A user posted and said that Hitler both respected and tried to appeal to the Islamic world. Is there any validity to this claim?

by JustaMoron
MrRivet

Well, i don't know what Hitler would have made of a German born muslim, but it is fairly certain that he would have, in practice, considered most muslims racially inferior.

"We shall continue to make disturbances in the Far East and in Arabia. Let us think as men and let us see in these peoples at best lacquered half-apes who are anxious to experience the lash"

Hitler in a speech to is commanders shortly before the war began. From Islam and Muslims in Germany (2008)

He likely viewed some elements of the 'islamic world' as practically beneficial allies and proceeded to treat them diplomatically, and someone more knowledgeable no doubt will offer a more comprehensive answer to that end, but i feel it's definitely a stretch to say he generally respected the islamic world.

dieLaunischeForelle

and tried to appeal to the Islamic world

The Nazis ran Radio Zeesen broadcasting a programme in several Asian languages with music, comedy and sermons. Transmitters were distributed free of charge to the cafés which could be reached from German embassies.

Künzel credited German orientalist academics with crafting an Islamic brand of antisemitism by patching up some hitherto not cited ahadith and conspiracy theories blaming the Jew for, for instance, the French Revolution.

Source: Künzel, Matthias. Islamischer Antisemitismus und deutsche Politik, LIT-Verlag, 2007.

RealBubzie420

was there an muslim ss division formed in the Balkans or something?. Also didn't Himmler say they made good soldiers because they didn't care if they die in battle?

BritainOpPlsNerf

Insofar as hoping to destabilize the British colonial "rear" he at least made pretense of respect.

The overtures to the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem is a prime example of this, as well as the forming of 'volunteer' Arabian Heer and Bosnian SS units.

In practice it was, as usual, political wish-washing to try and achieve an end, and the reality is that when it came to racial hatred, the Nazis were only ever 'consistent' in their hatred for Jewish persons and Slavs. When the Axis were threatening the Alamein line there was a serious risk of revolts from within the Egyptian and Palestinian militaries and Muslim intelligentsia, who chafed under colonial rule. The Nazis of course made great pains to attempt to portray themselves as would-be 'liberators' to these colonies. In reality of course they most likely would've been trading one colonial power for another.

The Abwehr were also quite active in the middle-east and had at least a marginal number of agents within it.

mancake

Follow up question: I know the Germans had a strong presence in the Middle East during World War I, as allies of the Ottomans. Did they build on those connections at all in World War II, or did the break of of the Ottoman Empire put an end to them?