Muslims fight for Germany in WW2

 nonetheless muslims actually played a

particularly important role in the war

and became a significant focus of

germany in the words of the german

chancellor himself

the people of islam will always be

closer to us than

for example france to understand the

chancellor's position on islam

requires some backgrounds pertaining to

his general religious views

and thereby those of germany as a world

war ii

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to a milder degree of course the leader

of the third reich held a strong disdain

for christianity as well

especially the catholic church viewing

both religions as weak

absurd and unrealistic even though

germany was a christian nation

and christianity was a part of the

european culture

a hatred towards the corruption of the

catholic church existed

as germany moved to expand rapidly it

inevitably found itself facing the

balkans

and moving closer to the middle east

this subsequently

brought the axis power into direct

engagement with the muslim world

promptly making the german chancellor's

religious opinions

exceedingly significant there were two

obvious options for germany risk the

muslim nations becoming added opposition

or make them into allies choosing the

latter

the german leaders began to court the

people of islam through propaganda and

advantageous policies utilizing an

assortment of strategies to politicize

the muslims faith in hopes of winning

over their support

german propagandists went as far as

exploiting the concept of jihad

and the sacred texts of the quran one

pamphlet dropped over

north africa by the germans described

the tale of an evil king

king dajjal from islamic tradition this

king is said to have led

70 000 jews from isfahan and into battle

in the world's final days against isa

the muslim prophet

associated with jesus although in this

case the prophet was said to be the

german

chancellor himself a plethora of

pamphlets like this were created by the

germans in their determined attempts to

recruit as many

followers of islam as they could in

addition to these propaganda-style

strategies

germany also enacted a new set of

policies relating to the treatment of

muslims within its military

by 1941 the german army navy

and air force began to distribute a

handbook

simply titled islam to its troops in

order to clearly instruct them

on how they should behave towards all

muslims furthermore

muslims in the vermax were also granted

religious freedoms

most remarkably doing away with the

previously imposed ban

on ritual slaughter which had been

created as a byproduct of anti-semitism

in 1933

reaching even further on the eastern

front the germans ordered the

reconstruction of a collection of

mosques

madrasas and prayer halls that have been

destroyed by the soviet union

prior to german occupation this move

served as both a deed of defiance

towards the soviets and a hopeful act of

friendship towards the muslims

another potential sign of unity that the

germans likely noted

came in the form of shared enemies as

stated by jerusalem's grand mufti

hajj amin el husseini the germans and

arabs were

in fact unintentionally on the same side

considering their mutual oppositions to

other ethnicities and forms of

government

the arab muslims were more focused on

their disapproval of the british and

french colonizers

and the jews in palestine specifically

nonetheless

the grand mufti considered the arabs to

be natural friends of germany

truly believing in their ability to win

the war and

benefit his own nation it is important

to remember though

that germany's views at the time of

racial purity and superiority

were in direct contradiction of his

decision to recruit and befriend the

arab and muslim world

interestingly instead of addressing the

inconsistency

germany chose to heighten it by

declaring certain groups such as the

turks

the muslims of bosnia and the grand

mufti himself

to be honorary aryans considering the

fact that not all muslims and arabs

would fall for the german's propaganda

contradiction and violently anti-semitic

beliefs

the question still remains as to what

drove such

confident recruitment of islam's

followers

the answer to this one may be found a

couple of decades

prior at the start of world war one

germany became

extremely interested in islam seeing the

muslims as the key to victory against

the triple and taunt

the germans attempted to spark muslim

revolts against the french and british

colonial powers

one german diplomat max von oppenheim

even described islam as one of their

most important weapons

following up this claim by asserting

that britain france and the russians

were the oppressors of islam

unfortunately for germany they never

accounted for the brewing arab uprising

against the ottoman empire which allowed

france and britain the opportunity to

swoop in and appease the revolting

muslims and eventually split the

previously turkish-controlled syria

lebanon palestine and iraq between

themselves

as well as awarding russia with armenia

at the sykes-picot agreement

of may 1916. ultimately

the germans utterly fails to rally

muslim support in the first world war

but their attempt to do so again with

the hope for more success

comes as less of a surprise despite the

contemporary racial beliefs by the time

of world war ii

jumping back ahead to the second world

war himmler stated that he had no

issue with islam because of its promises

when it came to martyrdom

and he believes that it was a very

practical religion

for soldiers given that the chancellor

himself also respected the muslims faith

for similar reasons

it is safe to assume that there was

strongly pragmatic reasons behind

everything the germans did in their plea

for muslim support

of course having additional allies

served as the obvious purpose and it is

incredibly likely that there was also an

aim to use as many foreign soldiers as

possible to avoid

more german casualties moreover germany

could not afford to deal with the unrest

caused by an

added enemy or the territories they

sought to occupy

by enticing the muslim world into either

aligning with or at least

not opposing them the germans would have

a better chance at smooth expansion

and pursual of the larger war at hand

by the end tens of thousands of muslims

have been recruited by the german army

and those who joined fought on all

fronts

one setback came during the german

invasion of russia though

when thousands of muslims were executed

some muslims even chose to simply side

with the allies instead

with roughly 230 000 coming from north

africa alone

joining the free french even more fought

for britain

about 9 000 palestinian muslims at least

half a million indian muslims and

additional muslim groups from regions

reaching all the way to south

asia were unfazed by the axis propaganda

and instead

picked the allies an underwhelming

number fought for the germans in

comparison

but they were still able to form the

13th waffen mountain division

was made up of predominantly bosnian

muslims

who were charged with the duty of

restoring order to yugoslavia

although they faced their own mutiny

before the soldiers training process had

even ended

while the germans were able to squash

this rebellion and salvage the division

it still serves as another hint at

germany's failure to once again utilize

islam

as a powerful force against their

enemies during wartime

despite the fact that the german goals

to recruit mass amounts of muslim troops

more or less

pales in comparison to the numbers of

those who decided to fight for the

allies it was only a partial failure as

they did manage to enlist

some especially because a large part of

the muslim world was under the colonial

powers of france and great britain

the role of france and britain as

colonial powers likely helped

drastically to undermine germany's

propaganda and recruitment techniques

given the fact that the allies had a

much more authoritative presence in the

region

nonetheless the muslim world played an

integral role in the events of the

second world war