Nazis in the Middle East: Assessing Links Between Nazism and Islam

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
MIA LEE
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
National Socialism ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Racial Ideology ◽  
Nazi Regime ◽  
National Socialist ◽  
Arab Nationalism ◽  
Anti Semitism ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood

Since the early-2000s there has been an increasing amount of research on connections between the Nazi regime and the Arab world largely spurred by scholars of Germany. One of the key contributions of this scholarship has been the argument that historic links between National Socialism and Islam, in particular the connection between National Socialist racial ideology and contemporary anti-Semitism in the Middle East, persisted into the post-war period and crucially shaped Middle Eastern politics and policies. This approach is represented in this review in the studies by Matthias Küntzel, Jeffrey Herf, Klaus-Michael Mallmann and Martin Cüppers and Barry Rubin and Wolfgang Schwanitz, who all – in various ways – suggest that there is a direct line of continuity between National Socialism, the Muslim Brotherhood and the rise of al-Qaeda. By calling attention to the role of National Socialism, these studies challenge what has hitherto been the dominant historiography of the modern Middle East, which contextualises the rise of anti-Semitism in the region within a broader analysis of Arab nationalism, anti-imperialism and anti-Zionism. The debate on the importance of National Socialism in the Arab world continues to develop. Recent books by historians David Motadel and Stefan Ihrig return the focus from the Middle East to Nazi policy in the region allowing them to place the Nazi regime within a longer history of Western misapprehensions of the ‘Muslim’ world. Placing these two approaches side by side allows us to evaluate the historical evidence of collaboration between Nazism and radical Islam and thereby assess the extent to which Nazi racial ideology penetrated the Arab world.

COMING TO TERMS WITH THE PAST: GERMAN ACADEMIA AND HISTORICAL RELATIONS BETWEEN THE ARAB LANDS AND NAZI GERMANY

2010 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Wien
Keyword(s):  
National Socialism ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Common Denominator ◽  
Political Movements ◽  
Arab Nationalism ◽  
Anti Semitism ◽  
Colonial Archives ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Political Spectrum

The books that are the subject of this review essay comprise three new contributions and one revised edition about a topic that has become paradigmatic in defining scholarly and political approaches to key areas of Middle Eastern history. It has shaped studies of the historical and ideological roots of Arab nationalism, the Arab–Israeli conflict, and the emergence and perseverance of authoritarian regimes in the modern Middle East. The ways that politicians, intellectuals, political movements, and the Arab public related to Nazism and Nazi anti-Semitism have been used to contest the legitimacy of 20th-century Arab political movements across the ideological spectrum. Historians have theorized about the involvement of individuals such as Grand Mufti Amin al-Husseini in the crimes of Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, and Adolf Eichmann; the roots of Arab nationalist doctrine in German Volk ideas; the mimicry of Nazism in organizations such as the Iraqi al-Futuwwa and Antun Saadeh's Syrian Social Nationalist Party; and Arab public sympathies for Nazi anti-Semitism dating from the 1930s or even earlier. Until recently, European and Anglo-American research on these topics—often based on a history of ideas approach—tended to take a natural affinity of Arabs toward Nazism for granted. More recent works have contextualized authoritarian and totalitarian trends in the Arab world within a broad political spectrum, choosing subaltern perspectives and privileging the analysis of local voices in the press over colonial archives and the voices of grand theoreticians. The works of Israel Gershoni have taken the lead in this emerging scholarship of Arab nationalism. This approach was also the common denominator of a research project on “Arab Encounters with National Socialism,” which the Berlin Center for Modern Oriental Studies (Zentrum Moderner Orient) hosted from 2000 to 2003. Its members included the author of this review and the authors of two of the books under review (Nordbruch and Wildangel). The project used indigenous Arabic sources, especially local newspapers, for a close scrutiny of Arab reactions to the challenge of Nazism in a period when Arabs, especially nationalists, perceived that quasicolonial regimes undermined the ostensibly democratic and liberal ethos of the British and French Mandate powers.

Fascism—National Socialism—Arab “Fascism”: Terminologies, Definitions and Distinctions

2012 ◽  
Vol 52 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 242-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joachim Scholtyseck
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
National Socialism ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
National Socialist ◽  
Anti Semitism ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Second World ◽  
First World

Because certain movements in the Arab world of the 1930s and 1940s showed similarities to Mussolini’s and Hitler’s regimes, historians have drawn comparisons with the fascist and National Socialist dictatorships. But not even those arguing for the concept of a “generic fascism” are able to wholeheartedly subsume these movements under their fascist rubric. Fascism and National Socialism evolved in Europe, were shaped by the mood at the fin de siècle, became effective after the First World War in a unique political, social, economic and cultural atmosphere, and only lost their appeal in 1945 at the conclusion of the Second World War. They flourished in industrialized societies and aimed—in novel and twisted ways—at reversing the liberalization of 19th-century Europe. They emphasized power, national rebirth, military order and efficiency; and they were, in the case of Germany, driven by anti-Semitism and racism, resulting in totalitarian rule with genocidal consequences. National-socialist and fascist movements and regimes required the atmosphere and culture of liberal democracy as a foil—and liberal democracy was virtually nonexistent in the Near and Middle East. The preconditions for fascism were thus lacking. Colonial rule was still in place, traditional culture still prevailed in these mainly rural societies, and their small bourgeois parties showed greater allegiance to their clans than to liberal and secular ideologies.

Nasser's Gamble

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesse Ferris
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Original Material ◽  
Egyptian Revolution ◽  
Arab Nationalism ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Arab Spring

This book draws on declassified documents from six countries and original material in Arabic, German, Hebrew, and Russian to present a new understanding of Egypt's disastrous five-year intervention in Yemen, which Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser later referred to as “my Vietnam.” The book argues that Nasser's attempt to export the Egyptian revolution to Yemen played a decisive role in destabilizing Egypt's relations with the Cold War powers, tarnishing its image in the Arab world, ruining its economy, and driving its rulers to instigate the fatal series of missteps that led to war with Israel in 1967. Viewing the Six Day War as an unintended consequence of the Saudi–Egyptian struggle over Yemen, the book demonstrates that the most important Cold War conflict in the Middle East was not the clash between Israel and its neighbors. It was the inter-Arab struggle between monarchies and republics over power and legitimacy. Egypt's defeat in the “Arab Cold War” set the stage for the rise of Saudi Arabia and political Islam. Bold and provocative, this book brings to life a critical phase in the modern history of the Middle East. Its compelling analysis of Egypt's fall from power in the 1960s offers new insights into the decline of Arab nationalism, exposing the deep historical roots of the Arab Spring of 2011.

Fritz: Nazi Propagandist

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristen Renwick Monroe
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
National Socialism ◽  
Nazi Party ◽  
Nazi Regime ◽  
National Socialist ◽  
Socialist Movement

This chapter showcases a Dutch collaborator named Fritz. Fritz shared many of Tony's prewar conservative opinions in favor of the monarchy and traditional Dutch values, although he was of working-class origins, unlike Tony and Beatrix, who were Dutch bourgeoisie. But unlike Beatrix or Tony, Fritz joined the Nazi Party, wrote propaganda for the Nazi cause, and married the daughter of a German Nazi. When he was interviewed in 1992, Fritz indicated he was appalled at what he later learned about Nazi treatment of Jews but that he still believed in many of the goals of the National Socialist movement and felt that Hitler had betrayed the movement. Fritz is thus classified as a disillusioned Nazi supporter who retains his faith in much of National Socialism, and this chapter is presented as illustrative of the psychology of those who once supported the Nazi regime but who were disillusioned after the war.

Spying in God’s House

2018 ◽  
Vol 98 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 425-447
Author(s):  
William S. Skiles
Keyword(s):  
National Socialism ◽  
Racial Ideology ◽  
Nazi Regime ◽  
Secret Police ◽  
Truth Claims ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Public Opposition

AbstractThis article examines the reports of the Gestapo and SD regarding pastors’ criticisms of the Nazi state and its ideology from the authority of the pulpit. My research reveals a degree of public opposition to the regime within the walls of the German churches, especially in terms of Nazi racial ideology and the persecution of Jews. While pastors did not incite resistance to the Nazi regime or conspire to overthrow its leadership, they at times sought to undermine the legitimacy of Nazi claims to truth. The sermons reveal concern among pastors that National Socialism and Christianity are at odds, or even mutually exclusive believe systems. Furthermore, the evidence indicates that pastors were often drawn into the cross-hairs of the Nazi secret police by asserting that Christianity must be the standard and measure of Nazi racial truth claims.

Post-Islamism in Distress? A Critical Evaluation of the Theory in Islamist-Dominated Egypt (11 February 2011-3 July 2013)

2014 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-118
Author(s):  
Robbert A.F.L. Woltering
Keyword(s):  
Arab World ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
New Horizons ◽  
Middle Eastern Studies ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Tunisian Revolution

The developments in the Arab world since the outbreak of the Tunisian revolution not only open up new horizons for Arab citizens, they also allow for scholars of Middle Eastern studies to test certain theories in ways heretofore impossible. One such theory is that of post-Islamism. This paper discusses a number of recent publications by former members of the Muslim Brotherhood, in light of recent developments in and analysis of Egypt’s Islamist politics, with the aim of determining whether it is possible (and useful) to speak of a ‘post-Islamist condition’ in the post-Mubarak period wherein the Muslim Brotherhood rose to power. 


Arab Nationalism and National Socialist Germany, 1933–1939: Ideologic and Strategic Incompatibility

1980 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 351-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francis Nicosia
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
Recent History ◽  
National Socialist ◽  
Arab Nationalism ◽  
The Past ◽  
Winston Churchill ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of

When Winston Churchill visited Palestine in March, 1921, the debate over the future of Palestine and the recriminations over the broken promises of the past were at a fever pitch. It had become clear that British control over Palestine would be formalized by a League of Nations Mandate which would then irnplement the provisions of the Balfour Declaration. In Haifa, a delegation of Muslim and Christian Arabs met with Churchill to express their views on the intensifying conflict in Palestine. Churchill was given a prophetic warning, the accuracy of which has been of profound significance in the recent history of the Middle East:Today the Arabs belief in England is not what it was.… If England does not take up the cause of the Arabs, other powers will. From India, Mesopotamia, the Hedjaz andPalestine the cry goes up to England now. If she does not listen, then perhaps Russia will take up their call some day, or perhaps even Germany.

Sindbad's Ocean: Reframing the Market in the Middle East

2016 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 754-757
Author(s):  
Johan Mathew
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Gulliver's Travels ◽  
The World ◽  
Cultural Markers ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
Indian Ocean World

There are few figures as universally beloved and yet recognizably “Middle Eastern” as Sindbad. The text of Sindbad's seven voyages travel easily across continents and languages and many of the tales blur imperceptibly into those of Homer'sThe Odysseyand Swift'sGulliver's Travels. Yet this swashbuckling adventurer is also firmly situated in the world of Abbasid Iraqandthe Indian Ocean world. Sindbad is clearly identified as a good Muslim and respected Baghdadi merchant, and while fantastical, there are recognizable geographic and cultural markers that locate his voyages within the Indian Ocean world. This iconic character of Arab popular culture pushes us to contemplate how easily the Arab world flows into that of the Indian Ocean.

The Middle Eastern Cold War: Unique Dynamics in a Questionable Regional Framework

2011 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 320-322
Author(s):  
Jeffrey James Byrne
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
International History ◽  
War Narrative ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Ideological Identity

One of the more prominent themes to emerge from this roundtable is the desire to integrate the history of the modern Middle East with broader trends in international history, particularly with regard to the recent emphasis on “decentralizing” and “globalizing” the Cold War narrative. My own research interests are consistent with this approach, as one of the central concerns of my current project is to show how Algeria's revolutionary nationalists defied the regional categories imposed on them from the outside by pursuing overlapping diplomatic initiatives under the rubrics of Maghribi unity, African unity, Arab unity, Afro-Asianism, and Third Worldism. After independence in 1962, the Algerian foreign ministry's main geographical divisions differed significantly from those used by the U.S. State Department—and most history departments’ hiring committees—by dividing the world into “the West,” “the Socialist Countries,” “the Arab World,” “Africa,” and “Latin America/Asia.” These categories were the product of both practical considerations and ideological/identity politics on the part of Algeria's new leaders, and to my mind suggest that the “Middle East” may itself be a particularly arbitrary and misleading geographical framework, even in comparison to other parts of the developing world where European imperialism exerted a heavy cartographical influence.

scholarly journals Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Arab World

2003 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-136
Author(s):  
Magnus T. Bernhardsson
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Jewish Communities ◽  
Arab Nationalism ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
Important Study ◽  
The Status ◽  
Advantageous Position ◽  
Muslim Majority

1n this interesting and well-researched book, Bruce Masters analyses the historyof Chris tian and Jewish communities in the Ottoman Empire's Arabprovinces and how they fared within a Muslim majority and hierarchy. Byand large, this important study is a story of modernization, identity, and ecclesiasticalpolitics that focuses primarily on Christian communities in Aleppo,Syria. The book's main themes are somewhat familiar: How Christian andJewish communities were in an advantageous position to benefit fromincreasing European influence in the Middle East, and how a secular politicalidentity (Arab nationalism) emerged in the Levant. The book's value liesnot in its overarching thesis, but rather in the details of the story and theimpressive research upon which this well-crafted narrative is based.Masters chronicles how the identities of Christians and Jews evolveddue to their increasing contact with western influences, or, as Masters labelsit, "intrusion." The status quo was forever transformed because manyChristians began to distance themselves, economically and socially, fromtheir Muslim neighbors. Masters, a historian who teaches at Connecticut'sWesleyan University, contends that the western intrusion altered Muslimattitudes toward native Christians. In the nineteenth century, local Christianswould serve for some Muslims as "convenient surrogates for the anger thatcould only rarely be expressed directly against the Europeans."Although the Arab provinces experienced serious sectarian strife in thenineteenth century, these antagonisms were, by and large, absent in the ...

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