Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

January 7, 2016

The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, with Nazi Encouragement, Made Anti-Semitism Part of Islamism

He didn’t have much influence on Hitler, but he had plenty on the Muslim Brotherhood.

While some historians have argued otherwise, Amin Haj al-Husseini—the grand mufti of Jerusalem prior to World War II—did not influence the Final Solution; he did, however, form a close alliance with Nazi Germany, which protected him and supported him financially, in exchange for his production of pro-Nazi propaganda for the Muslim world. Most importantly, writes Jeffrey Herf, the mufti’s lasting legacy was his contribution to a particular strain of Islamic anti-Semitism:

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