Husseini's entry into the politics of jihadism came in the wake of the signing of the Weizmann-Faisal agreement in January 1919, articles III and IV of which assured the Jews a homeland in Palestine. After inciting riots in Jerusalem in 1920 with cries of "Kill the Jews. There is no punishment for killing Jews," Husseini fled the country and was sentenced in absentia to ten years in prison. When elections to select a new mufti were held in April 1921, the British High Commissioner for Palestine, Sir Herbert Samuel, bypassed the official process and appointed Husseini to the position in an effort to secure the domestic peace. This had the opposite effect: One of Husseini's first acts as mufti was to declare a jihad against the British and the Jews.In August 1929, in a response to the mufti's cry that "he who kills a Jew is assured a place in the next world," Arabs went on a rampage throughout Palestine, leaving 133 Jews dead and 339 wounded. On April 19, 1936, again at Husseini's incitement, rioting against the Jews erupted in Jaffa in what subsequently evolved into a three-year Arab revolt but not before the mufti had begun building his alliances with the Nazis.
In March 1933, Husseini had his first meeting with Nazi general consul Heinrich Wolff in Jerusalem, having earlier established connections with the Muslim Brotherhood. Husseini arranged for the Brotherhood to receive support from the Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s and later indicated that the Germans made it possible for him to engineer the Arab revolt of 1936-39. On October 2, 1937, he met with Adolf Eichmann and Herbert Hagen, one of Eichmann's colleagues in the Gestapo's Department of Jewish Affairs:
Eichmann wrote glowingly of "the national and racial conscience" that he observed while amongst the Arabs. He reported that "Nazi flags fly in Palestine, and they adorn their houses with swastikas and portraits of Hitler."
The meeting took place during the Arab "revolt," just months after the Peel Commission's report of July 7, 1937, which recommended a two-state solution to the tensions between Palestinian Jews and Arabs. That was not the solution that Husseini wanted, and Eichmann knew it.
Days later, on October 13, the mufti again fled Palestine for Lebanon to avoid arrest and possible deportation for inciting violence against the British Mandate government. Two years later, he set up his base of operations in Baghdad and joined with Rashid Ali al-Gaylani to lead a Nazi-backed takeover of the Iraqi government on April 1, 1941. By May 31, the British had successfully suppressed the coup but not before Husseini had issued a fatwa (religious edict) announcing a jihad against Britain and the Jews. Months later, on November 28, 1941, the mufti, whom the Nazis now deemed the "champion of Arab liberation," sat opposite Adolf Hitler, who assured him that the Nazis and the Arabs were engaged in the same struggle, namely, the extermination of the Jews.
By the end of the year, Husseini had met again with Eichmann, by now tasked with executing the "Final Solution"; his deputy Dieter Wisliceny later testified that Eichmann had informed the mufti "of the plan concerning the 'Final Solution of the Jewish Question in Europe.'" Eichmann's deputy also claimed that "the mufti was one of the initiators of the systematic extermination of European Jewry and had been a collaborator and advisor of Eichmann and Himmler in the execution of this plan." Authors David Dalin and John Rothman have argued along these lines that "of the major Nazi leaders, Heinrich Himmler was the one with whom al-Husseini collaborated most actively and consistently … One of the common goals shared by al-Husseini and Himmler, who was the architect of the Nazis' 'Final Solution,' was the extermination of the Jews."Indeed, in his memoirs, the mufti had no qualms about boasting of his intimate friendship with Himmler.
Husseini had at his disposal six radio stations from which he issued regular Arabic language broadcasts urging Muslims in service to God to kill Jews everywhere. On December 11, 1942, he called Muslims to "martyrdom" as Germany's allies against the English and the Jews. "The spilled blood of martyrs," he cried, "is the water of life."[26] A week later, at a meeting of the Islamische Zentral-Institut, he recited verses from the Qur'an teaching that the Jews were the "most implacable enemies of the Muslims."[27] On November 2, 1943, he declared at a rally in the Luftwaffe Hall in Berlin, "The Germans know how to get rid of the Jews … They have definitely solved the Jewish problem. [This makes] our friendship with Germany not a provisional one, dependent on conditions, but a permanent and lasting friendship."[28]
The mufti's actions were as murderous as his words. As early as January 1942, Husseini had begun recruiting Muslims to serve in German SS killing units, the most infamous of which was the Mountain Handschar Division of 21,065 men.[29] Other Muslim SS killing units included the Skanderberg Division in Albania and the Arabisches Freiheitskorps in Macedonia. These murderous Muslim units played a major role in rendering the Balkans Judenrein (free of Jews) during the winter of 1943-44. As these units were doing their work, the mufti was taking other measures to hasten the slaughter of the Jews. According to Wisliceny and Hungarian Jewish leader Rudolf Kastner, Husseini wrote letters to the governments of Bulgaria (May 6, 1943), Italy (June 10, 1943), Romania and Hungary (June 28, 1943) demanding that their Jews be exterminated without delay.[30]
In a broadcast aired on January 21, 1944, Husseini continued to blend Nazism with jihadism, asserting that "the Koran says, 'You will find that the Jews are the worst enemies of the Moslems.' There are also considerable similarities between Islamic principles and those of National Socialism."[31] In fact, he enumerated seven points that Nazis and Muslims had in common: "(1) monotheism—unity of leadership, the leadership principle; (2) a sense of obedience and discipline; (3) the battle and the honor of dying in battle; (4) community, following the principle: the collective above the individual; (5) high esteem for motherhood and prohibition of abortion; (6) glorification of work and creativity: 'Islam protects and values productive work, of whatever kind it may be'; (7) attitude toward the Jews—'in the struggle against Jewry, Islam and National Socialism are very close.'"[32]
Two months later, Husseini enjoined his followers to "kill the Jews wherever you find them. This pleases God, history, and religion."[33] If "Islamic jihad blends religion and nationalism in its endeavor to annihilate Israel," as Ziad Abu-Amr says,[34] this statement not only echoes his incitement of the Arabs' anti-Jewish riots of 1920 and 1929 but also exemplifies Husseini's jihadist stance.
As the fighting that year dragged on, Husseini grew afraid that the war might end before the prime directive of the extermination of the Jews could be achieved. Twice he wrote to Himmler, urging him to use every means possible to complete the extermination of the Jews.[35]
When the war ended, Husseini became a Nazi war criminal. Nonetheless, he received a hero's welcome when he turned up in Egypt on June 20, 1946, thanks to the assistance of the French authorities. Ten days later, the Muslim Brotherhood newspaper al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin announced, "The Arab hero and symbol of al-jihad and patience and struggle is here in Egypt."[36] This paragon of jihadism soon met with Banna and Qutb to continue "the same struggle that Hitler and Germany—and Husseini himself—had been waging during the war," according to American academic Jeffrey Herf.[37] With the Nazis' extermination goals in mind, he also took under his wing a promising young man: Yasser Arafat.
