May 31, 2011: Egypt has overthrown its dictator (for three decades) and is preparing for the first free elections in 60 years. This means a lot of new political parties are being formed to back candidates for parliament and president. One group has formed a National Socialist (or Nazi) party, to elect a leader who will rule like a dictator. These Egyptian Nazis are quite open in their admiration of  fascist dictators and their belief that this form of government is needed to bring order and prosperity to Egypt.

This is ironic on many levels. While Arabs love to call Israelis "Nazis", it is the Arab world that is the true heir to the Adolph Hitler's vision of how the world should be. A major weapon in the Arab arsenal is anti-Semitism. For a long time, even before World War II, the racial hatred tactic was particularly popular in the Arab world. This was partly the result of Islamic radicalism, which pushed hatred of all non-Moslems, not just Jews. But as more Jews began moving into Jerusalem and surrounding areas in the late 19th century, more of the Moslem racial animosity was directed at Jews.

This was not the usual ethnic animosity found in Europe, but something more in line with the extreme violence of the Nazis. In fact, during World War II, the Nazis were very popular in the Arab world. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem (the highest Islamic official in the area) spent the war in Berlin (to avoid arrest by the British). Iraq, which had become independent during the 1930s, declared itself a German ally in 1941 (and was promptly invaded and re-conquered by three British divisions, before the Germans could get many troops into the territory of their new ally). After World War II, the Arab language media continued Nazi-grade anti-Semitism. The Arabs had enough sense to tone down this race hatred, and pro-Nazi talk, in their English language media.

But it's not just the Arabs. In occupied Albania, during World War II, local Moslems were recruited into SS divisions, whose task was to hunt down and kill Christian guerillas. There was no shortage of volunteers. The pro-Iranian Shia group in Lebanon, Hezbollah, use the Nazi straight arm salute as their own, and senior officials in Iran constantly talk admiringly of Hitler and the Nazis.  Thus it should be no surprise that a group of Egyptians wants to establish a new Nazi party, one that is based on the belief that Arabs are the master race, and one competent and strong leader will lead Egypt out of its current troubles and into a bright future. Full of admiration for Adolf Hitler, these new Nazis seem to have conveniently forgotten what happened to the original Nazi party.