U.S. intelligence agencies in cooperation with their counterparts in
allied nations during World War II created it [the Holocaust] to destroy
the image of their opponents in Germany, and to justify war and massive
destruction against military and civilian facilities of the Axis
powers, and especially to hit Hiroshima and Nagasaki with the atomic
bomb,” Shihab-Eddim said.
The ludicrous claims were especially worrisome to Israeli experts who
have been watching since the Muslim Brotherhood Morsi administration
took over the Egyptian government in elections last summer, following
the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, who maintained good relations with Israel.
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center in
New York, said Shihab-Eddin's comments were as troubling as they were
ridiculous.
“Fathi goes on to claim that the 6 million Jews all really moved to
the United States during the war (and oddly no one noticed) and that the
number of Jews killed in the war was about the number who died in
traffic accidents,” Greenfield wrote in Frontpagemag.com.
Efraim Zuroff, Israel Director of the Jerusalem-based Simon
Weisenthal Center, whose mission is to defend against anti-Semitism and
teach the lessons of the Holocaust to future generations, told
FoxNews.com the remarks show a dangerous, but common, mindset.
“Obviously, if a person in that position makes that ridiculous claim
it is of concern," Zuroff said. "The sad truth is that these views are
relatively common in the Arab world and are the result of ignorance on
one hand and of government-sponsored Holocaust denial on the other
hand.”
The latest Holocaust denial from a senior Egyptian figure comes hot
on the heels of the much-publicized comments made by President Morsi in
2010, that Jews are “the descendants of apes and pigs,” remarks that
Morsi insists were taken out of context. Despite Morsi's claims,
archivists subsequently said the Egyptian leader made similar statements
repeatedly before he rose to power.
Mohammed el-Baradei, a leading figure in Egypt’s secular opposition
and formerly the director general of the International Atomic Energy
Agency, spoke out against Morsi’s remarks and his assertion that his
comments had been misinterpreted.
“We are all aware that those statements were not taken out of
context and that this discourse is very common among a large number of
clerics and members of Islamist groups, El-Baradei said. "Apart from the
remarks themselves, I am calling upon the person who made them to
courageously admit either the real stance he and the Muslim Brotherhood
and their followers adopt, or how mistaken they had been for all those
years.”
Anti-Semitic statements and denial of the Holocaust are seemingly
part and parcel of the Muslim Brotherhood doctrine. Among many examples
of the vitriol espoused by senior figures from the parent organization
of the terrorist group Hamas, one of their spiritual leaders and a
popular Islamic television figure, Youssef Al-Qaradawi said, “I’d like
to say that the only thing I hope for is that as my life approaches its
end, Allah will give me an opportunity to go to the land of Jihad
[Israel] and resistance, even if in a wheelchair. I will shoot Allah’s
enemies, the Jews, and they will throw a bomb at me, and thus, I will
seal my life with martyrdom.”
Al-Qaradawi further stated in a 2009 broadcast about the Holocaust,
“He [Hitler] managed to put them [the Jews] in their place. This [the
Holocaust] was divine punishment for them. Allah willing, the next time
will be at the hand of the believers.”
With Morsi facing significant resistance to his rapid imposition of
more stifling legislation in Egypt, fears are rising that Holocaust
denial, anti-Semitism, and anti-Israeli rhetoric will increase in a
country that continues to receive significant financial and logistical
support from the U.S. The Obama administration recently began shipping a
foreign aid package to Egypt that includes 20 F-16 fighter jets and 200
Abrams tanks.
Zuroff said the sinister statements by a top Morsi aide should give
other nations pause for thought in evaluating their relationships with
the new government in Cairo.
“Government-sponsored Holocaust denial is the most dangerous...as
opposed to attempts by individuals to convince people that the Holocaust
did not take place," Zuroff said. "When it comes with a strict Islamic
interpretation and one which is basically anti-Semitic, then it becomes
much more dangerous.”
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