Friday, October 9, 2015

Why Hitler Wished He Was Muslim


Book Review: ‘Atatürk in the Nazi Imagination’ by Stefan Ihrig and ‘Islam and Nazi Germany’s War’ by David Motadel - WSJ
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Why Hitler Wished He Was Muslim

The Führer admired Atatürk’s subordination of religion to the state—and his ruthless treatment of minorities.

‘It’s been our misfortune to have the wrong religion,” Hitler complained to his pet architect Albert Speer. “Why did it have to be Christianity, with its meekness and flabbiness?” Islam was a Männerreligion—a “religion of men”—and hygienic too. The “soldiers of Islam” received a warrior’s heaven, “a real earthly paradise” with “houris” and “wine flowing.” This, Hitler argued, was much more suited to the “Germanic temperament” than the “Jewish filth and priestly twaddle” of Christianity.

For decades, historians have seen...

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