Forbidden Article: Magazine Should Be Ashamed for Glorifying Hitler

This piece was sent to The Star editorial on 17th September, in which I doubt would be published by mainstream media. Thus, I took the liberty of publishing it in Don Cassini’s blog, as well as sending it to various alternative media.

I did not study the rise and fall of the Third Reich for the last few years just to let this misinformation to be passed around in the Malaysian sphere. I did not study the psyche of Hitler just to let people awe at his diabolical acts. I did not scrutinize the words of Joseph Goebbels just to let his propaganda to be scattered around as bits of Truth.

They did it once, they did it again. It’s the same magazine that desecrated the Eucharist, and I believe that the same Editor is still on the payroll. This time, the idiocy seems to be too obvious not to be noticed. With its feature article, “Hitler Admitted Islam’s Supremacy” (Hitler Akui Kehebatan Islam), the said magazine implied that the Fuhrer who was responsible for the genocide of 6 million innocent Jews, the murderer of millions of mentally ill and handicapped citizens of German, the patron of experiments on live humans without anaesthesia, and the supporter of Japanese barbarity and butchery in World War 2 was a leader who respected Islam and its tenets. I have to say I couldn’t find a better toilet paper for myself than the magazine.

The article deliberated on Hitler’s so-called support for the struggles of Palestinians and the Arabs during World War 2, as well as his connection with the then Mufti of Jerusalem, Imam al Huseyni. The article also mentioned as to how Hitler gave the Muslim division of his army ‘specialties’ in terms of times allocated for the five daily prayers, his own (Nazi-indoctrinated) Ulama division and the oath of loyalty towards Hitler which invoked Allah. These, infused with Nazi concocted propaganda and the author’s lack of insight of History made uninformed people believed that the Fuhrer was indeed a genuine adherer of the Faith. The article too tried to influence its readers to believe that the genocide of six million Jews was the only way to stop Zionism and the capitulation of the State of Palestine. This dim-witted article is outrageously dangerous on three levels.

First, it made the mostly anti-Semitic Malaysian readers believe that the genocidal act orchestrated by Hitler was an act of chivalry, and that the other powerful nations then were too scared to ‘take care’ of the Jewish Question. Some may say that a rumour or mere conspiracy theory is harmless, that total freedom of speech is harmless to all that is good in the world. But let us be realistic on this issue of influencing a dormant public. Malaysian public has been a dormant public, all thanks to the socio-political environment we were brought with. Our social structure made many a dormant receiver to any news brought into circulation – many accepted as facts without even a pinch of salt taken. Thus, the portrayal of Hitler as defender of Islam, as well as the ‘noble quest’ of his to end the Jew’s mischief on earth would be accepted as pure facts by many gullible minds in Malaysia. As a leading country in Muslim nations’ sphere, our actions are scrutinized and followed by many Islamic nations. We hold part of the key to narrow the gap between the West and Islamic civilization. An article like this, in a so-called Islamic magazine has no place if we are to foster a better relation between these two civilizations. The Islamic Republic Iran, deemed as a rogue nation by the West is able to maintain the highest number of Jewish population living outside Israel in the Middle East, given freedom of worship and a guaranteed seat in the Parliament. Malaysia on the other hand is a democratic country that allows Jew-bashing in our media as well as the demonization of the Jew as a race. It is about time we live to our ideals and principles. That is the true principle of a democratic country, built upon the spirit of 1 Malaysia.

Secondly, by aligning Hitler with Islam is an act of treason towards Islam. Hitler was an adherer to Nietzsche’s philosophy, in which its main doctrine is ‘God is Dead’. Historical records clearly showed that Hitler personally believed that the Arab race was a ‘race of mongrels’ (which according to his Aryan Supremacy belief, means that the Arabs are not of pure race but a mixture of many races, thus a race of subhuman) – and that Hitler himself mentioned that the Mufti of Jerusalem was a half breed; a cross between a noble ‘Aryan race with the Semitic race, making him slightly better than the Jews’. It is important to point out to the fact that Hitler’s respect towards the Mufti did not come from the Mufti’s piousness but rather, his fair skin and light coloured hair which is considered ‘Aryan in nature’. The article in the magazine also mentioned that Hitler spoke highly about Islam in Mein Kampf, which is false. Hitler who adored Napoleon Bonaparte was merely following the footsteps of the self-crowned Emperor of France. Upon conquering Egypt, Napoleon pretended to embrace Islam and its culture in front of the local populace as to appease them. More than that, Napoleon wished to harness ‘the power of their Holy War’, in essence – the power to declare Jihad. The power crazed Napoleon was always at awe with the spirit and rigour of Jihad. Napoleon’s ambition was simple; to encapsulate this spirit and unleash it on the European continent. Thus, the Mameluke Unit was born – with Napoleon pretending as a Muslim at its Head, its own training schedule to accommodate prayer times, as well as its own Imam. Once, it was even said that Napoleon claimed in front of his Muslim subjects that the Ottomans were a decadent lot – and that he, Napoleon Bonaparte was left to defend Islam. Thus, Hitler who had always mentioned highly of Napoleon merely mimicked the idea – adding his own flavour of Nazism into effect. Having mentioned this, Hitler’s so called grandiose plan to elevate the Arab/Muslim’s standard of living was far from truth but merely propaganda to gain international support. The Arab World, which by then was already fatigued by the British instigated Arab Revolt was looking for another power to counter the British domineering influence in the region. Hitler, noticing this weakness in the Caliph-less Arab world – combined with his desire to emulate Napoleon – tried his best to charm the Arab/Muslim world. Thus, prior to the World War 2, Hitler and Mussolini were at once proclaimed as Defenders of the Arab. Hirohito too used the same propaganda proxy to influence the Muslims in Southeast Asia, evident in much of their “British Musuh Islam” posters. The author of the article has blatantly refused to showcase the revolt of certain Muslim Balkan’s Wehrmacht Division against their German masters, deliberately covering up the fact that many ulamas in the Balkan region were against Nazism at its rise to dominance, and that Hitler merely washed his hand off the atrocities done by his ally; Mussolini against the Muslims in Libya – who were in grave Jihad against Mussolini’s force. If Hitler was indeed a true adherer of Islam – many of the atrocities he did would not have been committed. If Hitler was indeed a true fighter of Islam; the Muslims of Libya would not be oppressed by his lackey – Mussolini. There could be only one truth in this argument. Hitler could not be the defender of Islam, nor is he a person who respects any faith.

On the third level, the article would definitely spread fear towards Islam, and also creating more confusion about Islam – particularly in the West. Indeed, I view the said article with high degree of suspicion. Gandhi, Bernard Shaw and many other great names have spoken great things about Islam – yet the author chose Hitler as his main focus. In fact, the author narrated the entire article as though the genocide of six million Jews was a sort of continuation of Islamic practices. A few Islamophobic preachers in the States had maintained that Islam is in-sync with Nazism, using Goebbel’s propaganda materials as their source. This demonization of Islam in the eyes of the West would be ‘near-completion’ if Muslims themselves start to give their support to this dead Fuhrer, who has reached a near mythical status akin to Beelzebub. Malaysia’s anti-Semitic fervour should be countered with the essence of realization and self reflection. That Malaysia is seen highly and followed by many other Muslim countries should serve as a mechanism of self reflection. I truly applaud the works done by TV3 in the previous Jejak Rasul series that has tried to inform Malaysian audience that Islam is not against Judaism or the Jews – but rather the concept of Zionism. Ergo, the article published by the said magazine would only hamper down the works done by TV3 and many others– and inflame the rising tide of anti-Semitism in Malaysia. As a leading Muslim-majority country, Malaysia should serve as a model country of tolerance and acceptance of those who are of different faiths. And this includes the Jews.

Conclusively, this clearly shows the dilemma that is faced by the Muslim world since the defeat at Lepanto. Muslims are still looking for a secular and spiritual leader that would be able to bring out the pride of being a Muslim and living to its ideal. This made the Islamic world cling unto any leaders, rogue or not – as long as that leader pleased the crowd with promises to bring back the glory of Islamic Civilization. A vacuum that is often taken advantaged by people by the likes of Napoleon, Hitler, Idi Amin, Saddam Hussein and many others. They do not live to Islamic ideals, nor did they wish to set up Islamic states. All that they wanted was to manipulate the prowess of the Muslim world to their advantage. And these are the people that Muslims should be made aware of, not to be followed or adhere to. With all these being said, I strongly urge the government to retract the September edition of the Al Islam magazine, or at least censor the article praising Hitler. It is a taint to Islam to have such magazine praise a mass butcher.

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~ by cassini89 on September 20, 2010.