Islamic law judge and advisor on religious and Islamic Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash marked the 45th anniversary of the passing of former Mufti of Jerusalem Amin al-Husseini on July 4 by posting about him on social media, Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reported in a press release.
Husseini, a complex figure in Arab history, was directly responsible for the formation of the Free Arabian Legion as well as Waffen-SS divisions composed of Bosnian-Muslims, "all that's interesting" reported in 2018.
The Nazis needed to recruit a religious authority such as al-Husseini since local Muslim leaders issued religious decrees forbidding Muslims from working alongside the Nazis, George Lepore wrote in his 1997 book Himmler's Bosnian Division. The Waffen-SS divisions he created committed war crimes against Jewish residents of Yugoslavia as well as against non-Jewish partisans who resisted the German army. He refused to allow 500 Jewish children to be sent from Rab concentration camp to Turkey in 1943 because he thought they would eventually find their way to the Jewish community in Palestine, Yad Vashem published.
It was during this time that he penned a book called Islam and the Jews, in which he expressed his belief that Muslims must kill and destroy Jews. The book was required reading for those serving in the divisions.
Al-Habbash called Husseini a "great Palestinian national leader" and added that "our leaders are our role models."
While some Palestinians view Husseini as a leader who failed to protect them from the results of the war of 1948, he is not totally forgotten, with at least one school named after him.
However, it should be noted that even Husseini – who met Adolf Hitler and helped the Nazis commit war crimes against humanity –did not think that the Jewish temple in Jerusalem was a myth.
In a booklet he wrote in the 1920’s he said that there can be no doubt that the Temple Mount is the location of the site where King David made offering to God, Channel 7 reported in 2017.
It is possible that Husseini wanted to attract Christian tourists to the site, or that from his Islamic perspective, the historical people of Israel had been replaced by the revelation given to the founder of Islam.
Al-Habbash, on the other hand, warned in June that there is an “Israeli plot against al-Aqsa Mosque."