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Hajj
Amin Husseini's Anti-Semitic Legacy
by Boris Havel
Middle East Quarterly
Summer 2015 (view PDF)
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The
Jerusalem mufti, Muhammad Hajj Amin Husseini (left), meets with
SS-Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler, April 1943.
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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. Aspects
of the collaboration remain to be more thoroughly scrutinized.[1] However, and without
discounting his culpability for the collapse and dispersal of Palestinian
Arab society (or al-Nakba, the catastophe, as it is called by
Palestinians and Arabs), Hajj Amin'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.[2] An important source
supporting this fact is a booklet he authored for Muslim soldiers
enlisted in the Nazi SS division in Bosnia.
During the mufti's stay in Berlin in 1941-45, he befriended
Hitler's right-hand man, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler. Himmler's
fascination with Islam and the mufti's zealous support for the Nazi cause
resulted in several common enterprises, notably the establishment of a
volunteer Waffen-SS division in Bosnia, made up mostly of Bosnian
Muslims, later named the Handzar division. Most books about the division
display photographs of its soldiers—distinguishable by its insignia on
uniform lapels and fez headgear—reading a booklet titled Islam und
Judentum—most certainly the German version of the mufti's Croatian or
Bosnian pamphlet Islam i židovstvo (Islam and Judaism).
In whatever language the pamphlet was originally written, the
intended readers were Muslims (Bosnian or otherwise) and not Germans.
This author has been unable to locate a German copy of the pamphlet, but
it is reasonable to regard the text written in the language of the
Bosnian Muslims (at the time called Croatian) as the most relevant. A
translation of the booklet is presented below, followed by an analysis of
its significance and far reaching implications.[3]
Islam and
Judaism
(Islam i židovstvo)
For us Muslims, it is unworthy to utter the word Islam in the same
breath with Judaism since Islam stands high over its perfidious
adversary. Therefore, it would be wrong to carry out comparison of those
two generally different counterpoints.
"Islam stands high over its
perfidious adversary [Judaism]."
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Unfortunately, it is insufficiently known that animosity between Islam
and Judaism is not of a recent date. It reaches long back in history, all
the way to the time of the Prophet Muhammad. This short historical
overview will demonstrate the importance and perfidiousness of Jewry and
its animosity toward the founder of Islam, the Prophet Muhammad.
Jews are known in history only as a subjugated people. Their vulgar[4] nature
and insufferable stance toward the nations that offered them hospitality,
and toward their neighboring nations, are the reason that those same
nations had to resort to [certain] measures in order to suppress a Jew's
efforts to obtain his[5]
desire by force.
The history of antiquity shows us that the pharaohs were already
forced to use all means against Jewish usury and Jewish immorality.
Ancient Egyptians finally expelled the Jews from their land. Led by
Moses, the Jews then arrived in the Sinai desert.
Arab theologian Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari [839-923 C.E.] narrates
that the Jews even wanted to kill their leader and savior Moses when he
came back from Mount Sinai. Because of that, God punished them, and they
had to meander in the wilderness for forty years. It should have brought
them to their senses, and the new generation should have been cleansed
from the low esteem of their fathers.
Following that, the Jews spread like locust all over the Arab
peninsula. They came to Mecca, to Medina, to Iraq, and to Palestine,
which is the land of milk and honey. The group of the Jews that came to
Syria and Palestine was now under Roman rule. The Romans, however, soon
discerned the peril that threatened the land from the Jews, and so they
introduced harsh measures against them. Besides that, a serious,
contagious illness of plague erupted, which was by common opinion brought
into the land by Jews. When even medical doctors stated that the Jews
were indeed the source of the infection—and their opinion was obviously
correct—there arose among the people such upheaval against the Jews that
many Jews were killed. In addition, that event is the reason why the Jews
have been called "microbes" in Arabia to this very day.
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The
mufti of Jerusalem, Muhammad Hajj Amin Husseini, visits the volunteer
Nazi Waffen-SS division in Bosnia, made up mostly of Bosnian Muslims.
The mufti was instrumental in the division's formation.
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The Arabs have a particular understanding for introducing forceful
measures against Jews in Germany and for their expulsion from the
country. After the [First] World War, England and America enabled the
Jews to settle in Palestine and to establish a Jewish state there. Jewish
excrement from all countries assembled there, rascally striving to seize
the land from Arabs. And indeed, they succeeded in buying land from the
poorest of the poor and from unscrupulous landlords. By doing so, they
took poor widows' bread and stole food from children to fatten
themselves.[6]
When the Arabs opposed the Jewish settlement, the Jews did not shun
bloody murders. So they robbed many families of their livelihood and
threw the families into misery and troubles. (God will punish them for
those disgraceful deeds).
The Jewish struggle against Arabs is nothing new for us, except that
as time passed, the location of the battlefield changed. Jews hate
Muhammad and Islam, and they hate any man who wishes to advance the
prosperity of his people and to fight against Jewish lust for possessions
and Jewish corruption.
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. Thus they were possessed by a
deep hatred toward Islam; hatred that intensified as Islam was growing
more solid and powerful. The Jews breached the agreement they had
concluded with Muhammad in Khaibar, of which we shall speak later.
Moreover, their rage grew immensely when the Qur'an revealed the deepest
inclinations of their soul, their heartlessness, and unscrupulousness by
which their ancestors had been commonly known. At that time, the Jewish
methods were already the same as they are today. Their weapon has been,
as always, slander and quarrel, and so they attempted to humiliate
Muhammad in the eyes of his followers. They claimed that he was a
deceiver, an enchanter, and a liar. When they did not succeed in this,
they attempted to undermine Muhammad's honor by spreading a rumor that
his wife Aisha committed adultery. The purpose of spreading such a rumor
was to sow doubt in the hearts of Muhammad's followers.
When that failed, they tried to show Muhammad's teaching in a bad
light. With that purpose, several Jews converted to Islam; only a few
days later, they returned to the Jewish faith. When asked why they
changed their mind so suddenly, they replied that they were very willing
to settle in Islam but found that all of it is nothing but a lie. The
following Qur'anic verse alludes to that:
Many of those knowledgeable in the
Scriptures attempt to somehow render you infidels again by converting to
our religion. It was, though, nothing but their souls' envy, when they
comprehended truth.[7]
When the Jews understood that they would not reach their goal by the
means used until then, they started to ask Muhammad various meaningless
and unsolvable questions. Thus, they wanted to convince others that
Muhammad was poor in knowledge and wisdom. However, that method achieved
no success. As they were thus persuaded that Islam was deeply rooted in
the hearts of the Muslims, they commenced with the attempts to destroy
the Muslims. Pursuant to that goal, they paid some non-Muslim tribes to
fight against Muhammad. The almighty God, however, wanted it differently.
With iron fist, Muhammad defeated the rebellious tribes and conquered
their city. The Jews could not bear such a defeat, and so they decided to
destroy Muhammad in every way. They hired men to murder him.
"God ... warned [Muhammad]
... so the treacherous Jews could not carry out their design."
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The Medina Jews lived in the city district of Banu Nadir. When
Muhammad came to Medina, he concluded a contract with them. One day he
set out to that city district, accompanied by only ten companions, to
talk to the Jews and to try to convert them to Islam. Muhammad explained
the principles of Islam to the Jews, and they seemed very interested and
open-minded. Yet as Muhammad was talking in a friendly way with some of the
Jews, another group prepared an attempt on his life. They persuaded a man
to throw a piece of rock on Muhammad's head. Surely Muhammad would have
been killed were it not for God, who warned him. An inner voice advised
him to leave that place, and so the treacherous Jews could not carry out
their design. Consequently Muhammad sent a companion to deliver his
message to the Jews to leave the city within ten days. They had breached
the contract they concluded with him by trying to take his life. Any Jew
found in the city after those ten days would be punished by death.
However, some of the Jews, who outwardly accepted Islam but in their
innermost remained Jewish, persuaded other Jews not to leave the city.
When the ten days passed, Muhammad was forced to expel the Jews from the
city by armed force. Part of the Jews fled to Khaibar and part to Syria.
The Jews who fled to Khaibar, however, would not concede defeat and
decided to avenge themselves on Muhammad. For that purpose, they turned
to other Khaibar Jews and to the Jews of Taima and of Wadi Qura. Together
they plotted a conspiracy: With large sums of money, they agitated
non-Muslim Arab tribes to attack Medina. When Muhammad discovered their
plan he quickly armed his men and set out toward the plotters' base in
Khaibar. Muhammad's companions captured Khaibar and expelled most Jews
from the site. With the remaining Jews, Muhammad concluded a contract by
which peace was guaranteed.
Only after that devastating defeat [of the Jews] could an Islamic
Empire peacefully develop. But when one takes into account the Jewish
significance, it was not to be wondered that Jews, in spite of the
agreements made, did not abandon their plans and continued to try to
destroy Muhammad by all available means. They invited him to a feast, and
he accepted the invitation suspecting no evil. In front of him was placed
a roasted lamb prepared by the Jewess Zainab, wife of Sallam ibn Mishkam.[8] The [topic of] conversation
around the table was the contract and a peaceful life in mutual agreement
in which they now lived. Muhammad had not the slightest suspicion about
treason. The Prophet and his faithful companion Bashr ibn Bara each took
a piece of lamb meat. Muhammad, however, did not swallow his bite because
its taste made him suspicious.
"The bone tells me that the lamb was poisoned," he said and
called the Jewess Zainab to ask whether the meat had been poisoned. She
answered, "You know I am highly esteemed by the Jews, and I
acknowledge that I have poisoned the lamb. In so doing, I thought that if
you were a king, I would only kill a king, but if you were indeed a
prophet, you would know that the meat had been poisoned."
Muhammad's companion soon succumbed to the poison's effect, whereas
Muhammad, despite spitting the poisonous bite, later suffered various
health disorders, and the impact of the poison had always been evident.
Some historians even believe that Muhammad's death was a consequence of
that poisoning. In this matter, they refer to a hadith by Abu Huraira,
whereby the Prophet said shortly before his death, "The effect of
Khaibar's feast will manifest in me until I die!"[9]
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Many
books about the Waffen-SS division in Bosnia display photographs of its
soldiers reading a booklet titled Islam und Judentum—most certainly the
German version of the mufti's Croatian or Bosnian pamphlet Islam i
židovstvo (Islam and Judaism). The booklet offers a stark
illustration of the lengths taken by the mufti to demonize Jews and
Judaism and clearly was produced for propaganda and incitement
purposes.
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We, the Muslims, must always bear in mind the Khaibar feast. If the
Jews betrayed Muhammad in such a way, why wouldn't they treacherously
persecute us today with the purpose of destroying us?!
Now, the Jews were persuaded that Muhammad was immune to their attacks.
Therefore, they made a decision to spread discord among the Arab tribes,
so as to break the power of Islam. When Muhammad went back to Medina, he
succeeded in reconciling the Arab tribes of Kawsha and Karasha,[10] which had been fighting each
other ceaselessly for 120 years. In doing so, he significantly
strengthened Islam's position. Members of those two [formerly] hostile
tribes became brethren in Islam, and peace
entered the city. In this regard, the Jews tried to undermine the Islamic
empire.
A revengeful old man by the name of Shas ibn Qais one day walked with
his friends and came across an assembly of the reconciled tribes held in
city square. He could not bear to see how [the members of] those two
tribes, formerly at war with each other, now communicated nicely, and so
devised a hellish plan. He sent to their assembly a friend of his,
knowledgeable in war poems, and persuaded him to recite some of his old
poems that were full of hatred. That Jew, an outstanding orator, came
indeed to the assembly and started to recite old war poems of both
tribes. By doing so, he managed to find in each tribe a man in whom old
hatred flared up. Those two men started to fight each other and then
urged their fellow-tribesmen to take up arms. An immense tragedy would
have ensued were it not for Muhammad, who learned about the fight amongst
brethren and hurried up to the battlefield.
"Oh my God, are the old times returning even while I am still
amongst you!" he shouted. "When I gave you Islam as religion,
the old fratricidal discord was buried, and you became brothers in your
hearts. Do you wish to slip into infidelity again?"
Both tribes understood that disturbances among them were sown by the
Jews alone. They threw away their weapons and asked God for forgiveness,
and then they hugged each other and concluded a new brotherly alliance.
Regarding Shas ibn Qais the Jew, it is said in the Qur'an,
Oh, you scribes,[11] why do you prevent the
believer from walking on God's path when you are witnesses yourselves?
But God is not blind for what you do.[12]
Regarding the tribes of Kawsha and Karasha, the Qur'an said,
Oh, you who believe, would you listen
to those who received the Scripture, so that they would turn you into
unbelievers again, after you have received faith! How can you be infidels
when God's words were read to you, and his apostle is among you? He who
holds unto God has already been introduced to a straight path.[13]
"The Jews never succeeded in
spreading division among Muhammad's followers."
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Notwithstanding their attempts, the Jews never succeeded in spreading
division among Muhammad's followers and in dragging them back into
infidelity. However, even after all these events should have taught them
the futility of their efforts, they persistently continued to carry out
their devilish plans. Once, they tried by deceit to even bring down
Muhammad himself.
There was a quarrel between two Jewish tribes, and the side that was
wrong held an assembly and sent its leaders to Muhammad. Those Jewish
leaders said to Muhammad, "You know that we are influential people.
If you support us in our dispute with our opponents, we will apply all
our influence to make all Jews convert to Islam." Muhammad, of
course, dismissed them. There is a verse in the Qur'an about this event:
Be careful to make decisions according
to what God has revealed and not to consider their desires. Keep your
guard toward them so that they would not even partially shift you from
what God has revealed to you. If they rebel, know that God will surely
punish them for a part of their sins. There are, indeed, many men who are
evildoers.[14]
Another example of Jewish subversive action was recorded by Ibn Abbas.
At the time when Muhammad went from Mecca to Medina, prayers were
directed toward Jerusalem. However, it lasted only for seventeen months.
Then Muhammad received God's revelation that the direction of prayers
should be Mecca, and ever since, prayers are uttered with faces turned to
Mecca. The Qur'an says about this:
We see how you turn your face toward
heaven, and we would like to give it a direction which you will like:
Turn your face toward the holy place of prayer; wherever you find
yourselves, turn your face in that direction. Don't you see that even
those who had received the Scripture know that it is the truth before
their Lord? And God is never heedless of what they do.[15]
When the Jews found out about this Qur'anic verse, they were angered
and asked Muhammad to return to the previous direction of prayer, which
was Jerusalem. Were he to do so, they promised, all
Jews would accept Islam. Muhammad, however, did not allow himself to be
led astray by such a proposal and to transgress against God's command. We
find the following in the Qur'an about that:
The direction to which you used to turn
in prayer until now we have changed only for the purpose of
distinguishing those who follow apostles from those who turn on their
heel. That was surely difficult but not for those led by God. And God
does not want to destroy your faith because God is full of goodness and
compassionate to men.[16]
Here is another example how the Jews did not hesitate to stab Muhammad
in the back at the time of his utmost distress. When Muhammad won the
Battle of Badr, he sent a messenger on his own camel, because that camel
was the fastest, to carry the news about his victory to Medina. The Jews,
however, tried to bring confusion into the Muslims' ranks by spreading
false rumors that Muhammad had been killed in the battle. As evidence,
they pointed out that Muhammad's camel returned to the city with another
rider.
When even that design failed, the Jews turned to Mecca to incite
Muhammad's enemies against him. Moreover, they declared their readiness
to support the Meccans in their fight against Muhammad with an army of
theirs. When the pagans of Mecca asked the Jews—since the Jews had
received the Holy Scripture even before Muhammad—whether or not
Muhammad's religion was good, the Jews answered, "You know that we
are men of letters. Believe us, therefore, when we tell you that your
religion is much better." The following verse is in the Qur'an about
this:
Don't you see those who received the
Scriptures? They believe in Jibt and Taghut [superstition
and idolatry], but they nevertheless say about pagans that their way is
better than believers' way. Those are the ones whom God has cursed, and
he who was cursed by God cannot be helped.[17]
As we see, that curse came true. Without a homeland, the Jews are
scattered throughout the whole world, and nowhere do they find true help
and support. Another Qur'anic verse reads:
You will certainly find out that the
greatest animosity toward the believers foster the Jews and the pagans.[18]
That idea has been even better expressed by words of Muhammad:
"It will never be possible for you to see a Muslim and a Jew
together without secret intention in the [heart of the] Jew to destroy
the Muslim."[19]
Abu Huraira passed to us the following hadith:
Judgment Day will not come before the
Muslims completely destroy the Jews, and when every tree with a Jew
hidden behind will say to the Muslim, "There is a Jew behind me,
kill him!" Only the gharqad tree, which is a small bush with many
thorns growing around Jerusalem, will not participate in it because it is
a Jewish tree! [Bukhari-Muslim VIII, p. 188].
Assessing the
Pamphlet
The booklet Islam and Judaism offers a stark illustration of
the lengths taken by the mufti to demonize Jews and Judaism. Qur'anic
passages are freely paraphrased without reference to sura and verse while
apparent quotations (like those about Jews converting insincerely to
Islam in order to drag Muslims away from their faith) are nowhere to be
found in the Qur'an, certainly not in the translation by Muhammed Pandža
and Džemaluddin Čaušević[20]
used by Yugoslav Muslims since 1937. Indicating the pamphlet's clear
propaganda and incitement purpose, this sloppiness reflected both Hajj
Amin's poor religious credentials and his apparent conviction that the
pamphlet would not be subjected to critical scrutiny or even read by
believers well-versed in the Qur'an. For, though bestowed with the title
of Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine's highest religious
authority, it was common knowledge at the time that Hajj Amin did not
possess the necessary religious credentials for such a lofty post.
Indeed, he even failed to make the final short-list for the mufti's post
having received only nine of the electors' sixty-four votes; but the
Husseinis and their British champions forced one of the final three
candidates to step down in his favor, paving the road to his appointment.[21]
Though given the title of Grand
Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin did not possess the necessary religious
credentials for such a lofty post.
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Some of the pamphlet's assertions indicate the mufti's deficient
familiarity with Islamic history and theology. Nor was Hajj Amin averse
to introducing novelties and fabrications for the purpose of defaming
Jews. His text contains details with an unconventional interpretation of
Qur'anic accounts, some of them erroneous. He accuses the Jews of having "attempted
to undermine Muhammad's honor by spreading a rumor that Muhammad's wife
Aisha committed adultery." But renowned Islamic scholars, including
Tabari, to whom the mufti refers in the booklet, do not mention the Jews
at all in the context of this event: Aisha's accusers were all Arabs.
Some came from the tribe of Kharzaj; at least one was from the Quraish,
Muhammad's tribe, and another was the sister of Muhammad's wife. Their
names are listed in both Ibn Ishak's and Tabari's accounts of the event. After
God revealed Aisha's innocence to Muhammad, some of the accusers were
punished by flogging.[22]
Furthermore, the mufti claimed that Muhammad attacked Khaibar because
its Jews bribed Arab tribes to attack Medina. The sources, however, do
not mention any such activity by the Khaibar Jews. Khaibar was in
alliance with the Arab tribe of Ghatafan—which at this point seemed to be
rather defensive—with the Quraish, and with the Persians. Muhammad's
attack occurred shortly after he concluded the peace of Hudaibiya (March
628) with the Meccans. It is hard to envisage that Muhammad's enemies
would plot an attack from the north without Meccan support. On the
contrary, it seems that he concluded the peace of Hudaibiya to secure his
southern front so as to be able to attack the Khaibar Jews, whose Persian
allies had just been defeated by the Byzantine army.[23]
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There
remains a deep connection between Islamism and Nazism based on the
common characteristics of racism, nationalism, religious bigotry, and
intolerance. Hitler's Mein Kampf has been a bestseller for years in
predominantly Muslim countries, including the Palestinian Authority and
Turkey.
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There was, however, an event reminiscent of the mufti's story that
occurred a year earlier. The Jews of Medina had invited the Quraish and
Ghatafan tribes to attack Muhammad. It was at this point, after the
Battle of Badr, that the Quraish asked the Jews whose religion was
better, theirs or Muhammad's. Encouraged by the Jews, the two tribes
marched on Medina, and their subsequent abortive attack came to be known
as the Battle of the Ditch. After their retreat, Muhammad attacked
Medina's Jewish tribe of Banu Quraiza.[24] It seems likely that the
mufti—unless he intentionally invented stories, a possibility that cannot
be ruled out—confused the episode of
the Banu Quraiza with that of Muhammad's war on Khaibar.
Far more important than these technical details and idiosyncratic
interpretations are the novelties the pamphlet introduces in Islamic
political discourse regarding the Jews. By combining the Islamic canon
with pre-Christian and Christian anti-Judaism, it attributes strengths
and powers to Jews that cannot be found in Islamic tradition by
portraying them as far more cunning and successful in their vicious
designs than previous mainstream Islamic thought had recognized or
permitted.
The pamphlet portrays Jews as far
more cunning and successful in vicious designs than previous mainstream
Islamic thought.
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A simpler example of this anti-Jewish eclecticism can be found in the
mufti's accusation that Jews brought plague to Arabia. This statement
evokes medieval European myths with similar themes. More significant is
the notion that Muhammad's death might have been a result of poison given
to him by a Khaibar Jewess.
To be sure, Ibn Ishak and Tabari do mention how during the illness
that led to his death Muhammad spoke to Umm Bashr, mother of his poisoned
companion, and complained about his pain, caused by poisonous meat he had
tasted three years earlier.[25]
However, in classic Islamic thought, this tradition was not interpreted
as proof that the Jewess had succeeded in her attempt on the Prophet's
life but as a desire to attribute to the Prophet the highest of virtues:
martyrdom. In Ibn Ishak's words, "The Muslims considered that the
apostle died as a martyr in addition to the prophetic office with which
God had honored him."[26]
Tabari repeats this explanation, as does Ibn Kathir (1300-73), who
referred to eight different hadiths asserting that Muhammad had been
warned by God about the poison: proof of his being a genuine prophet.
Conversely, Ibn Kathir states that "the Messenger of God died a
martyr."[27]
The core theme of all these traditions is the Prophet's martyrdom and
not the Jews' lethal craft; the reader is left with the clear impression
that the two phenomena were unrelated. In contrast, the mufti's pamphlet
establishes the link and changes the emphasis from the Prophet's virtue
to the Jews' mendacity. Apparently, his intention was to draw parallels
with Christian traditions regarding Christ's killing by the Jews. This
accusation was intended to provoke more anger among Muslims, but it also
violated Islamic tradition and theology.
The implications of the mufti's claim that the Jews were successful in
killing Muhammad despite God's warning imply that Jews possess the power
to defy God's will. Such a blasphemous thought would be worse than
Christian accusation of deicide. Jesus overcame death, and by his
suffering, death and resurrection brought salvation to his community of
believers; however, Muhammad not only remained dead but also failed to
appoint his successor due to the rapid progression of his illness and his
sudden, untimely demise. Consequently, the umma was split by different
claimants to authority, and the dispute eventually led to the fiercest
internecine strife in the history of early Islam, known as the fitna.
While the mufti's Palestinian successors would not tire of reiterating
this story (as late as November 2013, Palestinian Authority minister of
religious affairs Mahmoud Habbash claimed that Yasser Arafat was poisoned
by the Jews just as they had poisoned the Prophet Muhammad to death),[28] most contemporary Islamic
scholars have a different understanding of this hazardous theology;
inasmuch, the accusation that the Jews killed the Prophet has largely
faded as a theological theme with mainstream Islamic commentary viewing
the Jews, along the Qur'anic derision, as "adh-dhilla
wa-l-maskan," translated by Yehoshafat Harkabi as
"humiliation and wretchedness."[29] Bernard Lewis further
explained:
The outstanding characteristic,
therefore, of the Jews as seen and as treated in the classical Islamic
world is their unimportance. ... For Muslims, he might be hostile,
cunning, and vindictive, but he was weak and ineffectual—an object of
ridicule, not fear. This image of weakness and insignificance could only
be confirmed by the subsequent history of Jewish life in Muslim lands.[30]
Departing from this conventional view, the mufti did not interpret
contemporary events as a new historical phenomenon to which Muslims
should respond in a new, ad hoc manner. Instead, he traced Jewish
accomplishments of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, and the alleged Jewish
power and ambitions, to supposed Jewish activities at the time of
Muhammad. In doing so, he created a precedent, later followed by
prominent Islamic actors in the Middle East and elsewhere, particularly
after Israel's stunning military victories over its Arab adversaries.
Thus Hamas accuses the Jews of "wiping out the Islamic
caliphate" by starting World War I and of starting the French and
the communist revolutions, establishing "clandestine
organizations" and financial power so as to colonize, exploit, and
corrupt countries.[31]
Likewise, former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Muhammad accused Jews
of ruling the world by proxy.[32]
Attributing such gargantuan accomplishments to the Jews, many of them at
the expense of Muslims, presents a theological innovation with an
immediate political consequence. Linking early Islamic with medieval
Christian depictions of Jews results in their portrayal as "a
demonic entity," thus making their "extermination
legitimate."[33]
Boris Havel holds an M.A. in
comparative religion from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Ph.D. in
international relations and national security from the University of
Zagreb. He works at the Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and teaches
at the Biblical Institute, Zagreb, Croatia. His most recent book is An Overview of the History of Israel: From
Abraham to the Modern State (Izdanja Antibarbarus, 2015).
[1]
Klaus-Michael Mallmann and Martin Cüppers, Nazi Palestine: The Plans
for the Extermination of the Jews in Palestine, trans. Krista Smith
(New York: Enigma Books in Association with the United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum, 2010), p. viii.
[2]
Boris Havel, "Haj Amin al-Husseini: Herald of Religious Anti-Judaism
in the Contemporary Islamic World," The Journal of the Middle
East and Africa, 3 (2014): 221-43.
[3] The
following text has been translated from the original pamphlet: Veliki
Muftija Jeruzalemski Hadži Emin el-Huseini, Islam I Židovstvo
(Zagreb: Hrvatski tiskarski zavod, 1943). I wish to thank the staff of
the National and University Library in Zagreb for tracing the booklet.
The Qur'anic verses and hadith are translated as they appear in the
original text.
[4] The
word "prostačkoj" can also be translated as: obscene,
dirty, or indecent.
[5]
This word was written in singular in the original text and introduces the
notion that the average Jew was such; by referring to "a Jew,"
the author refers to the whole people.
[6] The
mufti fails to note that prominent members of his own family, including
his father, were among the "unscrupulous landlords" selling
plots of land to the Jews. See Efraim Karsh, Palestine Betrayed
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010), pp. 15-19.
[7]
Sura 2:109.-Ed.
[8]
Ibn-Ishak, The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn Ishaq's
"Sirat Rasul Allah" by A. Guillaume (Karachi: Oxford
University Press, 2004; repr., 1967), p. 516; Tabari, The History of
al-Tabari [Ta'rikh al-Rusul Wa-l-Muluk] (New York: State
University of New York Press, 1987-97), vol. VIII, pp. 123-4.- Ed.
[9] Bukhari's
Hadith, 4.394.-Ed.
[10]
The author probably refers to the Arab tribes of Aws and Kharzaj though
the transliteration (Kauša i Karaša) barely resembles those
names.
[11]
The word "pismenjaci" refers to the "People of the
Book" (sljedbenici knjige in Čaušević-Pandža).
[12]
Sura 3:99.-Ed.
[13]
Sura 3:99-101.-Ed.
[14]
Sura 5:41-5.-Ed.
[15]
Sura 2:144-9.-Ed.
[16]
Sura 2:142-3.-Ed.
[17]
Sura 4:51-5.-Ed.
[18]
Sura 5:82.-Ed.
[19] There
is no Qur'anic verse with this message. The mufti perhaps refers to a
non-canonical hadith or obscure tradition.
[20]
Muhammed Pandža and Džemaluddin Čaušević (eds.), Kur'an,
Sedmo Izdanje (South Birmingham: Islamic Relief, 1937-89). Though the
Qur'an condemns those who falsely feigned Islamic belief (e.g., sura
2:8-9, or sura 63), this condemnation does not specifically apply to the
Jews but rather to the wider category of "hypocrites."
[21]
Karsh, Palestine Betrayed, p. 17; David Dalin and John Rothmann, Icon
of Evil: Hitler's Mufti and the Rise of Radical Islam (New York:
Random House, 2008), p. 252.
[22]
Ibn-Ishak, The Life of Muhammad, pp. 492-9; Tabari, The History
of al-Tabari, vol. VIII, pp. 57-67; Qur'an: sura 24:11-26.
[23]
Michael Lecker, "The Hudaybiyya-Treaty and the Expedition against
Khaybar," Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, 5 (1984),
pp. 1-12.
[24]
Ibn-Ishak, The Life of Muhammad, pp. 450-69.
[25]
Tabari, The History of al-Tabari, vol VIII, p. 124.
[26]
Ibn-Ishak, The Life of Muhammad, p. 516.
[27]
Ibn-Kathir, The Life of the Prophet Muhammad (al-Sira al-Nabawiyya),
trans. Trevor Le Gassick (Reading: Garnet Publishing, 2000-06), vol. 3,
pp. 283-7.
[28] Palestinian
Authority TV, Nov. 8, 2013; "PA: Arafat was poisoned by Jews like
Islam's Prophet Muhammad," trans. Palestinian Media Watch, Nov. 12,
2013.
[29]
Yehoshafat Harkabi, Arab Attitudes to Israel (Jerusalem: Israel
Universities Press, 1972), p. 220.
[30]
Bernard Lewis, Semites and Anti-Semites (London: Phoenix, 1997),
pp. 117-39.
[31]
See, for example, "Hamas Covenant
1988," Yale Law School Avalon Project, accessed Mar. 14, 2015.
[32]
CNN, Oct.
16, 2003.
[33]
Moshe Sharon, Jihad: Islam against Israel and the West (Jerusalem:
Moshe Sharon, 2007), pp. 77-8.
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