Well, at least he had the chutzpah to do that sort of thing in Beruit. As for the fact that a Naziism has a rather absurd popularity among some Arabs well, yes it has long done so. Despite not being the sort of thing one normally associates with Arabia("Tis said-but Allah alone knows-that once long ago there was a mad street painter with a mustache who had an evil jinn captive in a lamp. But now I am being grotesque). But my point is that the relationship between Hitler and Moslems can't really be exaggerated. He thought them useful political tools at times. And several Arab princes thought vice-versa. And once or twice Adolph said that Islam was a more fitting religion for Germans. But the relationship cannot be exagerrated and it cannot be noted without remembering that the vageries of politics has strange twists. If I recall Arabs in Libya liked English better because English were beating up Italians(sorry Gina, you folk may never live THAT cliche down)and Italians were their overlords. Egyptian Arabs often liked Germans for much the same reason. Then too many Arabs were encouraged to overromanticize German tactical prowess but they were hardly the only ones to do this-although they took it far more seriously then teenage wargame geeks do. Then to radical islam, pan-arabism, and Naziism do share characteristics in common. They used many of the same methods and provided much the same stimulus. One of the main temptations of extremist ideology is to enable people to act in a cinematic fashion by createing a world for themselves that only exists in movies. In effect a real life RPG. It is also a way to take out humiliations. Losing nearly every war sense 1683 is a pretty big humiliation, not least for a Moslem. So Moslems may be more susceptable to such things and being a skinhead is almost as good as being a Islamacist. Even though, by strict Moslem standards it is as much a heresy as by Christian, and a foreign heresy to boot. My point though is basically that such things can't be exagerrated. Those bratty kids were just skinheads. Essentially no different then what you would find in many western countries. There may be a greater supply of potential skinheads in Arab countries but they are still just skinheads. Islamisism by contrast is more at home in Islam because it has precedant in old warrior-fraternities, secret societies, and pseudo-messiahs that show up from time to time in Islam. And indeed anti-islamicist Moslems tend to compare Islamicists with these. So yes there is connection between Islam and Nazis. But much of it is coincidental.

Jason, old friend, what would you say to Christopher Hitchens? (Besides the obvious book-title retort "OK, god may not be great, but having a religion is better than getting beaten for being an obnoxious in-your-face atheist".) http://thepoint.breakpoint.org/2009/02/hitchens-attacked-in-syria.html It seems to me that the big issue is the Muslim adoption of both Nazi principles and (as Hitchens found out the hard way) Nazi tactics. Hmmm - "Brown Kaftans"?

I started showing "Schindler's List" in my freshman literature class today, something I haven't done in several years. However, given the current rise in anti-Semitism, it seemed like a good time to raise the issue. As I watched a scene in the film where a Polish girl is repeatedly screaming "Goodbye Jews" while throwing handfuls of dung at them, I was reminded of recent accounts of similar threats screamed at pro-Israel supporters in Florida and elsewhere. It's an old, old evil (yes, evil) that plays right into the devil's hand.

True but that seems to have been considered a "fringe benefit" so to speak. The Wafen SS was the military branch of the SS. It served as a Praetorian Guard and as manpower grew streched, as sort of a Foreign Legion. The use of Muslims in any case was never intended as a large part of policy.

"Al Husseini personally recruited Bosnia Muslims for the German Waffen SS, including the Skanderberg Division from Albania and Hanjer Division from Bosnia. The Hanjer (Saber) Division of the Waffen SS was responsible for the murder of over 90 percent of the Yugoslavian Jewish population." http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/2543

Of course technically Hitler used Muslims mostly as a foreign policy pawn like any state might have and did. I don't think there were enough Muslims in his actual domain to be of much help in eradicating Jews. Though it probably was sometimes and if I recall the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem was not just an ally of convenience but an active supporter of the Holocaust. Which makes one recall the phrase about reaping the whirlwind.

You're correct about persecutors of Jews. However, I don't think using Hitler reduces its shock. Hitler used the help of Muslims to eradicate Jews just like Hugo is doing. Bonhoeffer died because he was trying to stop Hitler's evil... that's my point. (Hugo's probably not persecuting the Jews because of race, per se, but because of power--and power is what Muslims can help him achieve. Of course, they might try and take it back, but what the heck.)

Actually you don't have to be Hitler to be evil. Or to be anti-semite. Useing him as an anology to often reduces his shock value. There are after all, a fair number of persecutors of Jews.