Mein Kampf Best seller in Arabic Countries

An Arabic translation of Hitler's Mein Kampf which has become a bestseller in the Palestinian territories (distributed by Al-Shurouq, a Ramallah-based book distributor, and is now in 6th place on the Palestinian best-seller list) is now on sale in Britain.

The book, Hitler's account of his life and anti-Semitic ideology written while he was in prison in the 1920s, is  on sale in central London, an area with a large Arab population.

The book was originally translated in the 1960s and revived by Bisan, a Lebanese publisher in the 1990s,

the Bavarian state government, which claims copyright in the text, has tried to stop its publication around the world, Mein Kampf became the sixth best selling book in the Palestinian Authority area.

Copies of the translation are understood to have been distributed to London shops towards the end of last year and have been selling well.

In the preface, Luis al-Haj, the translator, states: "National Socialism did not die with the death of its herald. Rather, its seeds multiplied under each star."

None of the above surprises me of all the Arabs convinced of Hitler's coming triumph, none was so eager as Haj Amin al-Husseini, the grand mufti of Jerusalem and leader of the Palestinian Arabs in the Hitler years. ." Along the lines that "my enemy's enemy is my friend," Haj Amin converted the Palestinian cause into a local branch of Hitler's worldwide anti-Jewish persecution. Fleeing from the British, he spent the war in Berlin. A friend and admirer of Himmler's, he raised for the SS a Muslim division of Bosnian AKA "Black Legions", that fought for Nazi Germany on the Eastern Front and were responsible for atrocities in the Balkans. Hitler made grandiose promises to him, but was cautious enough to add that they could be met only after victory.

Fanaticism had led Haj Amin into utter delusion. Hitler, the expected savior, had in reality the settled conviction that Arabs were Untermenschen and he had no intention of doing them any favors. On that racial ladder of his, Arabs occupied a servile place, held in much the same contempt as the Jews. All sorts of Arab leaders were to follow Haj Amin's example , including Gamal Abdul Nasser and Anwar Sadat, the Syrian and Iraqi Baathists, and King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia.