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A Mosque in Munich: Nazis, the CIA, and the Rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in the West

2011; International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations; Issue: 65 Linguagem: Inglês

0733-4540

Laina Farhat–Holzman,

Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence

Johnson, Ian, A Mosque in Munich: Nazis, CIA, and Rise of Muslim Brotherhood in West. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010. This is a cautionary work about unanticipated consequences - an issue mat always confronts foreign policy making. In this case, it is what happens when short-term objectives fail to take into consideration longer-term consequences. It is also about folly of believing that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Sometimes, that enemy is your enemy too. Ian Johnson is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who spent five years researching and writing this important book. He asks question: How did Europe become a Muslim frontier without our noticing it? And why should we care about this now? We must care because United States, England, and Spain have all been attacked by Muslims living in Europe (and now, United States). The book is divided into three war periods: The Hot Wars (World Wars I and II); Cold Wars (the US and USSR); and Modern Wars (Afghanistan-USSR, Gulf War I, Iraq War, Afghan war). The connection in all of these wars is role of Germany and its obsession with making use of Muslims. World War I and Before. Germany and Ottoman Empire were allies during World War I, to detriment of both; but at time, it made sense. The Ottomans had fought with British and Russians during 19th century, but not Germans. Hence relationship between Germans and Turks. Even earlier, Germany, a latecomer to empire, was already interested in Central Asia (at that time controlled by Russian Empire), and Germany produced a number of excellent scholars with knowledge of Persia and Turkic-speaking peoples of Asia. Between World War I and ?, Germans were preparing for empire in East - and they had to consider how they would fight new Communist Soviet Union. They established an ostministerium in preparation for occupying eastern territories (the Muslim part of Soviet Union - and also a place with oil). World War II. With Nazis taking on vast Soviet Union (the Russian war), they found that there was a ready fifth column there: unhappy Turkic-Muslim soldiers of Caucasus and Central Asia not eager to fight for Soviet Union. The Germans encouraged mass defections and took many of these men back to Germany to train - and then used them to fight. Germany was also fighting British in North Africa. The British and French were colonial and Mandate masters of North Africa, with an Arab Muslim population very unhappy under European rule. The Nazis staged a campaign of propaganda and promised independence to Arabs who would help them and they sweetened deal by deporting and murdering Jews who had lived there for millennia. The Nazis made certain that Arabs understood that Anti-Semitism was not really against all Semites (Arabs were that too), but against Jews. One of their more notorious allies was Palestinian Grand Mufti (chief cleric), who became an enthusiastic Nazi and was even feted in a parade in Germany and a meeting with Hitler. Although Germany lost that war - both in North Africa and then in Europe, no sooner was war over, a new enemy arose: Soviet Union and Cold War. …