Grand Mufti

Mm-hmm.

So the, the Grand Mufti put out a statement at the end of September s- basically, you know, describing the Houthis as sort of infidels and saying that it is your religious duty to go and fight them.

And framing conflicts in sectarian terms is obviously, it's ...

I mean, it's a, it's a dangerous thing-

Prime Minister Burnham unequivocally condemned the motion, calling it wrong and anti-Semitic, and stated his party will have nothing to do with such a position.

In Jerusalem, the Grand Mufti has issued a religious ruling, a fatwa, against the purchase of olive products from West Bank settlers.

This move comes in response to escalating settler violence targeting Palestinian olive trees and farmers.

The ruling states it is forbidden to buy goods stolen from Palestinian trees, deeming it an encouragement of theft and an empowerment of the occupier.

And Palestine was absolutely affiliated with the Axis powers in direct capacities.

And there was very good offices between the Fuhrer and the Grand Mufti al-Husseini, who despite what propaganda and mainstream history suggests, He came from a lineage that very much had a claim to the mantle of leadership in Palestine and from a very proud lineage that was and remains very respected among Palestinians across the sectarian divide, Christian and Muslim.

In order to understand that relationship, though, it's important to deal with the relations between the German Reich and the Islamic world generally.

Early on, the Third Reich viewed the Islamic world not in reductionist terms, but as very much a political force that had momentum.

He's also Oppenheim, who'd spent most of his adult life traveling and living in the Islamic world.

He'd reached out directly as a private person since his retirement.

He was in his early 80s, I believe, to pan Islamic religious figures like Shakib Arslan and more, most significantly to the Grand Mufti Amin al-Husseini.

And they became very close.

So you actually alluded to what that match was when you spoke about Al-Aqsa and the Temple Mount.

So coincidentally, right around the time that David arrived in Palestine, the leader of Palestinian Muslims under British rule, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, who had been facing years of criticism from his political rivals, from the Arabic press, with accusations of corruption, nepotism, misuse of religious funds, because he was also the president of the Supreme Muslim Council.

So he was the most powerful Muslim leader in Palestine, essentially the equivalent of chief rabbi of Palestine, but Islamic version.

He oversaw all of the Sharia courts, all Islamic holy sites, all Islamic funds, and he was actually using those funds for his own purposes.

[instrumental music]

Before we get into the specifics of the disinformation campaign to which Yardena refers, we'll take a few minutes here to show you a short excerpt from a documentary on the British control of mandatory Palestine in the interwar period.

We focus here on the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, because he is such a central figure in the story of the 1929 Hebron massacre.

[instrumental music]

Where did it jump? To the Middle East, and it was planted deeply with the guy who's responsible for starting Hamas.

The Grand Mufti, look him up.

Where would that-- Where did that spread? Persia, which had just changed its name to Iran.

Translation, Aryan.

It gets harder and harder.

Another area that Al-Shara is having to work his way through, and you published a story in Syria in Transition, an analysis which we're very pleased to republish in the newsletter, in which you examine the religious co-option and the contradictions between, on the one hand, sentencing the Grand Mufti under Assad to life imprisonment, and on the other, ignoring flagrant offenses by other senior religious figures.

I mean, these are treacherous waters that al-Shara is trying to navigate.

Absolutely.

and say they're all equally valid and correct and we should just respect each other and not try to use insightful language against each other to delegitimize.

And that agreement held.

But of course, the issue of, let's say, transitional justice and the role of, you know, let's be honest, mostly Sufi clerics and their collusion with the old regime is, of course, one of those flashpoint issues that the Salafists are weaponizing, let's say, and saying, well, you know, it's all fine and well prosecuting the former Grand Mufti, who, of course, himself was a Sufi.

What about the other Sufis that also collaborated with the former regime? I think the Syrian government has been, I mean, they've clearly offered up Hassoun, the former Grand Mufti, as a sacrificial lamb.