Hajj Amin Husseini's Anti-Semitic Legacy

In: Middle East Quarterly, Band 22, Heft 3, S. 1B

Abstract

The Jerusalem mufti, Muhammad Hajj Amin Husseini, leader of the Palestinian Arabs from the early 1920s to the late 1940s, is widely known for his close collaboration with the Nazis during World War II. However, and without discounting his culpability for the collapse and dispersal of Palestinian Arab society, Muhammad's role in shaping Muslim perceptions of Jews might be a far more important and lasting legacy than his political activism in Palestine, Germany, or elsewhere. An important source supporting this fact is a booklet he authored for Muslim soldiers enlisted in the Nazi SS division in Bosnia. Struggle between Jews and Islam began when Muhammad fled Mecca to Medina where he created the base for the development of Islam. At that time, Jews were merchants, already permeated with guile, and they understood that Muhammad's influence, in both the spiritual and business spheres, could turn into a danger for them. Adapted from the source document.