islamic world is Hitler's Mein Kamf. After the Six Day War, Israeli soldiers discovered that thousands of Egyptian prisoners had small paperback copies of Mein Kampf , translated into Arabic by the Arab information center in Cairo.
Meim Kampf was published in Arafat's Palestinian Authority in 2001 and achieved best seller status throughout the Arab world. Meanwhile Schindler's List which depicts the suffering of the Jews during the Holocaust is banned in most Arab countries.
The blood libel accusing Jews of using the blood of gentile children is also popular today in the Arab world, and have been published across the Arab world, appearing regularly in state sponsored newspapers, radio and TV , and reiterated by among others Arafat, Syrian Defence Minister Mustafa Tlall in his 1984 book entitled "The Matzah of Zion" and programmes and movies have appeared on Egyptian, Syrian and Palestinian TV disseminating this calumny.
Meanwhile Holocaust denial is rife across the Arab and Islamic world. In December 2005 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared his determination to "wipe Israel off the map", while stating that 'We do not accept the claim that "Hitler killed millions of Jews in furnaces"...This according to Ahamdinejad is a "fairytale" and legend" to protect Israel,. In these statements he was given full support by the political leader of the terrorist organization, Hamas, Khaled Meshaal.
In December 2005 Ahmadinejad hosted a Holocaust denial conference attended by Holocaust deniers and Jew-haters from across the world, including Neo-Nazis and radical pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel activists.
'For Ahmadinejad and his cohorts, the mufti's infamous call to genocide, "Kill the Jews...this pleases God, history and religion- has remained an inescapably relevant and enduring message that they were dedicated to transmitting to a new generation'.
In creating Hamas, Palestinian arch-terrorist Achmed Yassin, a devoted admirer of Al-Husseini, espoused the concept of the Holy Land becoming the central battlefield between Islamic jihad and the West, and a war of bloodshed to violently destroy Israel and exterminate her Jews, building in it's place a purely Arab "Palestine".
The author concludes that "From the mufti's All-Palestine government to the Hamas government in Gaza of today, it is clear that the aims and goals of radical Islam have remained consistent throughout the years".
Merged review:
This fascinating and revealing book outlines the life and career of the malignant Mufti Haj Amin Al Husseini, a close collaborator of Hitler and a violent hater of Jews and Zionism.
It explores explores his legacy of hate and terror that permeates the Islamic jihad and venomous and bottomless against Jews and Israel up to and including today.
The extent of the Mufti's role in genocide against Jews and his collaboration with Nazi Germany has been deliberately concealed and it is works like these that help to bring it to light. Amin Al Husseini was born in 1895 and learned his hatred of Jews at an Islamic school in Cairo.
He read the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as a young man.
Al-Husseini took the lead in raising the banner of jihad against the Jews and organized the April 1920 pogrom against the Jews in Jerusalem.Posters were displayed across Jerusalem with the slogan : "Kill the Jews, there is no punishment for killing Jews". What more proof is needed that the very roots of the Palestinian movement against a Jewish home in Israel is pure anti-Semitism?
Jews were attacked and killed in Jerusalem, and Jewish women raped.
This was known among the Arabs as the First Intifada and can effectively be reagarded the date of the beginning of the Arab jihad against the Jews of Israel, rather than the War of Independence 28 years later.
The 1929 bloody pogroms in Jerusalem, Safed and Hebron were also a result of the Mufti's perfidious propaganda.
The so-called Arab Revolt or Third Intifada resulted in attacks on and burning of Jewish homes and farms, and the killing of hundreds of Jewish men, women and children.
In 1941 the Mufti aided in a Nazi-backed plot to overthrow the British government in Iraq. When the plot failed he fled to Iran and then to Nazi Germany where he formed a close friendship with Adolph Hitler and attended Nazi rallies as an honored guest.
.
At his meeting with Hitler, the mufti pledged the allegiance of the Arabs to and cooperation with Nazi Germany, and Hitler promised to help the Palestinian Arabs to liquidate the Jews of Palestine once he had won the war in Europe and dealt with the Jews there.
Amin-al Husseini personally visited Nazi death camps including Auschwitz and he urged the Nazis to speed up their Final Solution. In 1943 Husseini personally influenced Reich Foreign Minister Ribbentrop to prevent four thousand Jewish children being sent to Israel, instead diverting them to Hitler's death camps where they perished.
Heinrich Himmler was the Nazi leader who the Mufti most closely worked with and together they planned the extermination of Palestinian Jewry once Axis forces had captured the Middle East.
After the war the Mufti escaped to France and then Egypt.
It was the Mufti who led `Palestinian' Arab forces against the fledgling Jewish state, and who mentored and taught his nephew, later to be PLO leader Yasser Arafat, for who Al Husseini was a much admired and beloved figure.
Due to Al Hussein's unceasing efforts the Protocols of the Elders of Zion would be published in Arabic many times and .enjoy best-selling status across the Islamic world. The Protocols now has more Arabic editions and translations than in any other country.
As the author brings to light 'Hamas which evolved from the Muslim Brotherhood and which the mufti had promoted enthusiastically since it's inception, invokes the protocols in Article 32 of it's charter, stating that the ongoing conspiratorial conduct of world Zionism, Israel and the Jewish people "is the best proof of what is said (in the
Protocols), Spokesmen of the government of Iran, from the era of Ayatollah Khomeini to the present have embraced the protocols.most recently it was made available in English at the Iranian exhibition booth at the 2005 Frankfurt book fair.'
Not far behind in popularity in the Islamic world is Hitler's Mein Kamf. After the Six Day War, Israeli soldiers discovered that thousands of Egyptian prisoners had small paperback copies of Mein Kampf , translated into Arabic by the Arab information center in Cairo.
Meim Kampf was published in Arafat's Palestinian Authority in 2001 and achieved best seller status throughout the Arab world. Meanwhile Schindler's List which depicts the suffering of the Jews during the Holocaust is banned in most Arab countries.
The blood libel accusing Jews of using the blood of gentile children is also popular today in the Arab world, and have been published across the Arab world, appearing regularly in state sponsored newspapers, radio and TV , and reiterated by among others Arafat, Syrian Defence Minister Mustafa Tlall in his 1984 book entitled "The Matzah of Zion" and programmes and movies have appeared on Egyptian, Syrian and Palestinian TV disseminating this calumny.
Meanwhile Holocaust denial is rife across the Arab and Islamic world. In December 2005 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared his determination to "wipe Israel off the map", while stating that 'We do not accept the claim that "Hitler killed millions of Jews in furnaces"...This according to Ahmadinejad is a "fairytale" and legend" to protect Israel,. In these statements he was given full support by the political leader of the terrorist organization, Hamas, Khaled Meshaal.
In December 2005 Ahmadinejad hosted a Holocaust denial conference attended by Holocaust deniers and Jew-haters from across the world, including Neo-Nazis and radical pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel activists.
'For Ahmadinejad and his cohorts, the mufti's infamous call to genocide, "Kill the Jews...this pleases God, history and religion- has remained an inescapably relevant and enduring message that they were dedicated to transmitting to a new generation'.
In creating Hamas, Palestinian arch-terrorist Achmed Yassin, a devoted admirer of Al-Husseini, espoused the concept of the Holy Land becoming the central battlefield between Islamic jihad and the West, and a war of bloodshed to violently destroy Israel and exterminate her Jews, building in it's place a purely Arab "Palestine".
The author concludes that "From the mufti's All-Palestine government to the Hamas government in Gaza of today, it is clear that the aims and goals of radical Islam have remained consistent throughout the years".
It explores explores his legacy of hate and terror that permeates the Islamic jihad and venomous and bottomless against Jews and Israel up to and including today.
The extent of the Mufti's role in genocide against Jews and his collaboration with Nazi Germany has been deliberately concealed and it is works like these that help to bring it to light. Amin Al Husseini was born in 1895 and learned his hatred of Jews at an Islamic school in Cairo.
He read the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as a young man.
Al-Husseini took the lead in raising the banner of jihad against the Jews and organized the April 1920 pogrom against the Jews in Jerusalem.Posters were displayed across Jerusalem with the slogan : "Kill the Jews, there is no punishment for killing Jews". What more proof is needed that the very roots of the Palestinian movement against a Jewish home in Israel is pure anti-Semitism?
Jews were attacked and killed in Jerusalem, and Jewish women raped.
This was known among the Arabs as the First Intifada and can effectively be reagarded the date of the beginning of the Arab jihad against the Jews of Israel, rather than the War of Independence 28 years later.
The 1929 bloody pogroms in Jerusalem, Safed and Hebron were also a result of the Mufti's perfidious propaganda.
The so-called Arab Revolt or Third Intifada resulted in attacks on and burning of Jewish homes and farms, and the killing of hundreds of Jewish men, women and children.
In 1941 the Mufti aided in a Nazi-backed plot to overthrow the British government in Iraq. When the plot failed he fled to Iran and then to Nazi Germany where he formed a close friendship with Adolph Hitler and attended Nazi rallies as an honored guest.
.
At his meeting with Hitler, the mufti pledged the allegiance of the Arabs to and cooperation with Nazi Germany, and Hitler promised to help the Palestinian Arabs to liquidate the Jews of Palestine once he had won the war in Europe and dealt with the Jews there.
Amin-al Husseini personally visited Nazi death camps including Auschwitz and he urged the Nazis to speed up their Final Solution. In 1943 Husseini personally influenced Reich Foreign Minister Ribbentrop to prevent four thousand Jewish children being sent to Israel, instead diverting them to Hitler's death camps where they perished.
Heinrich Himmler was the Nazi leader who the Mufti most closely worked with and together they planned the extermination of Palestinian Jewry once Axis forces had captured the Middle East.
After the war the Mufti escaped to France and then Egypt.
It was the Mufti who led `Palestinian' Arab forces against the fledgling Jewish state, and who mentored and taught his nephew, later to be PLO leader Yasser Arafat, for who Al Husseini was a much admired and beloved figure.
Due to Al Hussein's unceasing efforts the Protocols of the Elders of Zion would be published in Arabic many times and .enjoy best-selling status across the Islamic world.
As the author brings to light 'Hamas which evolved from the Muslim Brotherhood and which the mufti had promoted enthusiastically since it's inception, invokes the protocols in Article 32 of it's charter, stating that the ongoing conspiratorial conduct of world Zionism, Israel and the Jewish people "is the best proof of what is said (in the
Protocols), Spokesmen of the government of Iran, from the era of Ayatollah Khomeini to the present have embraced the protocols.most recently it was made available in English at the Iranian exhibition booth at the 2005 Frankfurt book fair.'
Not far behind in popularity in the Islamic world is Hitler's Mein Kamf. After the Six Day War, Israeli soldiers discovered that thousands of Egyptian prisoners had small paperback copies of Mein Kampf , translated into Arabic by the Arab information center in Cairo.
Meim Kampf was published in Arafat's Palestinian Authority in 2001 and achieved best seller status throughout the Arab world. Meanwhile Schindler's List which depicts the suffering of the Jews during the Holocaust is banned in most Arab countries.
The blood libel accusing Jews of using the blood of gentile children is also popular today in the Arab world, and have been published across the Arab world, appearing regularly in state sponsored newspapers, radio and TV , and reiterated by among others Arafat, Syrian Defence Minister Mustafa Tlall in his 1984 book entitled "The Matzah of Zion" and programmes and movies have appeared on Egyptian, Syrian and Palestinian TV disseminating this calumny.
Meanwhile Holocaust denial is rife across the Arab and Islamic world. In December 2005 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared his determination to "wipe Israel off the map", while stating that 'We do not accept the claim that "Hitler killed millions of Jews in furnaces"...This according to Ahamdinejad is a "fairytale" and legend" to protect Israel,. In these statements he was given full support by the political leader of the terrorist organization, Hamas, Khaled Meshaal.
In December 2005 Ahmadinejad hosted a Holocaust denial conference attended by Holocaust deniers and Jew-haters from across the world, including Neo-Nazis and radical pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel activists.
'For Ahmadinejad and his cohorts, the mufti's infamous call to genocide, "Kill the Jews...this pleases God, history and religion- has remained an inescapably relevant and enduring message that they were dedicated to transmitting to a new generation'.
In creating Hamas, Palestinian arch-terrorist Achmed Yassin, a devoted admirer of Al-Husseini, espoused the concept of the Holy Land becoming the central battlefield between Islamic jihad and the West, and a war of bloodshed to violently destroy Israel and exterminate her Jews, building in it's place a purely Arab "Palestine".
The author concludes that "From the mufti's All-Palestine government to the Hamas government in Gaza of today, it is clear that the aims and goals of radical Islam have remained consistent throughout the years".
Merged review:
This fascinating and revealing book outlines the life and career of the malignant Mufti Haj Amin Al Husseini, a close collaborator of Hitler and a violent hater of Jews and Zionism.
It explores explores his legacy of hate and terror that permeates the Islamic jihad and venomous and bottomless against Jews and Israel up to and including today.
The extent of the Mufti's role in genocide against Jews and his collaboration with Nazi Germany has been deliberately concealed and it is works like these that help to bring it to light. Amin Al Husseini was born in 1895 and learned his hatred of Jews at an Islamic school in Cairo.
He read the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as a young man.
Al-Husseini took the lead in raising the banner of jihad against the Jews and organized the April 1920 pogrom against the Jews in Jerusalem.Posters were displayed across Jerusalem with the slogan : "Kill the Jews, there is no punishment for killing Jews". What more proof is needed that the very roots of the Palestinian movement against a Jewish home in Israel is pure anti-Semitism?
Jews were attacked and killed in Jerusalem, and Jewish women raped.
This was known among the Arabs as the First Intifada and can effectively be reagarded the date of the beginning of the Arab jihad against the Jews of Israel, rather than the War of Independence 28 years later.
The 1929 bloody pogroms in Jerusalem, Safed and Hebron were also a result of the Mufti's perfidious propaganda.
The so-called Arab Revolt or Third Intifada resulted in attacks on and burning of Jewish homes and farms, and the killing of hundreds of Jewish men, women and children.
In 1941 the Mufti aided in a Nazi-backed plot to overthrow the British government in Iraq. When the plot failed he fled to Iran and then to Nazi Germany where he formed a close friendship with Adolph Hitler and attended Nazi rallies as an honored guest.
.
At his meeting with Hitler, the mufti pledged the allegiance of the Arabs to and cooperation with Nazi Germany, and Hitler promised to help the Palestinian Arabs to liquidate the Jews of Palestine once he had won the war in Europe and dealt with the Jews there.
Amin-al Husseini personally visited Nazi death camps including Auschwitz and he urged the Nazis to speed up their Final Solution. In 1943 Husseini personally influenced Reich Foreign Minister Ribbentrop to prevent four thousand Jewish children being sent to Israel, instead diverting them to Hitler's death camps where they perished.
Heinrich Himmler was the Nazi leader who the Mufti most closely worked with and together they planned the extermination of Palestinian Jewry once Axis forces had captured the Middle East.
After the war the Mufti escaped to France and then Egypt.
It was the Mufti who led `Palestinian' Arab forces against the fledgling Jewish state, and who mentored and taught his nephew, later to be PLO leader Yasser Arafat, for who Al Husseini was a much admired and beloved figure.
Due to Al Hussein's unceasing efforts the Protocols of the Elders of Zion would be published in Arabic many times and .enjoy best-selling status across the Islamic world. The Protocols now has more Arabic editions and translations than in any other country.
As the author brings to light 'Hamas which evolved from the Muslim Brotherhood and which the mufti had promoted enthusiastically since it's inception, invokes the protocols in Article 32 of it's charter, stating that the ongoing conspiratorial conduct of world Zionism, Israel and the Jewish people "is the best proof of what is said (in the
Protocols), Spokesmen of the government of Iran, from the era of Ayatollah Khomeini to the present have embraced the protocols.most recently it was made available in English at the Iranian exhibition booth at the 2005 Frankfurt book fair.'
Not far behind in popularity in the Islamic world is Hitler's Mein Kamf. After the Six Day War, Israeli soldiers discovered that thousands of Egyptian prisoners had small paperback copies of Mein Kampf , translated into Arabic by the Arab information center in Cairo.
Meim Kampf was published in Arafat's Palestinian Authority in 2001 and achieved best seller status throughout the Arab world. Meanwhile Schindler's List which depicts the suffering of the Jews during the Holocaust is banned in most Arab countries.
The blood libel accusing Jews of using the blood of gentile children is also popular today in the Arab world, and have been published across the Arab world, appearing regularly in state sponsored newspapers, radio and TV , and reiterated by among others Arafat, Syrian Defence Minister Mustafa Tlall in his 1984 book entitled "The Matzah of Zion" and programmes and movies have appeared on Egyptian, Syrian and Palestinian TV disseminating this calumny.
Meanwhile Holocaust denial is rife across the Arab and Islamic world. In December 2005 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared his determination to "wipe Israel off the map", while stating that 'We do not accept the claim that "Hitler killed millions of Jews in furnaces"...This according to Ahmadinejad is a "fairytale" and legend" to protect Israel,. In these statements he was given full support by the political leader of the terrorist organization, Hamas, Khaled Meshaal.
In December 2005 Ahmadinejad hosted a Holocaust denial conference attended by Holocaust deniers and Jew-haters from across the world, including Neo-Nazis and radical pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel activists.
'For Ahmadinejad and his cohorts, the mufti's infamous call to genocide, "Kill the Jews...this pleases God, history and religion- has remained an inescapably relevant and enduring message that they were dedicated to transmitting to a new generation'.
In creating Hamas, Palestinian arch-terrorist Achmed Yassin, a devoted admirer of Al-Husseini, espoused the concept of the Holy Land becoming the central battlefield between Islamic jihad and the West, and a war of bloodshed to violently destroy Israel and exterminate her Jews, building in it's place a purely Arab "Palestine".
The author concludes that "From the mufti's All-Palestine government to the Hamas government in Gaza of today, it is clear that the aims and goals of radical Islam have remained consistent throughout the years".
Read
June 4, 2016I can't say I "want to read" this book, more I think I should read it. I have long thought that the reason for the conflict in the Middle East was not really about land but about the religion of those that live on it. After all when the British Mandate ended and Palestine was partitioned, Transjordania, now Jordan, got 70% of it and I don't hear Muslims and Palestinian supporters around the world even whispering softly for the return of it to the Palestinians. This book apparently boosts this from idea to reality.
I am also interested in the rise of violent, politicised Islam. The Muslims I grew up with and went to school with, mostly Pakistanis, were quite a lot like Jews - they didn't demand that society change for them and kept their culture to their private lives. This is how the UK has always functioned until recently - new groups of people were assimilated in at least the public arena. A lot of the corner shops in every neighbourhood were Pakistani as were the 'Indian' restaurants so they were very much part of the community. Things are not the same now.
At the root of the new intolerant, non-assimilationist, fundamentalist Islam I had always thought was Saudi Arabia. The synchronicity of belief and punishment between them and ISIS is close. They bankroll terrorists and training camps and around 70% of their population have no human rights at all.
70%? Half the country are women and the other 20% are workers, mostly from third world countries. Only male Saudi Arabians seem to have total freedom. Unless of course they are gay or transgender.
I did know about the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and his close alliance with Hitler. I knew that he was Yasser Arafat's mentor and that he is a hero to the Palestinians, although I don't know what other Muslims think of him. But I had not made any connection between him and radical Islam. So I think I should read this book.
I am also interested in the rise of violent, politicised Islam. The Muslims I grew up with and went to school with, mostly Pakistanis, were quite a lot like Jews - they didn't demand that society change for them and kept their culture to their private lives. This is how the UK has always functioned until recently - new groups of people were assimilated in at least the public arena. A lot of the corner shops in every neighbourhood were Pakistani as were the 'Indian' restaurants so they were very much part of the community. Things are not the same now.
At the root of the new intolerant, non-assimilationist, fundamentalist Islam I had always thought was Saudi Arabia. The synchronicity of belief and punishment between them and ISIS is close. They bankroll terrorists and training camps and around 70% of their population have no human rights at all.
70%? Half the country are women and the other 20% are workers, mostly from third world countries. Only male Saudi Arabians seem to have total freedom. Unless of course they are gay or transgender.
I did know about the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and his close alliance with Hitler. I knew that he was Yasser Arafat's mentor and that he is a hero to the Palestinians, although I don't know what other Muslims think of him. But I had not made any connection between him and radical Islam. So I think I should read this book.
May 1, 2017
This has to be the most frightening and disheartening book I've read in a long time. Frightening because it spells out, in chilling detail, what would have happened if the British had lost at El Alamein, and the mufti had been able to assist Hitler in murdering the Jews living in the Middle East. And there is no doubt whatsoever that this would have been done. A journalist quoted in the book, Edgar Ansel Mower, rates the mufti as one of the greatest killers in history, and equal to Hitler in the evil of his intentions.
He had a luxury dwelling in Berlin, paid for by the Reich, the better to encourage and exhort his pal, Hitler to murder Jews wherever he could find them. He went to Bosnia to encourage Muslims there to enlist in the Nazi army and help in this evil plot. They complied and murdered over ten thousand Jews there.
Mufti Hal Amin al-Husseini was a skilled orator, and used that gift to rally Muslims across the Middle east against the west and against Jews in particular. The west was armed, powerful and, except for the British, carrying out their mandate, lived far away. The Jew were equipped with only a rag-tag army at best, were numerically weak, and lived in their midst. As a result of the mufti`s efforts, pogroms ravaged the Jewish population, again and again.
The mufti died a free man due to western fear of Muslim reprisals. His actions fully merited arrest and trial for crimes against peace, crimes during war and inciting murder. His beliefs live on, a legacy of corrosive hatred and absolute intolerance. Largely because of his followers, peace in the Middle East is a fantasy.
He had a luxury dwelling in Berlin, paid for by the Reich, the better to encourage and exhort his pal, Hitler to murder Jews wherever he could find them. He went to Bosnia to encourage Muslims there to enlist in the Nazi army and help in this evil plot. They complied and murdered over ten thousand Jews there.
Mufti Hal Amin al-Husseini was a skilled orator, and used that gift to rally Muslims across the Middle east against the west and against Jews in particular. The west was armed, powerful and, except for the British, carrying out their mandate, lived far away. The Jew were equipped with only a rag-tag army at best, were numerically weak, and lived in their midst. As a result of the mufti`s efforts, pogroms ravaged the Jewish population, again and again.
The mufti died a free man due to western fear of Muslim reprisals. His actions fully merited arrest and trial for crimes against peace, crimes during war and inciting murder. His beliefs live on, a legacy of corrosive hatred and absolute intolerance. Largely because of his followers, peace in the Middle East is a fantasy.
January 11, 2012
The authors make a case for the connection between the Nazis and radical Islam in this interesting book. I found it especially interesting in comparison to arguments made in The Lemon Tree: A Muslim, A Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East. Both books make it painfully clear that the issues between Israel and the Arab nations will not be easily resolved. My only complaint about Icon of Evil is that I wish there had been more information. For instance, Anwar Sadat is mentioned several times as being a follower of the Mufti and a believer in radical Islam, and yet Sadat signed the peace treaty with Israel for which he was later assassinated. It would be interesting to know what caused Sadat's change of heart on the issue of Israel, what made him more pragmatic? I guess that's for a different book and I'll have to look into that. There are other examples like this where I wish the authors had expounded a little bit. Overall, an interesting read. Very informative.
March 9, 2009
I read this book in a week for a fellowship program I'm a part of (Write on For Israel). The book was extremely well-researched and gave a historically accurate and extremely interesting account of the grand mufti of Jerusalem, who collaborated with Hitler to exterminate the Bosnia Jews.
Even though the book speaks primarily about a mufti who was at his height in the 1940s, the book is not dated. The later portion of the book is dedicated to explain the birth and growth of radical Islam, through the lens of the mufti's influence on modern-day radicals like Hamas, the Iranian president, and the PLO. The connections between the rhetoric of the mufti Al-Husseini and today's radicals is fascinating!
I heard one of the authors, Mr.John Rothmann, speak today. I highly recommend listening to his KGO radio broadcast.
-DJ
Even though the book speaks primarily about a mufti who was at his height in the 1940s, the book is not dated. The later portion of the book is dedicated to explain the birth and growth of radical Islam, through the lens of the mufti's influence on modern-day radicals like Hamas, the Iranian president, and the PLO. The connections between the rhetoric of the mufti Al-Husseini and today's radicals is fascinating!
I heard one of the authors, Mr.John Rothmann, speak today. I highly recommend listening to his KGO radio broadcast.
-DJ
February 22, 2009
Spurred on my the author who I listen to on the radio, I bought this book and found it very interesting.
This book brings to light what I'd have to think NOBODY knew. The muslem who all muslems looked up to in the 30's thru the 50's. This man hated jews so strongly that he ended up being best friends with Adolph Hitler and his ilk, and ended up having thousands of people killed in his quest to rid the world of the jewish race.
Well written , with a ton of research most people never knew. John Rothman was the coauthor of this book with david dalin. Rothman worked with richard nixon but has since changed his political party. He can be heard from 1a.m. to 4 a.m. saturday and sunday mornings.
This book brings to light what I'd have to think NOBODY knew. The muslem who all muslems looked up to in the 30's thru the 50's. This man hated jews so strongly that he ended up being best friends with Adolph Hitler and his ilk, and ended up having thousands of people killed in his quest to rid the world of the jewish race.
Well written , with a ton of research most people never knew. John Rothman was the coauthor of this book with david dalin. Rothman worked with richard nixon but has since changed his political party. He can be heard from 1a.m. to 4 a.m. saturday and sunday mornings.
October 29, 2012
an eye opener about the depth of muslim support for Hitler. next time a muslim complains that the Jews do not belong in Eretz Yisroel and that the arabs should not have to suffer because of what Hitler did, of which they had no part, i will invite them to read this book. Haj Amin al-Husseini, whom Hitler made an honourary Aryan, was not only supporting and working with Hitler in Europe, but was planning with him a campaign to bring the Final Solution to the Middle East and wipe out all the Jews there as well. the jihadist Muslims were totally complicit in carrying out the Final Solution and continue to work toward that goal today.
April 9, 2021
This book documents events in the life of Amin Al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and shows his extreme anti-Semitism as a follower of Islam. 143 pages of text plus Appendix which includes correspondence, Notes, Bibliography, Index, and Chronology of Mufti's life (b. 1895, d. 1975). 8 pages of black and white photographs. Too much detail for the general reader. Somewhat tedious.
May 6, 2013
OK book concerning this mufti/cleric who was powerful in the pre-WWII run-up. He was highly anti-Israel and anti-British. He allied with Germany and went to live in exile in Germany during WWII. The book states the he great influence on the German "final solution" for the Jews. He somehow escaped post war prosecution and regained leadership in the Islamic world. Arafat was a protegee of his. I was especially interested in the roots of radical Islam and this book gave me at least a starting point in that understanding.
January 8, 2016
Excellent story that ties today's Islamic Radicals back to some of the Arab personalities of WW2 and their support for Hitler's "final solution" to the "Jewish Problem".. Great read about a part of history many don't know about.
Listened to the unabridged audiobook on Audible.com.
Listened to the unabridged audiobook on Audible.com.
August 6, 2018
Good Message - Deserved Better Execution
Icon: someone or something regarded as embodying the essential characteristics of an era or group.
The book's thesis is that Haj Amin al-Husseini both led and became representative of Palestinian Nationalism, both in his time and thereafter. It's a brief read with a core text of 148 pages followed by a selection of the Mufti's writings, footnotes and a bibliography.
The basic facts of the book are sound, but there are a number of ways it could have been better. One problem was the interjection comments on what individuals supposedly thought - impossible to know and I felt it detracted from the case the authors were trying to build. One should watch for those moments and put them aside as editorials. I object less to Chapter 4 "The Mufti's Reflection" which speculated as to what might have happened had the Nazis opted to conquer the Middle East instead of breaking the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Russia. Here the authors are trying to describe the elements that were already in place for a final solution to the "Jewish Problem in Palestine". There were plans for a death camp to be built in the vicinity of Ramallah. The Mufti was shown to be an advocate for genocide and had positioned himself to be put in charge of Palestine in a Vichy style government. There was genuine concern that Rommel would continue his routs and push the British out and there was widespread support by the Arab peoples for a German victory.
On pp42 the following single line quote stood out: "The greatest contemporary Arab here - is probably Adolph Hitler". (Inside Asia: pp528, by John Gunther.) Shocking enough, but the authors should have drawn further on this source. I have the book, its part of a larger series covering Gunther's travels and knowledgeable first hand insights throughout his contemporary world of the 1930s. Gunther expands more fully that Haj Amin had a triple income, about $300,000 per year from Islamic religious foundations and land grants, a salary from the government as head of the Supreme Muslim Council, and a third job as head of the supervisory board of the Muslim religious courts. As such he could direct public funding and was also able to nominate judges throughout the countryside, and important source of patronage.
Another area where I think the book misses out is in covering terrorist acts the Mufti and his clan conducted against Arabs in Palestine. For example, Inside Asia points out that after a letter of opposition to the Mufti's revolt and attacks against fellow Arabs, 5-6 members of the rival Nashashibi clan were either attacked or murdered. Hillel Cohen's Army of Shadows: Palestinian Collaboration with Zionism, 1917–1948 tells us more about these attacks, and discusses the assassination of Fakhri Nashashibi on November 9, 1941 in Baghdad by agents of the Mufti, including clan member Abd al-Qadr al-Husseini
Another al-Husseini who acted as the Mufti's agent was Jamal al-Husseini. Chair of the Mufti's political party, Hizb al Arabi (lit: Party of the Arabs) he also later represented the Mufti's Arab Higher Committee at the UN where he said:
"It must be remembered that there are as many Jews in the Arab world as there are in Palestine whose positions... will become very precarious. Governments in general have always been unable to prevent mob excitement and violence"
In other words, the Husseini policy was that Jews in Arab countries were being held hostage against the actions of Zionism. Jews in Muslim countries were widely attacked, and in the ensuing years had many of their rights and properties taken from them and most were subsequently forced to flee. Even in the Arab section of Iran many Jews were attacked by Arabs - the Shah offered protection either by helping them move to Tehran, or emigrate to Israel. After the fall of the Shah much of that protection and confidence disappeared. (Source: In Ishmael's House: A History of Jews in Muslim Lands)
In summary, yes I can recommend this book, because it adequately summarizes what became the defining elements of a Palestinian Nationalism that was fatally flawed by defining itself as a movement against the other. The Mufti himself was venal, xenophobic, and self interested. He used both terror and intimidation to suppress those who were more open to accepting and living with Jews. The books makes a correct link between the historical policies and attitude of the Mufti to modern mainstream Palestinian politics in the person of Arafat (another al-Husseini clan member), Fatah and Hamas, fanning the flames of a modern Judeophobia in the Muslim world. Had the Mufti not been so influential and more moderate Arabs had a voice there might have been a different outcome than a war in 1948, but that alas is the road not yet traveled as of this writing.
Icon: someone or something regarded as embodying the essential characteristics of an era or group.
The book's thesis is that Haj Amin al-Husseini both led and became representative of Palestinian Nationalism, both in his time and thereafter. It's a brief read with a core text of 148 pages followed by a selection of the Mufti's writings, footnotes and a bibliography.
The basic facts of the book are sound, but there are a number of ways it could have been better. One problem was the interjection comments on what individuals supposedly thought - impossible to know and I felt it detracted from the case the authors were trying to build. One should watch for those moments and put them aside as editorials. I object less to Chapter 4 "The Mufti's Reflection" which speculated as to what might have happened had the Nazis opted to conquer the Middle East instead of breaking the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Russia. Here the authors are trying to describe the elements that were already in place for a final solution to the "Jewish Problem in Palestine". There were plans for a death camp to be built in the vicinity of Ramallah. The Mufti was shown to be an advocate for genocide and had positioned himself to be put in charge of Palestine in a Vichy style government. There was genuine concern that Rommel would continue his routs and push the British out and there was widespread support by the Arab peoples for a German victory.
On pp42 the following single line quote stood out: "The greatest contemporary Arab here - is probably Adolph Hitler". (Inside Asia: pp528, by John Gunther.) Shocking enough, but the authors should have drawn further on this source. I have the book, its part of a larger series covering Gunther's travels and knowledgeable first hand insights throughout his contemporary world of the 1930s. Gunther expands more fully that Haj Amin had a triple income, about $300,000 per year from Islamic religious foundations and land grants, a salary from the government as head of the Supreme Muslim Council, and a third job as head of the supervisory board of the Muslim religious courts. As such he could direct public funding and was also able to nominate judges throughout the countryside, and important source of patronage.
Another area where I think the book misses out is in covering terrorist acts the Mufti and his clan conducted against Arabs in Palestine. For example, Inside Asia points out that after a letter of opposition to the Mufti's revolt and attacks against fellow Arabs, 5-6 members of the rival Nashashibi clan were either attacked or murdered. Hillel Cohen's Army of Shadows: Palestinian Collaboration with Zionism, 1917–1948 tells us more about these attacks, and discusses the assassination of Fakhri Nashashibi on November 9, 1941 in Baghdad by agents of the Mufti, including clan member Abd al-Qadr al-Husseini
Another al-Husseini who acted as the Mufti's agent was Jamal al-Husseini. Chair of the Mufti's political party, Hizb al Arabi (lit: Party of the Arabs) he also later represented the Mufti's Arab Higher Committee at the UN where he said:
"It must be remembered that there are as many Jews in the Arab world as there are in Palestine whose positions... will become very precarious. Governments in general have always been unable to prevent mob excitement and violence"
In other words, the Husseini policy was that Jews in Arab countries were being held hostage against the actions of Zionism. Jews in Muslim countries were widely attacked, and in the ensuing years had many of their rights and properties taken from them and most were subsequently forced to flee. Even in the Arab section of Iran many Jews were attacked by Arabs - the Shah offered protection either by helping them move to Tehran, or emigrate to Israel. After the fall of the Shah much of that protection and confidence disappeared. (Source: In Ishmael's House: A History of Jews in Muslim Lands)
In summary, yes I can recommend this book, because it adequately summarizes what became the defining elements of a Palestinian Nationalism that was fatally flawed by defining itself as a movement against the other. The Mufti himself was venal, xenophobic, and self interested. He used both terror and intimidation to suppress those who were more open to accepting and living with Jews. The books makes a correct link between the historical policies and attitude of the Mufti to modern mainstream Palestinian politics in the person of Arafat (another al-Husseini clan member), Fatah and Hamas, fanning the flames of a modern Judeophobia in the Muslim world. Had the Mufti not been so influential and more moderate Arabs had a voice there might have been a different outcome than a war in 1948, but that alas is the road not yet traveled as of this writing.
August 4, 2009
An essential read to discover why Palestine and the surrounding Arab countries are filled with an ever-growing and sustained hatred for the Jewish state of Israel.
April 19, 2010
I was not aware of the dark connection between radical muslims and the Nazi regime. This connection helps to explain the continued antisemitism to the present day.
Read
September 6, 2010Birds of a feather flock together.
March 14, 2021
Bring in the connection between the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and his relationship with Adolf Hitler. it also talks about direct results that the Grand Mufti had on the Middle East.
April 23, 2023
RICK “SHAQ” GOLDSTEIN SAYS: “HITLER’S RADICAL- ISLAMIC MURDEROUS MIDDLE-EASTERN SIDEKICK”
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Haj Amin al-Husseini was named the mufti of Jerusalem in 1921 and that was the beginning of a lifetime of murder, violence, and an outright loathing of all Jewish people anywhere on earth. Husseini’s idol was none other than Adolph Hitler, and Husseini arranged a face to face meeting with the Fuhrer in Germany on November 28, 1941. Husseini offered to align the Arab countries with Hitler during World War II, because he told Hitler, they had the exact same enemies, in Britain, the western world, and of course the Jews. Husseini marveled at Hitler’s final solution of ridding Europe of all Jews… and wanted to implement the same plans in the Middle-East… including… he hoped… to open some concentration camps in the Middle-East. If the Nazi’s couldn’t get the concentration camps there fast enough, he begged the Nazi’s to at least bomb locations with Jewish civilians. “He hoped to lead a holy war of Islam in alliance with Germany, a jihad that would result in the extermination of the Jews.” “Our fundamental condition for cooperating with Germany was a free hand to eradicate every last Jew from Palestine and the Arab world.” As the mufti of Jerusalem he put posters up all over the city stating: “KILL THE JEWS: THERE IS NO PUNISHMENT FOR KILLING JEWS.” He also had all his preachers “advise their flock that “he who kills a Jew is assured a place in the next world.”
The author’s take the reader in a detailed AND TOTALLY DOCUMENTED historical trip, from Husseini’s birth in the late 1890’s, to his death in 1974 and beyond… all the way to the present. In addition to the horrific pogroms and Holocaust… what will shock the potential readers… is that all the hatred, murderous activities, and false propaganda, that the mufti created sixty to eighty years ago, is still the core of today’s anti-Semitism and terrorist mantra’s in the Middle-East. He is truly “THE FATHER OF RADICAL ISLAMIC anti-Semitism and political terrorism as we know it today.”
I think most readers will be amazed at all the “infamous” historical characters that Husseini influenced, ranging from a young Saddam Hussein, whose Uncle was a trusted friend and confidant, Mussolini, Nazi’s Heinrich Himmler and Adolph Eichmann, and of course Hitler. A young Yasser Arafat was a relative, and was taken under the mufti’s wing, and eventually became the leader of Fatah, and to his dying day… stated that Husseini was his idol. The reader will be presented with shocking details such as that, future international peace award winner Anwar Sadat, was a spy for the Nazi’s during World War II, and when Hitler died “Sadat published a letter in the Egyptian weekly “Al-Mussawar”, addressed posthumously to Hitler, in which he expressed sorrow over the defeat of the Third Reich, and haled Hitler as the “immortal” leader of Germany.”
There is intriguing informative records, that every level of Arab leadership, not only read the notorious czarist ”THE PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF ZION", a fraudulent anti-Semitic tract alleging a Jewish and Masonic plot to achieve world domination, (that has been proven to be a hoax of literary forgery written in 1903)… but they had it reprinted for all Arab’s to read… and in addition… it was actually handed out by King’s to their guests. “THE PROTOCOL’S” and “MEIN KAMPF” Hitler’s “viciously anti-Semitic autobiography”, are two of the top selling books in the Arab world to this day! Husseini was one of the first radical-Islamic’s, that said the Holocaust never happened… and that’s despite testimony at the Nuremberg trials by Nazi’s, that Husseini had visited the Auschwitz concentration camp, and “urged the guards in charge of the chambers to be more diligent and efficient in their efforts.” You will be dumfounded when you learn that from Husseini’s time, to current day, anti-Semites in the Middle-East hand out pamphlets and write books perpetuating “THE BLOOD LIBEL ACCUSATION”, routinely charging Jews with committing the ritual murder of Muslim and Christian children during the Passover holiday. The Jews are accused of using the children’s blood in the unleavened bread eaten at the Passover meal.” In fact during the 1950’s and 1960’s the regime of Egyptian president Nasser published and disseminated many works accusing Jews of this type of ritual murder. This is just a tip of the iceberg as to the educational and informative historical data provided by the author’s, and this book should be read by anyone, that wants to know about the growth of radical Islam from birth to modern day.
I feel an accurate summary of al-Husseini is provided by Edgar Ansel Mowrer, the Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent: “AS A MURDERER, THIS MAN RANKS WITH THE GREAT KILLERS OF HISTORY. AS AN ENEMY OF THE UNITED NATIONS, HE WAS SURPASSED ONLY BY HITLER. IN THE EVIL OF HIS INTENTIONS, AL-HUSSEINI EQUALED HITLER.”
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Haj Amin al-Husseini was named the mufti of Jerusalem in 1921 and that was the beginning of a lifetime of murder, violence, and an outright loathing of all Jewish people anywhere on earth. Husseini’s idol was none other than Adolph Hitler, and Husseini arranged a face to face meeting with the Fuhrer in Germany on November 28, 1941. Husseini offered to align the Arab countries with Hitler during World War II, because he told Hitler, they had the exact same enemies, in Britain, the western world, and of course the Jews. Husseini marveled at Hitler’s final solution of ridding Europe of all Jews… and wanted to implement the same plans in the Middle-East… including… he hoped… to open some concentration camps in the Middle-East. If the Nazi’s couldn’t get the concentration camps there fast enough, he begged the Nazi’s to at least bomb locations with Jewish civilians. “He hoped to lead a holy war of Islam in alliance with Germany, a jihad that would result in the extermination of the Jews.” “Our fundamental condition for cooperating with Germany was a free hand to eradicate every last Jew from Palestine and the Arab world.” As the mufti of Jerusalem he put posters up all over the city stating: “KILL THE JEWS: THERE IS NO PUNISHMENT FOR KILLING JEWS.” He also had all his preachers “advise their flock that “he who kills a Jew is assured a place in the next world.”
The author’s take the reader in a detailed AND TOTALLY DOCUMENTED historical trip, from Husseini’s birth in the late 1890’s, to his death in 1974 and beyond… all the way to the present. In addition to the horrific pogroms and Holocaust… what will shock the potential readers… is that all the hatred, murderous activities, and false propaganda, that the mufti created sixty to eighty years ago, is still the core of today’s anti-Semitism and terrorist mantra’s in the Middle-East. He is truly “THE FATHER OF RADICAL ISLAMIC anti-Semitism and political terrorism as we know it today.”
I think most readers will be amazed at all the “infamous” historical characters that Husseini influenced, ranging from a young Saddam Hussein, whose Uncle was a trusted friend and confidant, Mussolini, Nazi’s Heinrich Himmler and Adolph Eichmann, and of course Hitler. A young Yasser Arafat was a relative, and was taken under the mufti’s wing, and eventually became the leader of Fatah, and to his dying day… stated that Husseini was his idol. The reader will be presented with shocking details such as that, future international peace award winner Anwar Sadat, was a spy for the Nazi’s during World War II, and when Hitler died “Sadat published a letter in the Egyptian weekly “Al-Mussawar”, addressed posthumously to Hitler, in which he expressed sorrow over the defeat of the Third Reich, and haled Hitler as the “immortal” leader of Germany.”
There is intriguing informative records, that every level of Arab leadership, not only read the notorious czarist ”THE PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF ZION", a fraudulent anti-Semitic tract alleging a Jewish and Masonic plot to achieve world domination, (that has been proven to be a hoax of literary forgery written in 1903)… but they had it reprinted for all Arab’s to read… and in addition… it was actually handed out by King’s to their guests. “THE PROTOCOL’S” and “MEIN KAMPF” Hitler’s “viciously anti-Semitic autobiography”, are two of the top selling books in the Arab world to this day! Husseini was one of the first radical-Islamic’s, that said the Holocaust never happened… and that’s despite testimony at the Nuremberg trials by Nazi’s, that Husseini had visited the Auschwitz concentration camp, and “urged the guards in charge of the chambers to be more diligent and efficient in their efforts.” You will be dumfounded when you learn that from Husseini’s time, to current day, anti-Semites in the Middle-East hand out pamphlets and write books perpetuating “THE BLOOD LIBEL ACCUSATION”, routinely charging Jews with committing the ritual murder of Muslim and Christian children during the Passover holiday. The Jews are accused of using the children’s blood in the unleavened bread eaten at the Passover meal.” In fact during the 1950’s and 1960’s the regime of Egyptian president Nasser published and disseminated many works accusing Jews of this type of ritual murder. This is just a tip of the iceberg as to the educational and informative historical data provided by the author’s, and this book should be read by anyone, that wants to know about the growth of radical Islam from birth to modern day.
I feel an accurate summary of al-Husseini is provided by Edgar Ansel Mowrer, the Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent: “AS A MURDERER, THIS MAN RANKS WITH THE GREAT KILLERS OF HISTORY. AS AN ENEMY OF THE UNITED NATIONS, HE WAS SURPASSED ONLY BY HITLER. IN THE EVIL OF HIS INTENTIONS, AL-HUSSEINI EQUALED HITLER.”
April 9, 2019
In this book, Icon of Evil: Hitler's Mufti and the Rise of Radical Islam, author David G. Dalin provides a biographical look at one of the most vicious anti-semite Islamists of the Twentieth Century. Hajj Amin-al-Husseini was the political and spiritual leader of the Palestinian Arabs. He led numerous pogroms against Jewish settlersduring and after WWI as more of the Jews fled Europe and other areas where they were persecuted for areas in the Palestinian Territories. As WWII broke out and Jewish immigration increased, al-Husseini allied himself and his people with the Nazis and even met with Hitler and some of his top people to discuss and encourage the Nazis' Final Solution to kill all of the Jews. He lived in Nazi Germany during the war and spent time with Himmler and others discussing implementing the death camps in the Palistinian Territories to eliminate Jews in that region once the Nazis conquered Russia and England. After the war and the loss by the axis powers, al-Husseini escaped being tried for war crimes by fleeing to Egypt where he was warmly welcomed. There he became a mentor to the next generation of Islamo-fascist Arab leaders including Yasser Arafat. Because Islamist and Nazi philosophies were so in sync with each other, they made natural allies and partners in their goal to rid the world of Jews. Worthwhile read for anyone who is interested in WWII, the Holocaust, Arab-Israeli conflict, and the historical connection between Islamists and Fascists.
September 14, 2022
An odd duck of a book: partially it is a biography of Amin Al-husseni, his rise to becoming Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, his work during the 2nd World War, helping recruit Bosnian Muslims into a Waffen SS Division and Various propaganda activities of the 3rd Reich. His work in the post war world attempting to destroy Israel.
Partially it goes into alt-history (way more than one would suppose) even imagining Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter being captured in London during a Nazi takeover.
Thirdly it is a book on how the antisemitism pervasive throughout radical Islam still exists, blood libel, Protocols of Elders of Zion etc.
Partially it goes into alt-history (way more than one would suppose) even imagining Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter being captured in London during a Nazi takeover.
Thirdly it is a book on how the antisemitism pervasive throughout radical Islam still exists, blood libel, Protocols of Elders of Zion etc.
October 30, 2019
The publisher's blurb indicates that the book shows the connection between the fascism of the 20th century (through Hitler) to that of the 21st (in the Middle East). He does a credible job of showing the ties between the grand mufti and Adolf, but I would pose the totalitarian governments of whatever stripe are tied by their absolutist tendencies, and don't require exposing the web connection. An interesting story in its own right. One does end up wondering whether, had Nazi Germany prevailed, there would have remained room for a Arab Reich to coexist with that of Europe - likely not.
November 15, 2020
Describes the development of 20th century Islamic radicalism through one it's key proponents, Haj Amin al-Husseini. The book details how this development influenced world politics and islamic political thought.
August 17, 2018
Fascinating.
December 31, 2022
Best English language biography I could find on the Mufti. Worth the read as his impact is still felt and he is largely ignored by the west in relation to the history of WWII.
July 7, 2023
Extremely eye opening.
September 1, 2024
This book was written in 2008 and sadly is even more relevant today. An excellent history about the founders of radical terrorism.
December 5, 2023
This book included a fairly short biography of Haj al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, and his alliance with Adolf Hitler to kill off the Jews. The Mufti was behind a lot of terrible things that developed over the 20th Century including issuing Fatwas, urging Hitler on to the final solution for the Jews, mentoring Yasser Arafat, the future leader of the PLO, and the development of groups like Hamas. The Mufti was behind the assassination of the leaders of Jordan and Lebanon in the late 1940s who had been open to negotiating a peace treaty with the fledgling state of Israel. The book also showed how influential the discredited book, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, has been on anti-Semitics and Holocaust deniers.
October 1, 2008
I'm a John Rothmann fan, I admit it. So, despite the less than stellar reviews, I wanted to read this. It's fascinating, and scary. And it makes me sad because I doubt I will EVER understand the hatred that revolves around the Jews, and how it poisons the entire region...reading about how the British and French (and guess who) carved up Iraq decades ago, and it was all about petroleum.
Well, haven't we come a long way? NOT BLOODY LIKELY.So to rate this as "liked it" is a bit misleading...I admire the authors and I would like to learn more about this region...so if anyone has recommendations, I welcome them.
Well, haven't we come a long way? NOT BLOODY LIKELY.So to rate this as "liked it" is a bit misleading...I admire the authors and I would like to learn more about this region...so if anyone has recommendations, I welcome them.
June 4, 2011
This was an interesting book, but to say "I liked it" is a bit misleading. I did not know about (or remember?) the connection between Hitler and the Arab world during WWII. I wanted to read the book to better understand why it was decided to carve out a homeland for the Jewish people where they would be surrounded by their enemies, and I'm still not certain I understand the logic. In hindsight it seems to have continued and escalated the strife that has gone on for centuries.
June 25, 2024
I enjoyed it overall, the first half being about the mufti. The second half somewhat meandering into other topics and then a whole chapter about what IF the mufti had gotten what he wanted, which I was entirely put off by and just skipped. I didn't expect or want counterfactual history.
Still worth a read if you're really interested in the Israeli Palestinian conflict, but heavily biased in one direction, and somewhat of a slog, even for a short book.
Still worth a read if you're really interested in the Israeli Palestinian conflict, but heavily biased in one direction, and somewhat of a slog, even for a short book.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews