Terrorism and Political Violence

ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ftpv20

Islam and Nazi Germany’s War

by David Motadel, Cambridge MA., and London, Belknap Press, 2017, 500
pp., $29.00 (paperback), ISBN 10: 9780674724600

Yaakov Ariel

To cite this article: Yaakov Ariel (2021): Islam and Nazi Germany’s War, Terrorism and Political
Violence, DOI: 10.1080/09546553.2021.1921989

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2021.1921989

Published online: 03 May 2021.

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TERRORISM AND POLITICAL VIOLENCE

BOOK REVIEW

Islam and Nazi Germany’s War, by David Motadel, Cambridge MA., and London, Belknap
Press, 2017, 500 pp., $29.00 (paperback), ISBN 10: 9780674724600

Islam and Nazi Germany’s War is a fascinating study of the German Nazi engagement with Islam as
a religion, and with Muslim communities both inside and outside the German sphere of control. The
book examines the development of German perceptions of Islam, as well as of policies towards Muslim
populations. It also explores the extensive Nazi attempts to utilize the Muslim faith for its advantage,
including the incitement of Muslims in British and Soviet territories against their rulers, and the
recruitment of Muslims as soldiers during World War II.
Motadel starts his mega-survey by studying the perceptions of and policies towards Islam in
Wilhelmine Germany, before the outbreak of World War I (Part I, 1). Germany, like other Western
powers, attempted to utilize Muslim sentiments and recruit Muslim collaborators in its new Imperial
lands, including Tanganyika and Cameroon. German universities trained experts on Islam, and
German politicians, diplomats, writers, and explorers demonstrated growing interest in Muslim
traditions, cultures and languages. Motadel points out, however, that German policymakers were
mostly motivated by imperial ambitions and gives little credence to the German claims that Germany
as a nation held greater appreciation for Islam or was ready to treat Muslim populations more
benevolently than other imperial powers.
Motadel moves to research the German efforts during World War I to court or influence Muslim
allies or populations. Germany was an ally of the Ottoman Empire during the war, and German
leaders, diplomats, intelligence agents and scholars attempted to mobilize Muslims behind enemy
lines to rebel against colonial Entente powers. In spite of extensive propaganda campaigns, such efforts
had limited success in stirring discord and unrest in British of French controlled areas. Most Muslims
saw no reason to side with Germany against other colonial powers.
Interest in Muslim populations as potential allies resurfaced in Nazi Germany, especially after the
beginning of the war. Motadel claims that a major motivation was the war effort and the need to fill in
the ranks of German soldiers who were killed, wounded or captured during the Barbarossa campaign
and the invasion of Soviet territories (Part I, chapter 2, Part II, chapter 4). Nazi propagandists
presented Germany as liberating Muslims from Soviet religious and cultural repression, as well as
from Western Imperial exploitations. All branches of the German state, including the foreign office,
the Wehrmacht, and the SS, took part in the efforts. Many, including Adolph Hitler himself, developed
a measure of appreciation towards Muslim values and ways, as they perceived them.
When writing Mien Kampf, in the early 1920s, Hitler included Muslims among the backwards
peoples who, in his opinion, should be subjugated to German control. However, he and other Nazi
leaders, changed their minds, coming to understand Muslims as fierce, militant, and determined
warriors, akin to Nazi values and goals. Consequently, they altered their racial classifications. Muslims,
they now declared, were not Semites like Jews, but a very different race, noble and strong. Hitler even
spoke about the hypothetical merits of Germans being Muslim, instead of holding to what he saw as
sentimental Christianity, which, he believed, weakened the nation (especially in the Conclusion). Nazi
propaganda indeed presented Islam as compatible with Nazism. Although most Muslims were not
really convinced, a large number of Muslim writers, intellectuals, and religious leaders, many of them
exiles from British or French spheres of control, helped promote that view. The most prominent
among them was Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem, who enthusiastically lent his voice to
promoting pro-Nazi stands and agendas. Leader of the Palestinian uprising of 1936–39 and staunchly
anti-Zionist and anti-British, Husseini endorsed the Nazi policies towards the Jews, as well as the
Soviets and the British. Motadel portrays with great skill the gallery of persons who were involved in
2 BOOK REVIEW

implementing the Muslim policies of the Third Reich and the many venues in which they were
involved.
Both the Wehrmacht and the SS created combat units for Muslim soldiers, whose numbers reached
hundreds of thousands, many of whom were prisoners-of-war who had little choice but serve the Nazi
war efforts. The Nazis trained dozens of Mullahs that provided the soldiers with religious and
ideological leadership. Efforts at recruiting volunteers took place with success in the Crimea, with
lesser success in the Caucasian Mountains and the Balkan, and with almost no success in North Africa
(Part II, chapters 3, 4, 5, Part III, chapters 6, 7, 8). In general, the author sees the German efforts as
mostly a failure. Globally, Muslims did not rally to the Nazi cause. For one thing, Muslims were not
one entity, but rather a diverse religious tradition, with many ethnic, political and linguistic variations;
and while the Nazis spoke about “liberating” the Muslims from Colonial repression, they were not
really planning to establish independent Muslim nations.
The research involved in writing this superb book is extraordinary–much beyond what is usual and
customary in historical writing in our times. In spite of the enormous scope of the manuscript, its
multiple topics and details, it is reader’s friendly, lucid and easy to read. The author refrains from the
use of jargon, complicated sentences, bombastic theories, or pretentious language. The narrative is
fascinating, the analysis compelling and the writing excellent. Islam and Nazi Germany’s War is one of
the best studies on Nazi Germany, as well as a brilliant analysis of an encounter of a European power
with Muslim populations on the outskirts of Western spheres of influence. I highly recommend the
book.

Yaakov Ariel
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA
yariel@email.unc.edu
© 2021 Taylor & Francis
https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2021.1921989