Challenging what is becoming an increasingly common Islamophobic smear: That Islam is somehow juxtaposed with Nazism. Usually a photo is bandied about of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem meeting with Adolf Hitler. Sheila Musagi writes:
The actual Nazi party originated in Germany, a predominantly Christian country. The actual Facists came out of Italy, another predominantly Christian country. The Nazis and Fascists were predominantly Christians. Christianity had a role in the rise and fall of the Nazi’s. The Vatican signed a concordat with Hitler’s Reich. The Catholic responses to Hitler were ambiguous at least.
There are numerous photographs of Hitler with various Christian clergy including Archbishop Cesare Orsenigo, the papal nuncio in Berlin, and with a Catholic Cardinal, Spanish and German Bishops giving Nazi and Fascist salutes, Cardinal Michael Faulhaber marching in a Nazi parade, the Reich Bishop Ludwig Muller, and many more that are still available. There are also numerous photographs of Christian symbols in Nazi artifacts.
The latest example of the Nazi libel is a full-page newspaper ad taken out by the Canadian branch of B’nai Brith. BB once had a reputation as a solid defender of core liberal values: anti-racist and against persecution of peoples for their physical or cultural attributes. But an advertisement like this largely undermines that reputation and makes a plain example of how B’nai Brith – along with some other Jewish civil rights organizations such as the ADL – have been emptied out of their core values and now engage in the same kind of low conduct they were created to resist.
