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Sun, July 04, 2010 | By Crethi Plethi

Amin Al-Husayni in Bagdad with Rashid Al-Gaylani, Leader of Pro-Nazi Iraqi Coup 1941

On April 1, 1941 Nazi sympathizer Rashid Ali al-Gaylani^[1] lead a pro-Nazi military coup in Iraq [known as the 1941 Iraqi coup d’état]^[2] together with four pro-Nazi Iraqi nationalist army generals, known as “the Golden Square,” to overthrow the pro-british regime of Regent ‘Abd al-Ilah. The Pro-Nazi coup was instigated in Iraq by Mufti Mohammad Amin al-Husayni,^[3] [Kharaillah Tulfah was his right-hand man; Tulfah is Saddam Hussein’s mentor and uncle] and with the support from Nazi Germany. Weapons and aircraft for the pro-Nazi nationalists were received from both Germany and Italy, and the pro-Nazi Vichy French authorities in the Syrian Mandate had given assistance to both the pro-Nazi Iraqi nationalists and to the German Air Force.

From his base in Iraq, al-Husayni issued a fatwa for a holy war against Britain on May 10, 1941. British troops countered the pro-Nazi coup and took control over Iraq within a month after the start of the coup, with the help of the Indian 20th Infantry Brigade, and other British, Transjordanian-Arab Legion forces [the same Transjordanian-Arab Legion forces will attack Israel in 1948 after the Israeli Declaration of Independence].

As a result, al-Husayni fled to pro-German Persia where he was granted legation asylum first by the Empire of Japan and then by Fascist Italy. On October 8, al-Husayni fled to Benito Mussolini’s^[4] Fascist Italy through Turkey and Albania, where he arrived in Rome on October 11, 1941. On November 20, al-Husayni met the German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and was officially received by Adolf Hitler on November 28.

The Mufti’s WWII Fatwah Against Britain

In the name of Merciful and Almighty God.

I invite all my Muslim brothers throughout the whole world to join in the Holy War for God, for the defense of Islam and her lands against her enemy. O Faithful, obey and respond to my call. O Muslims! Proud Iraq has placed herself in the vanguard of this Holy Struggle, and has thrown herself against the strongest enemy of Islam …

The English have overthrown the Ottoman Empire, have destroyed Muslim rule in India, inciting one community against another; they stifled the Egyptian awakening, the dream of Mohammed Ali, colonizing Egypt for half a century. They took advantage of the weakening of the Ottoman Empire to stretch out their hands and use every sort of trick to take possession of many Arab countries as happened to Aden, the 9 Districts, the Hadramut, Oman, Masqat and the Emirates of the Persian Gulf and Transjordan.

The vivid proof of the imperialistic designs of the British is to be found in Moslem Palestine which, although promised by England to Sharif Hussein^[5] has had to submit to the outrageous infiltration of Jews, shameful politics designed to divide Arab-Moslem countries of Asia from those of Africa. In Palestine the English have committed unheard of barbarisms; among others, they have profaned the al-Aqsa Mosque and have declared the most unyielding war against Islam, both in deed and in word. The Prime Minister at that time told Parliament that the world would never see peace as long as the Koran existed. What hatred against Islam is stronger than that which publicly declares the Sacred Koran an enemy of human kind?

Should such sacrilege go unpunished? … I invite you, O Brothers, to join in the War for God to preserve Islam, your independence and your lands from English aggression. I invite you to bring all your weight to bear in helping Iraq that she may throw off the shame that torments her. O Heroic Iraq, God is with Thee, the Arab Nation and the Muslim World are solidly with Thee in Thy Holy Struggle!

Notes:

[1] Rashid Ali al-Gaylani.

[2] 1941 Iraqi coup d’état.

[3] Mufti Mohammad Amin al-Husayni.

[4] Benito Mussolini.

[5] Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca.