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| | With the loss of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the number of Muslims in Austria naturally fell, but the "Islamic Cultural Association" was founded during the First Republic. However, it was dissolved again after Austria's annexation to National Socialist Germany. The Islam law of 1912, however, remains in force. Instead of the "Islamic Cultural Association", the "Islamic Community of Vienna" was established as a registered association with the support of the NSDAP in 1943, which, however, dissolved again in 1948 as a result of internal differences of opinion in connection with the political attitudes of leading members during the Second World War.</font></blockquote></ref> | | With the loss of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the number of Muslims in Austria naturally fell, but the "Islamic Cultural Association" was founded during the First Republic. However, it was dissolved again after Austria's annexation to National Socialist Germany. The Islam law of 1912, however, remains in force. Instead of the "Islamic Cultural Association", the "Islamic Community of Vienna" was established as a registered association with the support of the NSDAP in 1943, which, however, dissolved again in 1948 as a result of internal differences of opinion in connection with the political attitudes of leading members during the Second World War.</font></blockquote></ref> |
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| | + | ==1937 Bloudan Conference== |
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| | + | The Sep 1937 Pan-Arab Bloudan Conference, attended by over 400 Arabs in Sep. 1937, was chaired by Naji al-Suwaidi, the former prime minister of Iraq, and vice-chaired by intellectual Shakib Arslan, former education minister Mohammed Alluba Pasha of Egypt and Ali Hurayki. Syria was the most represented in the conference with 115 delegates. Arab Palestine was represented by 97 delegates, Lebanon by 59 and led by Riad al-Solh, Transjordan by 29, Iraq by 9, Egypt by 2 and Tripolitania by 1. In a sign of further pan-Arab support for the conference, solidarity messages and telegrams were sent by Ahmad al-Sabah, the Emir of Kuwait and by Islamic-oriented groups from several Egyptian cities and towns, as well as from Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. |
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| | + | After the official conference in Bloudan, a largely secret meeting was held in Damascus by more activist delegates called the Conference of Nationalist Youth. The meeting called for stronger action to unite Arab youth and preparatory committee was established to organize a second, larger conference to be held in Europe. Participants included Yunus al-Sab'awi, Kazem al-Solh, Taqi al-Din Solh, Farid Zayn al-Din, Wasfi Kamal, Munir al-Rayyes, Uthman al-Hawrani, Farhan Shubaylat, [[Akram Zuaiter]] and Sabri al-Asali.<ref>Raghid, Sulh. [https://books.google.com/books/about/Lebanon_and_Arabism.html?id=_p8wswEACAAJ Lebanon and Arabism: National Identity and State Formation], I.B. Tauris, 2004. pp.67-6.</ref> |
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| | + | A venomous brochure, dubbed the <i>Arab Nein Kampf</i><ref name=ec-16feb2014/> was distributed at the Bludan conference, entitled "Islam and Jewry." It has been described as history's "first text that propagated sheer Jew-hatred in an Islamic context by mixing selected anti-Jewish episodes of Mohammed’s life with the so-called wickedness [sic] of Jews in the 20th century."<ref>"[http://www.matthiaskuentzel.de/contents/islamic-antisemitism-how-it-originated-and-spread Matthias Küntzel: Islamic Antisemitism: How It Originated and Spread]," July 3, 2018.<blockquote><font size=1> |
| | + | Islamic antisemitism did not develop spontaneously but was invented and used as a means to an end. This process began about 80 years ago in the context of Arab attempts to stop the Zionist immigration to Palestine which considerably increased in the 1930s. |
| | + | The first text that propagated sheer Jew-hatred in an Islamic context by mixing selected anti-Jewish episodes of Mohammed’s life with the so-called wickedness [sic] of Jews in the 20th century was a 31-page brochure in the Arabic language with the title Islam and Jewry, published on August 18, 1937 in Cairo. |
| | + | In September 1937, this pamphlet achieved significance through its distribution at the “National Arab Congress” in Bludan, a health resort in Syria, 30 miles (50 kilometres) northwest of Damascus... |
| | + | While historians have still to answer important questions about Islam and Jewry and Bludan, the political context which facilitated the emergence of Islamic antisemitism is quite clear.... |
| | + | The brochure itself culminates in the following call: “Do not tolerate the partition plan, for Palestine has been an Arab country for centuries and shall remain Arabic forever.”</font></blockquote></ref> [[Ahmad Shukeiri]] also helped spread his message <i>which he described as a European Crusade against Islam, and declared that the Arab people would rise and fight world Jewry...</i><ref>The Palestine Post, 12 September 1937. [https://www.nli.org.il/en/newspapers/pls/1937/09/12/01/article/37 Page 4].<blockquote><font size=1> |
| | + | Bludan Congress Against Partition |
| | + | Ahmed Shukeiri of Acre. |
| | + | The Mufti's Message Palestine Arabic have newspapers published the full text of the Mufti of Jerusalem's lengthy message to the Bludan Congress, in which he portrayed the danger to Arab countries of the Zionist-Jewish movement, which he described as a European Crusade against Islam, and declared that the Arab people would rise and fight world Jewry... |
| | + | Lebanese Attitude |
| | + | According to the Beirut correspondent of "Al Islamia," a rift has arisen between the Lebanese Premier and the Minister of Interior over the latter's desire, following a visit by Mouin el Maadi , the Mufti of Jerusalem's to envoy, to secure Lebanese Government support for the Palestine Arab question. |
| | + | L'Orient , of Beirut , regarded as the unofficial organ of the Lebanese Government , has indicated in a leading article that there can be no other attitude than that of friendly relations with the population of Palestine , no matter whether they were Arabs or Jews. Lebanon's best policy was one of complete neutrality , it was affirmed. |
| | + | "Nothing advantageous would have emerged from Lebanon's official participation in the Bludan Congress, and . on the other hand, Lebanon would have lost an important asset—the extensive summer traffic in its mountain resorts in which Jewish visitors have an important share." |
| | + | Friday's issue of "Ad Difa'a" was severely critical of the Lebanese authorities.</font></blockquote></ref> At that conference the Mufti was elected pan Arab president. The brochure has been translated into German in 1938,<ref name=maariv1may2016>[https://www.maariv.co.il/news/israel/Article-539989 A credible story...], M. Uziel, Maariv, May 1, 2016. |
| | + | <blockquote><font size=1> |
| | + | … "A 90-minute meeting with Hitler is not a trivial matter," says Oholy. "It promised that the only German interest in the Middle East would be the extermination of Jews. The Mufti wrote in his diary in Arabic that Hitler had told him that he was fighting Jews uncompromisingly and without respite. He added, 'I decided to find a solution to the Jewish problem in stages and without a break. I will direct the necessary and appropriate reading to all the peoples of Europe, and then to the countries outside Europe.' In other words, there is in fact justice in Netanyahu's claim, at least in that one of the first secret partners in the extermination plan was the Mufti. " |
| | + | ... the Mufti wrote on May 6, 1943 to the Bulgarian Foreign Minister, in a letter requesting that Jews be sent to rescue: "And there will be a good deed of gratitude to the Arab people." |
| | + | ... Canaan was not just a journalist. "A trusted professional and impartial historian in his pioneering research, he was personally a great authority on Nazi-Palestinian activity in Palestine, as he was in charge of the issue as a senior officer in the British police and was involved in the entire investigation."... |
| | + | Bureau 06, the police unit that prepared the evidence file for the Eichmann trial, found a very strong connection between the Mufti and Eichmann. " |
| | + | It is very easy to find evidence of Eichmann and the Mufti's connections. Bureau 06 found, for example, a record of the Mufti in his personal diary on a page dated November 9, 1944, "And the good (or the faithful) in the Arab friends Eichmann." This is not only a random proof of the connection between the Mufti and Eichmann, but of the Mufti's involvement in the final solution, and of the Mufti's scale of values, according to which the extermination of the Jewish people is an act of friendship for the Arab cause. |
| | + | Herf attaches importance to the fact that al-Husseini was a Nazi-style extremist Jew-hater even before he arrived in Berlin. In his article, he quotes a speech delivered by the Mufti in 1937, before the outbreak of World War II and the Holocaust. The speech was delivered in Syria and when I read it I was amazed to find that it had been translated into German by the Nazi leadership at the time, published in a Nazi - controlled press and that all Nazi leaders knew it as early as 1938. |
| | + | At the same conference in Syria, Husseini was elected by the 400 deputies as the honorary president of the pan-Arab organization. After World War II, Haj Amin was accepted as a hero in Egypt and Palestine. In 1946, Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, called Husseini "a hero who challenged the empire and Zionism with the help of Hitler and Germany. Germany and Hitler are no more, but Amin al-Husseini will continue the struggle." |
| | + | A similar attitude of admiration was shown by the Arab Supreme Council and the Palestinian People's Party, which elected him their leader in 1945. In 1948, Amin al-Husseini was the commander of the Palestinian forces during the War of Independence, whose goal was to occupy and destroy the Jewish community. |
| | + | Prof. Meir Litvak, who co-authored the book "Empathy for Denial, Arab Reactions to the Holocaust," explains that al-Husseini's status among Palestinians is not excited today. "Mainly because they see him as primarily responsible for their defeat in the War of Independence," explains Prof. Litvak. "Some see him as responsible for the failure of Palestinian society to build political infrastructure and institutions as the Zionist movement did. Most writers on his activities in Germany try to downplay his actions, trying to justify his move to Germany by the British leaving him no choice, which is not true. "The Arab, and no one wants to be identified with her, despite the attempt to downplay the significance of the Holocaust. The Palestinian encyclopedia, for example, skips the years during which the Mufti stayed in Germany with the value written about him." |
| | + | To a large extent, the PLO developed the lie of Zionist-Nazi cooperation in the extermination of the Jews, in order to counter the Mufti's real cooperation with the Nazis, Prof. Litvak claims. "Hamas and Islamic circles in Palestinian society, on the other hand, take a different approach," it praises the Mufti for his uncompromising stance in his struggle against Zionism, praising him for understanding the centrality of religion in the struggle against Zionism and the need to harness Islam for the war against the Jews. They have no problem with being in Nazi Germany. According to them, he did what was necessary to help the Palestinian cause. For them, the British and Americans were no better than the Germans. It would have been convenient for the Palestinians if the Germans had won the war...</font></blockquote></ref> It was also translated into Croatian during World War II and distributed to the Bosnian Muslim SS soldiers - the SS Division. The 13th mountain "Handschar".<ref name=ec-16feb2014>Edy Cohen, [https://www.news1.co.il/Archive/0024-D-90270-00.html The Arab Mein Kampf], News1, Feb 16, 2014. |
| | + | <blockquote><font size=1> |
| | + | "Islam and the Jews" - the Mufti's essay - The hatred [sic] of the Jews towards the [sic] Arabs and Islam is ancient, which has taken root in the souls of the Jews since the beginning of Muhammad, the blessing of Allah... in the call to Islam. |
| | + | Enmity between the two peoples |
| | + | Haj Amin al-Husseini: "Some people may also think that if the Palestinian problem is solved in a way that satisfies the Arabs, and the Jews leave the Arab lands, then there will be no more reason for hostility between the two peoples - the Islamic Arab and the Jew. This is a misconception." |
| | + | From 1937, a small Arabic booklet called "Islam and Judaism" began to appear in the Middle East, written by the Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini. As noted in "The Nazi Palestine," the pamphlet appeared without mentioning a company name. A year later, the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo published an identical pamphlet stating that it had been written by a cleric and a great sage from Palestine. The pamphlet was translated into German and Croatian during World War II and distributed to the Bosnian Muslim SS soldiers - the SS Division. The 13th mountain "Handschar". |
| | + | This is a clearly anti-Semitic racist booklet, full of anti-Jewish expressions - the Arab Maine-Kampf. Mufti Amin al-Husseini presents the Jews in this pamphlet as [sic] enemies of Islam, as an irreparable race and as responsible not only for the killing of the Prophet Muhammad, but for all the troubles that befell the Muslims from the beginning of Islam to the present day.</font></blockquote></ref> |
| | ==Barid Al Sharq== | | ==Barid Al Sharq== |
| | [[File:Barid al-Sharq.jpg|thumb|Barid al-Sharq]] | | [[File:Barid al-Sharq.jpg|thumb|Barid al-Sharq]] |