anti-Semitic arguments.46 It told its listeners that in 1917, Balfour "met often with an American Jew" who was "a fanatical member of the Zionists." These meetings were said to have led the British government to "promise Palestine to the Jews." The Balfour Declaration was a history of a "threefold betrayal ... the most shameful hypocrisy and deceptions ever in history." Britain's promises to the Arabs were forgotten at the Versailles Peace Conference. Palestine, Iran, and Transjordan remained under English control. "These events are the foundation of the great Arabic freedom struggle [Grossarabischen Freiheitskampf] for justice, honor, and freedom of the Arabs. 1147 The phrase, "great Arabic freedom struggle," was a borrowing from the German phrase Grossdeutschen Freiheitskampf, "great German freedom struggle;" which was the term used in some Nazi accounts to describe World War II. The broadcast drew a parallel between Nazi Germany's "great freedom struggle" and that of the Arabs.48
On January 16,1941, a religious homily addressed the supposed connection between "selfishness" and national decline. It presented Germany after 1933 as a model for the Arab and Islamic world.
Oh Muslims. Nothing is uglier than selfishness and favoring the personal welfare over the good of the community. Selfishness is an incurable disease. If a nation succumbs to it, it will not only be weakened but will slowly collapse because the individual members of the state will be in constant conflict with one another as they look after their personal interests. Because Islam is the religion of a community, not the individual person, and prescribes mutual aid, it orders every single believer to forget the self and to do everything for his fellows. The highest of all social orders demands that the Muslims be members of a firm and equal community.... Extreme selflessness of early Muslims ... gave them strength, power, and glory. However, the later generations have forgotten so many of the commandments of their religion and have become egoists instead of being selfless. They have borne the consequences of their unbelief. They have fallen into weakness and division.
Muslims should see that "the strength of the powerful, young nations [i.e., Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany] lies in the fact that the social relationships between all classes of the people are strong and close. As Mohammed's many statements demonstrate, Islam demands the same from you.... May God help the Muslims to act according to the commandments. After their decline, may he make them powerful again so that they can be victorious over their ene- mies."49 Hitler told the Germans that they had lost World War I and suffered economic and political crises under the Weimar Republic because of internal division. Hence one unified Reich, one people, and one Fiihrer would bring Germany strength and renewal. The text of January 16 presented the same themes about the virtues of uniformity and the dangers of individualism, but in religious terms. Again, Nazi radio invoked Islam and the Koran, not contemporary Nazi texts, to support these arguments. As past division had led to weakness, political revival called for combining the injunctions of the Koran and Islam with the modern example set by the German dictatorship.
In the text of several broadcasts of January 31 and February 1, 1941, Munzel made a connection between propaganda in modern times and in Mohammed's. Propaganda, he wrote, was one of the weapons needed to make great ideas easier to understand and convey to a broader audience. Early Islam had faced many opponents. The Prophet not only turned to the Koran to spread the ideas of Islam but to poetry as well. Poets had confronted the enemies of Islam and answered their attacks. Islam, in contrast to England, offered propaganda that was true.50 Here again, the entry point into Arab and Muslim hearts and minds lay in the National Socialist reading of the Koran and in its interpretation of the
On January 16,1941, a religious homily addressed the supposed connection between "selfishness" and national decline. It presented Germany after 1933 as a model for the Arab and Islamic world.
Oh Muslims. Nothing is uglier than selfishness and favoring the personal welfare over the good of the community. Selfishness is an incurable disease. If a nation succumbs to it, it will not only be weakened but will slowly collapse because the individual members of the state will be in constant conflict with one another as they look after their personal interests. Because Islam is the religion of a community, not the individual person, and prescribes mutual aid, it orders every single believer to forget the self and to do everything for his fellows. The highest of all social orders demands that the Muslims be members of a firm and equal community.... Extreme selflessness of early Muslims ... gave them strength, power, and glory. However, the later generations have forgotten so many of the commandments of their religion and have become egoists instead of being selfless. They have borne the consequences of their unbelief. They have fallen into weakness and division.
Muslims should see that "the strength of the powerful, young nations [i.e., Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany] lies in the fact that the social relationships between all classes of the people are strong and close. As Mohammed's many statements demonstrate, Islam demands the same from you.... May God help the Muslims to act according to the commandments. After their decline, may he make them powerful again so that they can be victorious over their ene- mies."49 Hitler told the Germans that they had lost World War I and suffered economic and political crises under the Weimar Republic because of internal division. Hence one unified Reich, one people, and one Fiihrer would bring Germany strength and renewal. The text of January 16 presented the same themes about the virtues of uniformity and the dangers of individualism, but in religious terms. Again, Nazi radio invoked Islam and the Koran, not contemporary Nazi texts, to support these arguments. As past division had led to weakness, political revival called for combining the injunctions of the Koran and Islam with the modern example set by the German dictatorship.
In the text of several broadcasts of January 31 and February 1, 1941, Munzel made a connection between propaganda in modern times and in Mohammed's. Propaganda, he wrote, was one of the weapons needed to make great ideas easier to understand and convey to a broader audience. Early Islam had faced many opponents. The Prophet not only turned to the Koran to spread the ideas of Islam but to poetry as well. Poets had confronted the enemies of Islam and answered their attacks. Islam, in contrast to England, offered propaganda that was true.50 Here again, the entry point into Arab and Muslim hearts and minds lay in the National Socialist reading of the Koran and in its interpretation of the
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