In the early 1930’s the 'free world' made the mistake of dismissing Hitler’s words as mere threats and ravings. Will the West make the same mistake when continually confronted with Islamic terror?
Since the atrocities committed on 9/11/01 by Middle Eastern Muslim terrorists in the name of Islam, people in the U.S. and West have debated whether Islam is “a religion of peace” or more of an all-encompassing totalitarian ideology cloaked in religious garb. Unfortunately, it appears that the Qur’an, Shariah, and the Islamic terrorist attacks of the last thirty years, indicate that Islam is indeed a totalitarian ideology engaged in an effort of world-wide conquest much like Nazism. The major difference being that Nazism was based on racial affiliation while Islam is based on religious affiliation.
The word “Islam” – contrary to popular belief – means “submission” and not “peace.” When Islam was founded by Muhammad ibn Abdallah in the 7th century, it conquered the Arabian Peninsula through bloody wars and conquests against fellow Arabs, and Jewish tribes. After the consolidation of Islam in Arabia, the Arabs quickly moved out to conquer the Persian and Byzantine empires, as well as parts of India, and subsequently Spain. All was done under the sword or through discrimination. It was not done by peacefully proselytizing the indigenous populations.
A Brief Overview of Shariah
The holy book of Islam – the Qur’an – contains laws and commandments for the believing Muslim. It is also a book that is replete with references to war, conquest, and the treatment of non-Muslims. From the Qur’an (primarily), and the Sunnah and Hadith (secondarily) came - amongst other principles - the exegesis (tafsir) and jurisprudence (fiqh) of how the laws, sayings, customs, and traditions of Muhammad were to be interpreted. Thus was born Shariah (meaning the “path”). Shariah is not a simple concept to explain (even by and for Muslims), but it can simply be equated with “Islamic law.”
Shariah dictates every aspect of a Muslim’s life – both private and public. It is a total system that not only encompasses the individual, but how the government should rule as well. Islam is therefore a religio-political entity and ideally guided by a caliph (“successor”) to Muhammad. However, the Caliph came to be something of a “supreme leader” as both the head of government and the head of religion. In short, there is no separation of “mosque and state” in an ideal Islamic setting.
While different schools of Shariah exist with various interpretations of the Qur’an, Sunnah, and Hadith, all see Islam and Muslims as superior to every other religion, and view non-Muslims as “dhimmi” (plural, “dhimma”) who are regarded as inferior to Muslims under Islamic law. It is the dhimma (namely Jews, Christians, and other monotheistic religions) who must pay the jizya and kharaj (poll and land taxes) because they do not recognize the Qur’an. They must also wear distinctive clothing (usually yellow for Jews, and blue for Christians.)
The Nazi-Islamic Alliance
During the 1930’s Muslims of all different nationalities (most notably Arabs and Persians) were very sympathetic to Adolph Hitler and Nazism. The reverse was also true. Hitler and Heinrich Himmler only had respectful things to say of Islam, and Hitler himself had said that it would have been better if Germany had possessed the “Mohammedan religion” rather than the “meekness and flabbiness” of Christianity.
At the same time, in the Arab world, Nazi-like movements began to spring up. There were the “Nazi Scouts” of Arab youth in British mandated Palestine (based on the Hitler Youth) the “Green Shirts” of Egypt, and the Syrian Social Nationalist Party. Even the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt was influenced by the Nazis in its political ideology, and many fleeing Nazis were warmly welcomed in Arab countries after World War II.
But Nazi ideology also had an effect in non-Arab Muslim countries, such as Iran. In 1935, Persia was renamed Iran (Land of the Aryans) and Reza Shah Pahlavi, the ruler of Persia/Iran had an open admiration for Hitler. There was also an Iranian Nazi party known as SUMKA with its own Nazi-like symbol. However, fears among the allies were so great that the British had Reza Shah deposed because of perceived German influence in Iran. Indeed, Churchill had at least on one occasion compared the Qur’an to Mein Kampf.
It was during this period, that the Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini sought out Adolph Hitler and other top Nazis in order to apply the Arab/Muslim “Final Solution to the Jewish Question” in the Middle East. Hitler and Himmler were very receptive, and with the help of the Mufti, Himmler raised two Muslim Waffen SS divisions; one from Bosnia (Handschar, meaning “scimitar”), and one from Albania. There were also lesser known Waffen SS divisions made up of Muslims from the Soviet Caucasus. Hitler promised Husseini that once the Germans penetrated through the Caucasus, the “hour of liberation” for the Arabs would come.
How could devout Muslims ally themselves so willingly with a basically pagan, racist ideology like that of Nazism? The answer is simple. Nazism, like Islam, is driven by a dictatorial totalitarian system with a “leader principle” that divides the world into the “superior” and “inferior.” One can easily substitute the terms “Fuhrer, “Aryan,” “Ubermensch,” and “Untermensch,” for “Caliph,” “Muslim,” “dhimmi,” and “kafir”. And there is also the concept of “jihad” in Islam which divides the world into “dar al-Islam” (house of Islam, where Muslims rule) and “dar al harb” (house of war, where “infidels” rule). And like Islam, which seeks the total Islamization of the world, Nazism also sought the total domination of the “Aryan” over the “non-Aryan” and the total extermination of the Jews. As previously alluded to, the wearing of yellow clothing was a Muslim invention, not a Nazi one. And there is also a genocidal Hadith that exists from the 7th century which speaks of a final war between the Muslims and Jews, resulting in the latter’s total annihilation. This Hadith is quite openly spoken of in the Muslim world to this day, as is the boasting of Muhammad’s “ethnic cleansing” through murder and expulsion of the Jews living in Arabia.
The Final Chapter?
The Muslim attacks of 9/11 should have woken up America and the West to what Islam is – and isn’t. Instead, the masses received from world leaders nothing but platitudes and compliments for Islam which George W. Bush constantly referred to as a “religion of peace.” And, of course, the words “Islam” and “terrorism” could never be mentioned in the same sentence.
Perhaps the real issue is not Shariah per se, but Islam and the Qur’an as a whole. While the world argues about “moderate” and “radical” Islam, fundamentalist Muslims plan the demise of the Western world and its Judeo-Christian concepts and values. Under the guise of taqiyyah (dissimulation), Muslims either seek the conversion of non-Muslims peacefully through “dawa” (the call), or more likely, through “jihad” (holy war). In the words of convicted failed Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad, “Brace yourselves, because the war with Muslims has just begun. Consider me only a first droplet of the blood that will follow me.”
In the early 1930’s the 'free world' made the mistake of dismissing Hitler’s words as mere threats and ravings. Will the West make the same mistake when continually confronted with Islamic terror?
