Cool. I never knew about this. Did you?
Muslims Saving 1700 Children in Holocaust
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Cool. I never knew about this. Did you?
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SudaneseThinker
SudaneseThinker
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Didn’t know, and it is indeed cool. Good counter-balance for that pan-Arabist psycho Haj Amin il-Husseini.
It doesn’t surprise me in the last.
Before Husseini and Nasser and the Ba’ath (and later the “Muslim” fundamentalists) the Arab world was just as sophisticated and a hopeful candidate for greatness as Germany was before Hitler.
Never forget that Arab anti-Semitism is an artificial construct created by Arab Nazis rather than a part of Arab culture.
Arab culture was, traditionally, based on tolerance (to an extent) and Islam. Zionism was by Islam and Arabs regarded as a good thing, not an enemy.
Thinking of Jews as an enemy was the fascists’ idea, just like it was in Germany.
Drima, Albanian Muslims saved a considerable number of Jews during the Holocaust, and have been recognized for this by Yad Vashem and by Israel. Unfortunately, though, in North Africa, the Muslims were, in general, somewhat ambivalent to the fate of Jews as the Axis forces came rolling through. There were some notable exceptions such as the Sultan of Morocco and the Prime Minister of Tunisia, but these were exceptions. However, this is the first time that I’ve heard about this story in France. It’s nice to see that these acts of kindness and bravery are still coming out, even so long after the fact.
Andrew - don’t forget Sayed Qutb, who predated both Husseini and Nasser, and who performed the unparalleled service of translating the ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ into Arabic, thereby giving subsequent generations access to that piece of ‘literary’ tripe.
Drima, Turkish diplomats Selahattin Ulkummen, Necdet Kent, and Namık Kemal Yolga, otherwise known as the “Turkish Schindler”, had a hand in saving as many Jews as they could during the Holocaust.
Yet you don’t hear any of their stories why?
“Yet you don’t hear any of their stories why?”
Telling these stories specifically because they are Muslims doesn’t make much sense.
@Andrew Brehm and Danial, perhaps it would be a good idea to give more attention to muslims having saved jews during the holocaust. If only because of two reasons: that the idea among non-muslims that (all) muslims didnt do anything to save the jews is not true and that the idea among muslims that there was no holocaust is also not true.
Well Andrew, I strongly disagree. These stories SHOULD be told and should be widely publicized exactly because they’re Muslims. It makes a lot of sense.
You see when the Holocaust is brought it up and discussed, many many Muslims wil brush it aside and be like “Eh bla bla bla, typicaly bullshit Zionist garbage propaganda trying to gain our sympathy. Holocaust, Zolocaust. Ya rite! Like it ever happened!” But when you bring up stories of heroic Muslim acts during the holocaust, I think there will be a considerable number of Muslims who will be willing to listen. These stories and their records can be used to fight the extreme case of Holocaust denial widespread throught the Muslim world and once Muslims begin to understand the scale of the Holocaust, they will be better able to understand the psyche of the Jews in general and what they had to go through.
Suzanne, didn’t see your comment while I was typing the previous one…
I perfectly agree 100% with you.
“Well Andrew, I strongly disagree. These stories SHOULD be told and should be widely publicized exactly because they’re Muslims. It makes a lot of sense.”
I was referring to the comment about why these stories are never told, not whether they should be told.
I would find it very odd if these stories were taught in German schools for example. It would seem like some specific multi-cultural thing. Not even Oskar Schindler is a major subject in German schools. If somebody else would be, because he is a Muslim, the entire message of someone’s background not making a difference would be lost, I think.
“But when you bring up stories of heroic Muslim acts during the holocaust, I think there will be a considerable number of Muslims who will be willing to listen.”
I’m not sure that this is true. I have half a mind to assume that these heroic Muslims would simply be regarded as “collaborators”, just like those who currently try to save Jews.
I cannot understand why so many “Muslims” doubt how the Holocaust could ever have happened while they call for Israel’s destruction and the murder of Jews at the same time. I also hear that Hitler is quite popular among some Arabs and that the protocols are a major seller. So perhaps ignorance of the Holocaust is a smaller problem than support for it.
Andrew, most won’t listen. Some will. The wall *might* come down if you chip at it one tiny piece at a time, but it certainly won’t come down if you just watch it and shrug.
Ignorance is something we *can* change. So let’s do what we can instead of trying for the big picture, which we can’t really affect, eh?
“Ignorance is something we *can* change.”
Perhaps. But telling them about what they will likely think of as collaborators might not have the desired effect.
I think they will first have to accept that killing Jews is actually a crime before we can tell them how many Muslims tried to prevent it.
I simply do not see how a population that is convinced that Jews are evil and that Israel must be destroyed will have much respect for stories told of Muslims who helped Jews the last time it happened.
Unless we are going for a “It was bad when the Germans did it, but the Arabs are doing it in self-defence.” theme…
But the Germans also believed it was self-defence.
Speaking as a German, I believe that stories of people like Oskar Schindler helped a lot to make Germans feel better after the fact.
It took more than mentioning Jew-friendly Germans to stop the Germans from killing Jews.
Andrew, the main problem is that “Jews”, after generations of brainwashing and hate-mongering, no longer equal “people” in the Arab mindset. And ignorance *is* part of the problem.
Yes, most won’t listen, will shrug it away, or just say ‘that was then, this is now’.
But some won’t. Some will listen. And ask questions, that will lead to more questions, and that might lead to change, ever so slight.
Thank you for posting this, Drima. I agree with you wholeheardedly that this is important information to get out … not so much as to persuade today’s Muslim world to love Jews and/or accept Israel, but to create future opportunities for dialogue and relations between Muslims and Jews by using this history to show a whole different context of interaction … basically showing that Muslims and Jews have not always competed with each other, but also have a recent history of cooperating to sanctify humanity.
Exposing the fact that many Muslims did in fact help Jews in the Holocaust may create new future role models, and open new ways to examine relations between Muslims and Jews rather than completely allow the Israel/Arab conflict to define relations between us. To have as many frames of reference to say … “look, things between Muslims and Jews in modern history have not always been bad, and they in fact have cooperated against a common enemy with the purpose of saving lives and healing” cannot possibly be a bad thing. It won’t cure any of today’s social ills, but it’s a great tool to help educate … and cultivate … a next generation that is friendlier toward each other than it is today. Thanks again.
There’s a book out now about this very topic, about Arabs that saved Jews during the Holocaust. It’s called Among the Righteous by Robert (I think) Statloff. He’s written a few articles in the Washington Post, Opinion Journal, History News Network about it, pitching his book. It’s important for this to be known because often times people acuse Arabs and Muslims of some kind of a perpetual and consistent anti-Semitism (even good historians like Michael Oren have accused Muslims/Arabs of aiding the Holocaust the whole way through in blanket statements, as in “there was not Arab equivailt” of the Europeans that saved Jews, with stunning arrogance and confidence). Such perversions of history should not continue, as Jews and Arabs have had very good relations in some places, very bad in others, etc., just like in the rest of the world. I know that in my neck of the woods in Connecticut the Arab and Jewish communities have had good relations. People all too often try to pretend that conflicts of today are going to be forever because “they’ve been fighting/hating each other for centuries,” making excuses for one side’s dominance or hatred of the other. Perhaps a a more nuanced presentation of history will help to mediate mentalities. Not instantly, but it can be positive, and any positive movement is good, in my view. Great link Drima.
Khalid Nouri Lumendifi
Andrew & Roman, I agree that it won’t be easy convincing Muslims… But what about convincing stubborn Zionists, pro-Israelis from the Right, Muslim haters etc.? The type you see usually commenting on LGF? Or the type Nouri mentioned? I have a feeling it will be hard convincing them too.
btw PeacefulVanguard, nicely said.
“But what about convincing stubborn Zionists, pro-Israelis from the Right, Muslim haters etc.? The type you see usually commenting on LGF? Or the type Nouri mentioned? I have a feeling it will be hard convincing them too.”
Convince them of what? If they are too stubborn and stupid to accept that Arabs and Muslims can be good people, there is not much we can do. But honestly, I believe that group is a very small minority among Zionists.
I have seen some idiotic comments on LGF, but I have also seen LGF acknowledge Muslims and Arabs who do the right thing. What I don’t like about LGF is mostly their idea that Islam is really the violent religion of the terrorists.
OTOH it is still difficult for me to believe that there is another, more tolerant Islam. It there weren’t bloggers like you, who openfly profess Islam yet do not hate, it would be a lot more difficult to believe it.
Drima, judging from my own experience with Israel’s population (being part of it helps
) the truly stubborn and racist group isn’t all that large. Every society has that group. As for Islam, that is largely down to ignorance and the truly horrible PR self-proclaimed “true Muslims” are giving Islam. Had there been a large enough group of actual Muslims who truly talked against the madness that is currently ruling the Middle-East, public opinion on Islam would change accordingly.
Now, the problem with current Muslim/Arab society is that the hate-filled racist group isn’t a minority. I wish it was, but it isn’t. Here it won’t be simply a matter of ignorance.
As for LGF, I don’t like it much. Like DailyKos, it is too big and too built around a single and unbreakable world view, and attracts people of the same vein.
That’s one conspiracy theory washed down the drain:)
The first thing that popped into my mind when I read the article was : ” That will be staggering news for the Muslims who have denied/still deny the Holocaust.”
Thankx for sharing:)
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