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Revision as of 04:05, December 22, 2022
Shakib Arslan (Arabic: شكيب أرسلان,Turkish: Şekîb b. Hammûd b. Hasen el-Arslânî, 25 December 1869 – 9 December 1946) (Abou Ghaleb) was a former Druse notable, prince (amir) in Lebanon, who left his community and clung to fascism,[1] allied,[2] propagated for Hitler, tight with the Mufti Mohammed Amin Al-Husseini, Jamal Husseini and other ieaders in Arab Mandatory Palestine. He was a who was known as Amir al-Bayān (Arabic for "Prince of Eloquence") because in addition to being a politician, he was also an influential pan-Arabist, pan-Islamist writer, poet and historian an author, he penned some 20 books and 2,000 articles.
One of the Druze families who converted to Islam, Arslan was one of the pillars of the all-Arab and all-Muslim movement in Syria. He provoked anger from Christians.[3] Explains a writer who met him:
| “ | He excited the believers to envy the zeal of Islam and provoked the anger of the Christians. In his many articles and speeches, the emir proved that the Arabs are loyal to the Turkish caliph dynasty and honor them over the Umms, the Abbasids and the Fatimids. He wasn't just all talk. At the head of a Druze battalion, the Emir marched to Egypt at the beginning of the First War to conquer the Suez and return the Nile Valley to the Sultan of Kushta.
Shakib Arslan then miraculously lifted Syria's loyalty to the Ottoman crown. The Arabs welcomed Sharif Feisal Bin Hussein and all his plans in favor of the rebellion (in Turkey) found no echo in Damascus or in Aram Tzoba (Aleppo). The Arabs remained loyal to Kalif until the last moment... Shakib Arslan, who sat in Geneva in those days and conducted his propaganda in favor of the Arabs, is the one who rained fire and brimstone on the Zionists and England. He claimed that neither the former nor the latter have rights over Palestine. The Druze forgot the peace treaty, made between the tribesmen of his tribe and the Jews of Metula, in his position and influence. And it wasn't in that alliance that the Israelis' rights in their homeland were already recognized...[3] |
” |
Overview:[1]
At that time, the Arab movement leaned towards the fascist forces in Europe, which became very strong when the Nazis seized power in Germany. The main fascist-Nazi Arab agent was the Druze emir Shakib Arslan, who left his narrow religious sect and joined the pan-Arab Syrian "Istiqlal" movement in 1919/20, and since then his close relations with Arab leaders in the Land of Israel and especially with the Husseinis have persisted.
Many believed that Arslan was in fact the Mufti’s main advisor.[4]
Arslan was also close to Mohamed Ali Eltaher, a Mufti's apologist.[5]
He was one of the key figures of Arab nationalist thought and pan-Arab and - Muslim activism in the interwar period. [6] Or "arguably one of the most prominent all-regional Islamic-Arab public opinion shapers in the interwar period."[7]
In April 1935, around the time of Arslan's pro Fascist Italy propaganda among the Arabs, Rumors close to the truth tell of Nazi cells existing among the Arabs, which are currently working to expand the anti-Jewish and even anti-English action, and perhaps also against the interests of other powers.[8]
Arslan was involved in the Arabic translation of Mein Kampf in 1938.[9][10]
After heading a Syrian nationalist propaganda service in Geneva for a few years, and after refusing at first, finally in October 1939, it was reported that Hitler granted Arslan a so-called "honorary aryan" status.[11]
He dwelled (at least early on) around the delusional story that the Arabs preceded Christopher Columbus, crossed the Atlantic Ocean and discovered America. [12]
Pan Islamist: from pro-Ottoman to Pan-Arabism
Shakib Arslan: an Ottoman parliamentarian and later Arab nationalist who was close to Cemal Pasha during the war.[13]
"He seems to be more Moslem than the Caliph." Christians voiced referring to Arslan's piece published on Aug 14, 1914.[14]
An ardent pan-Islamist wanted to bring together in an alliance. [15]
During World War I, the Spanish zone in Northern Morocco was utilized to foment hostilities against the French forces. In addition, the Teskilat-i Mahsusa (Ottoman Empire) TM formed volunteer units such as the Druze Voluntary Detachment led by Amir Shakib Arslan (1869-1946) with 110 men recruited from Mount Lebanon who were attached to the Hejaz Campaign Force.[16] A "die-hard Ottoman loyalist, the Druze Emir Shakib Arslan, raised a small force of Druze warriors at his own expense."[17][18][3]
While always an ardent pan-Islamist throughout, post--World War I, he changed his pro Ottoman activism to that of a Champion of Pan-Arabism.
| “ | Post--World War I: A Champion of Pan-Arabism
Until the abolition of the Caliphate by Mustafa Kemal (1881-1938), Arslan lingered in Europe and Turkey hoping for the restoration of the Ottoman Empire. After it became apparent that this goal was unattainable, he refocused his activism to a more pressing matter, namely the French and the British domination and partition of the Arab world. Arslan however, was greatly ostracized from the ranks of the Arab nationalists he had formerly opposed. His transition into the ranks of the nationalists was made possible through the good offices of his close friend Rashid Rida, the renowned publisher of al-Manar. Rida was aware of his friend’s talents and thus brought him into the fold of the Arab cause. Arslan was quite successful in his new post as the head of the permanent delegation of the Syrian-Palestinian Congress to the League of Nations in Geneva. Through this delegation, Arslan and his companions were able to lobby for the demands of the so-called Arab Nation, such issues as the Great Syrian Revolt, and more importantly the question of Palestine. It was through the delegation’s publication Le Nation Arabe that Arslan bombarded European policy-makers as well as the general public with the demands of his political camp. While Arslan tried to be as diverse as possible in the articles he published in his journal and other prominent publications such as al-Manar, the Palestinian issue occupied a major share of his writings. This was mainly due to the fact that Arslan was a close ally of the Mufti of Jerusalem Hajj Amin al-Husayni (1895-1974); indeed, many believed that Arslan was in fact the Mufti’s main advisor. [4] |
” |
In Switzerland since September 1925.[19] There he has his La Nation Arabe[20] out, widely read.
Islamische Kulturbund
The Islamische Kulturbund or Islamic Cultural Association (Rābiţat at-Taqāfa al-İslāmīya) has been founded in Vienna in 1932 on the initiative of Arslan.[21][22]
The Islamische Kulturbund existed in Vienna till 1939. It was dissolved, and an association called Islamische Gemeinschaft zu Wien was registered, Nazi supported.[23][24]
Barid Al Sharq
Barid Al Sharq ([بريد الشرق]: Orient Post) was an Arabic Nazi propaganda publication published in Berlin, in the period 1939–1944. It was distributed in the Arab countries and Mandatory Palestine. "Articles in Barid al-Sharq, dominated by the usual anti-British, anti-Communist, and anti-Jewish agitation, also drew on religious themes... Contributors included the Lebanese pan-Islamist Shakib Arslan and Abdurreshid Ibrahim, who, after his service for Germany during the First World War, had now become imam of the Tokyo Mosque, giving the paper a further pan-Islamic tinge." The journal also published several speeches by members of the Nazi elite, by al-Husayni (including his calls for Jihad).
Its editors also published an Arabic- language brochure with the title Islam and the Jews (al-Islam wa-l-Yahud), based on a series of articles that the journal had run earlier under the same title. Numerous copies were distributed in Tunis. In spring 1942, the German consulate in Tangier reported the "confiscation" of several boxes of the brochure by Spanish officials. Files stored in the archives of the Foreign Office in Berlin indicate that the distribution of Barid al-Sharq in the Tangier zone repeatedly caused friction between German officials and the local Spanish administration during the North African campaign.
[25]
Nazi propagandist on the Radio, Yunus Bahri, also contributed, edited there.[20]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Asaf, Michael. The history of the awakening of the Arabs in Palestine and their escape [תולדות התעוררות הערבים בארץ־ישראל ובריחתם]. Israel: Publisher Culture and Education: in collaboration with Davar Publishing House, 1967. p. 129.
בתקופה ההיא נטתה התנועה הערבית אל הכוחות הפאשיסטיים באירופה, שהתחזקו מאוד עם תפוס הנאצים את השלטון בגרמניה. הסוכן הערבי הפאשיסטי-נאצי הראשי היה האמיר הדרוזי שכיב ארסלאן, שעזב את עדתו הדתית הצרה והצטרף ב־1919/ 20 לתנועת ה"איסתיקלאל" הסורית הפאן-ערבית, ומאז התמידו יחסיו ההדוקים עם מנהיגים ערבים בארץ-ישראל וביחוד עם החוסיינים.
- ↑ Elst, Koenraad. Indigenous Indians: Agastya to Ambedkar. India: Voice of India, 1993. p. 353.
Young Fidel Castro would imitate Mussolini in front of the mirror. The secularist Baath Party in Syria and Iraq was modelled on Mussolini's Fascist Party. The Iranian Shah Reza Pahlevi was an open admirer of Hitler (for which he was forced by the British to abdicate in favour of his son)... The Muslims in particular were enthusiastic... Muslim nations rallied to ally with Hitler: the Bosnian Muslims, the Kalmuks, the Chechen and Ingosh, the Balkans, the Meshkets, and the Krim Tatars. In West Asia, prominant leaders like the Druze leader Shakib Arslan (Walid Jumblatt's father) and the Mufti of Jerusalem allied themselves with Hitler.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Hed HaMizrah - הד המזרח, 1 April 1949, p. 11.
בית אהרונסון והדרוזים
מאת ד"ר י. הרוזן
(שנה למותו של המפקד :אלכסנדר אהרונסון ז"ל)
האמיר שכיב ארסלן, שנמנה על משפחות הדרוזים שנתאסלמו, היה גם אחד מעמודי התווך של התנועה הכל־ערבית והכל מוסלמית בסוריה. הוא הלהיב את המאמינים לקנא את קנאת האיסלאם ועורר את חמת הנוצרים. במאמריו ובנאומיו הרבים, הוכיח האמיר, כי , הערבים הם נאמנים לשושלת הכליפים התורכים ומבכרים אותם על פני האומים, העבאסים והפטימים (ר' מאמרו בOrient- של 5 באוקטובר .(197והאציל הדרוזי לא נשאר רק נאה דורש. בראש גדוד דרוזי , צעד האמיר למצרים בראשית המלחמה הראשונה כדי לכבוש את הסואץ ולהחזיר את עמק הנילוס לסולטן בקושטא.
שכיב ארסלן הרים אז על נס את נאמנותה של סוריה לכתר עותמן. ערביה השיבו ריקם את פני השריף פיצל בן חוסיין וכל תכניותיו לטובת המרד )בתורכיה) לא מצאו הד בדמשק או בארם צובא. הערבים נשארו נאמנים לכליף עד הרגע האחרון...
שכיב ארסלן, שישב בימים ההם בג'ניבה ונהל את תעמולתו לטובת הערבים, הוא המטיר אש וגפרית על הציונים ועל אנגליה. הוא טען כי לא לראשונים ולא לאחרונים אין זכויות על פלשטינה. שכח הדרוזי את ברית השלום, שנכרתה בין בני שבטו ובין יהודי מטולה, במעמדו ובהשפעתו. והלא באותה ברית כבר הוכרו זכויות הישראלים במולדתם...
Emir Shakib Arslan, who was one of the Druze families who converted to Islam, was also one of the pillars of the all-Arab and all-Muslim movement in Syria. He excited the believers to envy the zeal of Islam and provoked the anger of the Christians. In his many articles and speeches, the emir proved that the Arabs are loyal to the Turkish caliph dynasty and honor them over the Umms, the Abbasids and the Fatimids (cf. his article in the Orient..) He wasn't just all talk. At the head of a Druze battalion, the Emir marched to Egypt at the beginning of the First War to conquer the Suez and return the Nile Valley to the Sultan of Kushta.
Shakib Arslan then miraculously lifted Syria's loyalty to the Ottoman crown. The Arabs welcomed Sharif Feisal Bin Hussein and all his plans in favor of the rebellion (in Turkey) found no echo in Damascus or in Aram Tzoba (Aleppo). The Arabs remained loyal to Kalif until the last moment...
Shakib Arslan, who sat in Geneva in those days and conducted his propaganda in favor of the Arabs, is the one who rained fire and brimstone on the Zionists and England. He claimed that neither the former nor the latter have rights over Palestine. The Druze forgot the peace treaty, made between the tribesmen of his tribe and the Jews of Metula, in his position and influence. And it wasn't in that alliance that the Israelis' rights in their homeland were already recognized...
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 M. Rabbah, Arslān, Shakīb, Amīr, Apr 10, 2018.
- ↑ White Washing and sugarcoating: Arab biographer, Mohammed El Taher and the Mufti, DP, Dec 3, 2021.
- ↑ Wien, Peter. Arab Nationalism: The Politics of History and Culture in the Modern Middle East. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis, 2017.
p. 63.
As seen, Shakib Arslan, one of the key figures of Arab nationalist thought and pan-Arab and -Muslim activism in the interwar period, published his book al-Hulal al-sundusiyya only a few years later and dedicated it to "paradise lost."
- ↑ Erlikh, Hagai. The Cross and the River: Ethiopia, Egypt, and the Nile. United Kingdom: L. Rienner, 2002. 28. arguably one of the most prominent all-regional Islamic-Arab public opinion shapers in the interwar period...
- ↑ Ha-Yarden - הירדן, 25 April 1935.
התעמולה הפרו־איטלקית בין הערבים על מכתבו של האמיר שאקיב ארסלאן מאת א. אבידן שמועות הקרובות לאמת מספרות על תאים נאצים הקימים בין הערבים, הפועלים כיום לשם הרחבת הפעולה האנטי יהודית ואף האנטי אנגלית, ואולי גם נגד האינטרסים של מעצמות אחרות. The pro-Italian propaganda among the Arabs On the letter of Emir Shakib Arslan By A. Avidan
Rumors close to the truth tell of Nazi cells existing among the Arabs, which are currently working to expand the anti-Jewish and even anti-English action, and perhaps also against the interests of other powers.
- ↑ Hagay Hacohen, Arabic translation of ‘Mein Kampf’ sold in Israel, JPost, Oct 22, 2019.
The history of how the German publication ended up in Arabic is a fascinating one. After several false starts that contained mistakes such as Hitler stating he "became a socialist" and not a nationalist, the job fell to Shakib Arslan who used a French translation.
- ↑ Borders, Boundaries and Belonging in Post-Ottoman Space in the Interwar Period. Netherlands: Brill, 2022. p. 143.
In 1938, the Arab nationalist and Nazi interlocutor Shakib Arslan, at the time in exile in Geneva, recommended al-'Urabi to the foreign office's Middle East division and the propaganda ministry as a possible translator...
- ↑ The Palestine Post, 16 October 1939.
EMIR SHAKIB ARSLAN AN "HONORARY GERMAN "
BEIRUT . — A full account has now appeared in the local of press of the visit paid to Germany by the Emir Shakib Arslan, who for the past few years has headed a Syrian nationalist propaganda service in Geneva. The visit was described by the German broadcasting stations as evidence of Arab sympathy for Germany.
According to reliable Swiss newspaper reports quoted in the local presa the Emir met only some of the minor Nazi leaders. It is reported that Hitler at first refused to authorise the grant to him of the honorary German citzenship on the grounds that he was a Semite. In Berlin, the Emir met another honorary aryan the notorious Baron von Oppenheim who managed the German espionage service in Arab countries during the World War.
Local comment is highly newspaper is unflattering to Shakib Arslan who is thought to have traded in what remains of his political integrity for a cash grant calculated to make it easier for him to maintain an expensive establishment in Geneva, where sympathizers have lately been few and far between.
- ↑ Menashe Shaul, The past belongs to the past, News1, 02/02/2014.
Following Mahmoud Hamdi's new book Zakzouk (Zagzoog) [زقزوق] - directs his criticism mainly to the clerics who deal with the midrash and do not dare to break free from the shackles of conservatism, fanaticism and commitment to the past...
Zakzouk mentions a story from the beginning of the 20th century about the Islamic thinker Shakib Arslan who met with the religious preacher
Jamal al-Din al-Afghani. The conversation between them revolved around the delusional story that the Arabs preceded Christopher Columbus, crossed the Atlantic Ocean and discovered America. Alafjani said: "When the Arabs try to cover up their omissions and backwardness these days, they claim that their ancestors did this and that. And this is the problem. Instead of doing something to fulfill their ambitions, they cling to their past."
- ↑ Environmental Histories of the First World War. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2018. 179.
- ↑ The Moslem World. United Kingdom: Nile Mission Press, 1915. p.418.
- ↑ Bogosian, Eric. Operation Nemesis: The Assassination Plot that Avenged the Armenian Genocide. United States: Little, Brown, 2015. [1].
- ↑ Safi, The Ottoman Special Organization 2012, p. 204. ctd in Odile Moreau Teskilat-i Mahsusa (Ottoman Empire), Nov 23, 2018.
- ↑ The Ottoman Twilight in the Arab Lands: Turkish Memoirs and Testimonies of the Great War. United States: Academic Studies Press, 2019.
https://books.google.com/books?id=X_qdDwAAQBAJ&pg=P2015.
Only the die-hard Ottoman loyalist, the Druze Emir Shakib Arslan, raised a small force of Druze warriors at his own expense. They were never deployed.
- ↑ Kayalı, Arabs and Young Turks , 189.
Beşikçi, Mehmet. The Ottoman Mobilization of Manpower in the First World War: Between Voluntarism and Resistance. Netherlands: Brill, 2012. [178].
Shakib Arslan's volunteers from the Druze. - ↑ Provence, Michael. The Last Ottoman Generation and the Making of the Modern Middle East. India: Cambridge University Press, 2017. 172.
In September 1925, Shakib Arslan left his unhappy exile in Mersin and moved to Switzerland permanently. - ↑ 20.0 20.1 Wild, Stefan. "National Socialism in the Arab near East between 1933 and 1939." Die Welt Des Islams, vol. 25, no. 1/4, 1985, pp. 126–73. JSTOR.
Die Welt des Islams. (1985). Germany: D. Reimer. Vols. 25-27, pp. 143-6.
The German Consulate in Jerusalem reported much stronger sympathies — for the Germans in general and for the "Führer" in particular.
'Ausschlaggebend für die bei den Arabern Deutschland gegenüber jetzt bestehenden Sympathien ist aber die Bewunderung, welche unser Führer genießt. Gerade die Unruhezeiten boten mir öfter Gelegenheit festzustellen, wie weit diese Sympathie verbreitet ist. Wenn man sich bei einer bedrohlichen Haltung einer arabischen Volksmenge als Deutscher zu erkennen gab, war dies im Allgemeinen schon ein Freibrief für ungehindertes passieren.
Wenn man sich aber durch den deutschen Gruss "Heil Hitler," auswies, schlug die Haltung der Araber meist in Begeisterung um und der Deutsche kam zu Ovationen, bei denen die Araber den deutschen Gruss stürmisch erwiderten.Die Begeisterung für unsren Führer und das neue Deutschland ist wohl deshalb so verbreitet, weil die palästinensischen Araber in ihrem Kampf um ihre Existenz einen arabischen "Führer" ersehnen und weil sie sich im Kampf gegen die Juden in einer Front mit den Deutschen fühlen.'
['The decisive factor for the sympathy that the Arabs now have towards Germany is the admiration our leader enjoys. The times of unrest in particular often gave me the opportunity to determine how widespread this sympathy is.
If one identified oneself as a German in a threatening attitude of an Arab crowd, this was generally a license to pass unhindered. But if you identified yourself with the German salute "Heil Hitler," the attitude of the Arabs usually turned to enthusiasm and the German received an ovation, during which the Arabs returned the German salute stormily. Enthusiasm for our leader and the new Germany is probably so widespread because the Palestinian Arabs long for an Arab "leader" in their struggle for their existence and because they feel they are on a front with the Germans in the fight against the Jews'].
After Hitler's victory in 1933 elections, there were at least two attempts to establish with German help Arab off-shoots of the NSDAP in Arab countries.
In April 1933 the German Consul General in Jerusalem, Heinrich Wolff was contacted by the Palestine correspondent of the Egyptian newspaper al-Ahrām, Joseph Francis, who acted as a spokesman for a group of Palestinian Arabs. In the same month, the German envoy in Baghdad, Fritz Grobba, was approached by 'Abdalghaffūr al-Badrī, an anti-sharifian ex-officer and editor of the Baghdad newspaper al-Istiqlāl. Both requested German assistance in establishing such a party. In both cases the answer was negative.
The Auswärtiges Amt stated in the case of the Palestinian group:
'A direct connection between Mr. Francis and members of the Ortsgruppen of the. NSDAP in Palestine would be regrettable. As German citizens then would be suspected of interfering in the domestic affairs of Palestine.'
Thus, paradoxically enough, it was the German side which effectively stopped all efforts to create Arab cells of National Socialists parties. As far as the Near East was concerned, the overriding idea behind this policy was the wish not to encroach on the British position in the Bear East.
For the same reason, not all demonstrations of sympathy towards Hitler's Germany were viewed favorably by the German side. When at the maulid-celebrations in Jerusalem in 1937 German and Italian flags were flown and in some cases also portraits of Fauzi Qawuqdjī, Mussolini and Hitler were shown, the reaction of the German Consulate was reticent:
'Ich betrachte diesen arabischen Versuch , durch Hissung deutscher Flaggen und Ausstellen von Bildern des Führers ihren Unwillen über die Engländer und die Juden zum Ausdruck zu bringen, als wenig erfreulich und als einen gewissen Missbrauch. Die Engländer dürften sich aber darüber im Klaren sein, dass man von deutscher Seite zu der Durchführung dieser Demonstration nicht beigetragen hat und dass es sich um eine von langer Hand vorbereitete rein arabische Aktion handelt. Die jüdische Presse hat diese Demonstration ausführlich behandelt und unter anderem darauf hingewiesen, dass die Begeisterung der Araber für den Führer widersinnig wäre, weil dieser alle Semiten, also auch die Araber, hasse. Die arabische Presse hat hierauf nicht reagiert. Von deutscher Seite sind arabische Anfragen auf Überlassung deutscher Flaggen abschlägig beschieden worden. Von einer Einwirkung auf die Araber, eine Benutzung der deutschen Bilder und Flaggen zu unterlassen, habe ich vorerst abgesehen.'
['I look at this Arab attempt by hoisting German flags and exhibiting pictures of the Führer expressing their displeasure with the English and the Jews as unpleasant and a certain abuse. However, the English should be aware that one has not contributed to the implementation of this demonstration from the German side and that it is a long-hand prepared purely Arab action. The Jewish press has discussed this demonstration in detail and, among other things, pointed out that the enthusiasm of the Arabs for the Führer would be absurd because he hates all Semites, including the Arabs. The Arab press did not react to this. From a German side, Arab inquiries on transfer of German flags have been decided. From an action to the Arabs, to refrain from using German pictures and flags, I have for now'].
The Palestinian paper al-Jāmi'a al-Islāmiyya wrote on January 1, 1938:'Many Arabs consider that Germany is a friend of the Arabs. This friendship is perhaps the result of the German hatred of Jews. Germany's anti-Jewish policy has caused a strong outflow of emigrants to Palestine - German Jews. This is the good that Germany did us.'
[...] However, the Haavara agreement which regulated Jewish emigration from Germany to Palestine was never commented on, let alone criticised in the Palestinian Press. And the image of Hitler's personality remained positive : his short cut to military power had - according to the Palestinian paper al - Kirmil — its only precedent in the military achievements of the [their] "Prophet."
The man who dominated Palestinian resistance to Zionism and who during the Second World War became an unhappy symbol of close collaboration between National Socialism and the Arabs, Hajj Amin al-Husaini, made clear that he welcomed the new regime in Germany and hoped for the spread of "fascist, antidemocratic leadership to other countries" and also approved of the anti -Jewish measures of the new regime. It is true that the Mufti also appealed "for a German-Jewish policy which would direct German Jews away from, not towards Palestine."
The German Consul General in Jerusalem Wolff observed "that the Arabs were too primitive politically to fully appreciate the fact that Germany and German Jewish policy were greatly intensifying their problem."
Francis Nicosia has shown in detail that Germany refused consistently in this period to become involved in anti-British policy in the Near East. When Fauzī al - Qāwuqjī approached the German envoy in Baghdad, Fritz Grobba, to obtain arms for the Arab rebellion in Palestine, he answered that relations with Great Britain were more important to the Hitler-government than possible gains of sympathy in the Arab world. The Arabs were given general sympathy for plans of self-determination — not more.
The channels of transmission of National-Socialist and Fascist ideas to the Arab Near East were manifold.
There was the deliberate attempt to spread these ideas via the usual diplomatic channels and the media.
Broadcasts in Arabic from Germany started relatively late - in April 1939. The program consisted of recital of passages from the Koran, Arabic music, Arabic literary texts and political commentaries.
One of the Arab speakers was Yūnus al-Bahri, who later wrote his memoirs about his time in Berlin under the title Hunā Berlin. Hayyi l - 'arab (Here is Berlin. Greetings to the Arabs) which was the customary start of the broadcasts Here is berlin (greeting to the Arabs) which was the customary start of broadcasts.
Approximately at the same time Radio Berlin edited an Arab bulletin Barid al-Sharq (Orient - Post), which regularly carried extracts from Hitler's speeches and political commentaries.
There were the activities of the German embassies and legations, one of the most active diplomats being certainly the German envoy in Iraq, Fritz Grobba.
These diplomats worked closely together with the local groups (Ortsgruppen) of the NSDAP, as far as they existed. There were a variety of contacts between the diplomatic missions and writers, politicians, journalists of different persuasions in Iraq, Egypt, Syria , Lebanon and Palestine. There were the Arab Clubs in Germany which were under the close supervision of the Gestapo. And there were free-lance journalists and politicians, Arabs who resided in neutral countries, who were influenced and sometimes paid by German money but were not under complete controle, like the Druze -Lebanese Emir Shakib Arslan (1869-1946), an Arab intellectual who resided in Switzerland, where he published his political journal La Nation Arabe...
- ↑ The Maghreb Review: Majallat Al-Maghrib. United Kingdom: n.p., 1993. 41.
The Nazis strove to increase their influence by sending Takki ed-Din el-Hilali, the Arabic speaker of Radio Berlin, to Tetouan to stir up anti-Jewish feeling in Spanish Morocco, where there were nearly 13,000 Jews, besides those who lived in Ceuta and Melilla. Trips to Germany were funded and in Austria Shekib Arselan founded the Islamische Kulturbund.
- ↑ Blind für die Geschichte? Arabische Begegnungen mit dem Nationalsozialismus. Germany: De Gruyter, 2021. 22.
[Zu diesen Organisationen gehörten : 1. der Islamische Kulturbund (Rābiţat at - Taqāfa al-İslāmīya). Er war 1932 in Wien auf Initiative Arslāns gegründet worden; sein Vorsitzender war der muslimische Österreicher Omar Rolf von Ehrenfels (1901-1960), Ehrenvorsitzender der Brite Khalid Sheldrake (Benjamin William Sheldrake, 1888-1947), der zugleich der Western Islamic Association in London vorstand und Mitglied des während des Rifkrieges dort gebildeten Rif - Komitees gewesen war. Dem Islamischen Kulturbund gehörten drei marokkanische Nationalisten an: Muhammad al - Makki an - Nāşirī (1906-1972) aus Rabat, 'Abd as - Salām Banūna aus Tetuan und Muhammad ibn Hasan al-Wazzānī aus Fes.
Eine weitere Vereinigung war das Comité de Defense du Maghreb Arabe in Berlin. Es wurde von einem gewissen Khalid Boudon geleitet und richtete sich gegen die Kolonialmächte, insbesondere gegen Frankreich. 1930 organisierte es eine große Kundgebung in Berlin, um gegen die Feierlichkeiten zum 100. Jahrestag der Eroberung Algeriens und gegen die prozionistische Politik Großbritanniens in Palästina zu protestieren. Zu Marokko verbreitete das Comité eine Broschüre gegen den „Berber - Dahir“ mit dem Titel „Protestation contre l'attentat perpétré par la France au Maroc".]
These organizations included: 1. The Islamic Cultural Association (Rābiţat at-Taqāfa al-İslāmīya). It had been founded in Vienna in 1932 on the initiative of Arslān; its chairman was the Muslim Austrian Omar Rolf von Ehrenfels (1901-1960), honorary chairman of the Brit Khalid Sheldrake (Benjamin William Sheldrake, 1888-1947), who at the same time headed the Western Islamic Association in London and was a member of the Rif Committee formed there during the Rif War. Three Moroccan nationalists belonged to the Islamic Cultural Association: Muhammad al-Makki an-Nāşirī (1906-1972) from Rabat, 'Abd as-Salām Banūna from Tetuan and Muhammad ibn Hasan al-Wazzānī from Fez.
2. Another association was the Comité de Defense du Maghreb Arabe in Berlin. Led by a certain Khalid Boudon, it was directed against the colonial powers, especially France. In 1930 it organized a large rally in Berlin to protest the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the conquest of Algeria and Britain's pro-Zionist policies in Palestine. In Morocco, the committee distributed a brochure against the "Berber - Dahir" with the title "Protestation contre l'attentat perpétré par la France au Maroc".
- ↑ Islam and the European Union. Belgium: Peeters, 2004.
203.
In the Interwar period, some hundred Muslims lived in Austria , the Islamische Kulturbund existed in Vienna till 1939. In the Nazi era an association called Islamische Gemeinschaft zu Wien was registered.
- ↑ Schuller, Josef Peter. Die verborgene Moschee: Zur Sichtbarkeit muslimischer Gebetsräume in Wien. Germany: Tectum Wissenschaftsverlag, 2014. 28.
[Verlust Bosnien-Herzegowinas sank naturgemäß die Anzahl von MuslimInnen in Österreich, dennoch wurde während der Ersten Republik der „Islamische Kulturbund" gegründet. Allerdings wurde dieser nach dem Anschluss Österreichs an das nationalsozialistische Deutschland wieder aufgelös. Das islamgesetz von 1912 bleib jedoch weiterhin in Kraft. Anstelle des „Islamischen Kulturbundes" wurde mit Unterstützung der NSDAP 1943 die „Islamische Gemeinschaft zu Wien" als eingetragener Verein etabliert, der sich allerdings 1948 als Folge interner Meinungsverschiedenheit im Zusammenhang mit politischen Einstellungen führender Mitglieder während des Zweiten Weltkriegs wieder auflöste.]
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.
- ↑ Motadel, David. Islam and Nazi Germany’s War. United Kingdom: Harvard University Press, 2014. p. 88.
Articles in Barid al-Sharq, dominated by the usual anti-British, anti-Communist, and anti-Jewish agitation, also drew on religious themes...
Contributors included the Lebanese pan-Islamist Shakib Arslan and Abdurreshid Ibrahim, who, after his service for Germany during the First World War, had now become imam of the Tokyo Mosque, giving the paper a further pan-Islamic tinge... The journal also published several speeches by members of the Nazi elite, by al-Husayni (including his calls for Jihad)...
The editors of Barid al-Sharq also published an Arabic- language brochure with the title Islam and the Jews (al-Islam wa-l-Yahud), based on a series of articles that the journal had run earlier under the same title. Numerous copies were distributed in Tunis. In spring 1942, the German consulate in Tangier reported the "confiscation" of several boxes of the brochure by Spanish officials. Files stored in the archives of the Foreign Office in Berlin indicate that the distribution of Barid al-Sharq in the Tangier zone repeatedly caused friction between German officials and the local Spanish administration during the North African campaign. The SS played only a small role in Germany's propaganda efforts targeting the Middle East and North Africa. Perhaps the most significant example was the attempt by SS officers to portray Hitler as a religious figure.