The Nazification of Arab Political Thought During World War II: Antisemitism, Collaboration, and Ideological Legacy

MILITANT ISLAM AND NAZISM MAKE STRANGE BEDFELLOWS..OR DO THEY?

Introduction

The relationship between Nazi Germany and segments of the Arab world during World War II was neither incidental nor purely tactical. It rested on a shared ideological foundation, most notably extreme antisemitism, and was reinforced by converging political goals: opposition to British and French colonial rule, resistance to Zionism, and the aspiration to reorder the Middle East along authoritarian and theocratic lines. While Nazi racial ideology never viewed Arabs as equals, select Arab political and religious leaders embraced Nazism as a strategic and ideological ally, laying foundations that would later influence militant Islamist movements.

Antisemitism as the Ideological Bridge

At the core of Arab–Nazi collaboration was a shared obsession with Jews as a civilizational enemy. Nazi antisemitism, rooted in racial pseudoscience, portrayed Jews as a corrosive force undermining nations from within. In parallel, radical Arab political theology increasingly framed Jews not merely as a religious out-group but as a conspiratorial, transnational threat.

This convergence marked a decisive shift. Classical Islamic jurisprudence had treated Jews as dhimmi—subordinate but protected communities. By the 1930s–40s, however, European-style genocidal antisemitism was being imported into Arab political discourse, replacing older religious hierarchies with modern racial hatred.

Amin al-Husseini and the Fusion of Islamism and Nazism

No figure embodies this synthesis more clearly than Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. Educated, politically ambitious, and deeply radicalized, al-Husseini became the primary conduit through which Nazi ideology entered Arab nationalist and Islamist thought.

After fleeing British-controlled Palestine, al-Husseini established himself in Berlin, where he:

• Met repeatedly with senior Nazi leadership, including Hitler and Himmler

• Broadcast Arabic-language Nazi propaganda across the Middle East

• Recruited Muslims for Waffen-SS units in the Balkans

• Advocated the extermination of Jews in the Middle East should Axis forces prevail

Al-Husseini did not merely seek tactical alliance. He explicitly endorsed Nazi antisemitism, translating it into Islamic language by portraying Jews as eternal enemies of Islam and framing genocide as religiously justified resistance.

LIKE A SCENE OUT OF ANY WESTERN CITY

Nazi Propaganda and the Arab World

Germany invested heavily in Arabic-language propaganda during the war:

• Radio Berlin broadcast daily programs blending Quranic references with Nazi conspiracy theory

• Pamphlets and sermons framed Hitler as a defender of Islam against Jews and Western decadence

• Zionism was portrayed as part of a global Jewish plot identical to Nazi narratives in Europe

This messaging was effective because it merged modern mass propaganda with religious authority, creating a hybrid ideological form that would later become central to Islamist mobilization.

The Muslim Brotherhood and Ideological Reinforcement

Founded in Egypt in 1928, the Muslim Brotherhood predated WWII but radicalized significantly during the 1930s–40s, drawing ideological reinforcement from Nazi successes and antisemitic doctrine.

Key points of convergence included:

• Rejection of liberal democracy as decadent and corrupt

• Embrace of authoritarian, hierarchical social order

• Framing Jews as enemies of Islam and humanity

• Support for political violence as religious duty

Brotherhood publications during and after the war echoed Nazi conspiracy frameworks, portraying Jews as manipulators of capitalism, communism, and Western imperialism simultaneously—an unmistakable Nazi intellectual inheritance.

From Political Islam to Militant Islamism

The wartime fusion of Nazism and Islamist thought did not vanish in 1945. Instead, it:

• Survived intact in exile networks

• Migrated into postcolonial Islamist movements

• Informed later jihadist ideology

Groups such as Hamas would later cite al-Husseini as a foundational figure, while Brotherhood offshoots embedded antisemitic conspiracy as theological truth. The result was a modern militant Islamism that borrowed Nazi enemy construction, propaganda techniques, and totalizing worldview, even as it rejected Nazi racial hierarchy in favor of religious supremacy.

Conclusion

The “nazification” of segments of Arab political culture during World War II was real, consequential, and enduring. It was not imposed wholesale by Germany but actively embraced by Islamist and nationalist actors who found in Nazism a ready-made ideological weapon against Jews, pluralism, and liberal modernity.

Understanding this history is essential not to indict all Arabs or Muslims, but to accurately trace the genealogy of modern extremist movements. Militant Islamism did not emerge in a vacuum; it was shaped by 20th-century totalitarianism, European antisemitism, and wartime collaboration that fused religious absolutism with modern political hatred.