Islamic leaders led by the secretary-general Mohammad bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa of the Saudi-based Muslim World League visited Auscwitz-Birkenau for the 75th anniversary of the death camp’s liberation by Soviet forces Jan. 27, 1945. Joining the CEO of the American Jewish Committee’s David Harris, Al-Issa led a delegation of 62 Muslim leaders from 28 countries, marking the first time leaders of the Islamic world marked Holocaust Remembrance Day, signaling that holy-base of the Sunni Muslim faith based in Mecca and Medina officially recognized the Holocaust. Poland houses WW II Nazi death camps, enshrining them as global monuments to the horrors perpetrated by Adolf Hitler’s German Third Reich. Saudi Arabia, under the controversial leadership of 34-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has committed himself to modernizing the Saudi state.
Under past Saudi leaders, the Kingdom was the seat of Sunni Wahhabism, the most conservative form of Sunni Islam. Under Bin Salman, Saudi Arabia has made overtures to Israel something unheard of a few years ago when Shiite Iran proudly hosted under the leadership of former Iranian President Mahmound Ahmadinejad a Holocaust Deniers conference in Tehran Dec. 11, 2006. Fourteen-years later, Bin Salman approves participation in the 75th anniversary of Auschwitz-Birkenau’s liberation. Bin Salman’s move puts pressure on Sunni Palestinian groups to work for Palestinian rights without associating with neo-Nazi groups currently sweeping across the European continent spreading anti-Semitic hate. “To be here, among the children of the Holocaust survivors and members of Jewish and Islamic communities, is both sacred and a profound honor,” said Al-Issa inside Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Bin Salman’s decision to place the Saudi state squarely behind the U.S., Israel and Europe puts added pressure on Iran, whose past support of Holocaust Deniers conferences puts Iran outside civilized world. “The unconscionable crimes to which we bear witness today are truly crimes against humanity. That is to say, a violation of us all, an affront to all of God’s children,” Al-Issa said. Since the end of WW II, Germany’s been atoning and paying reparations to victims of the Holocaust, despite unthinkable horrors on German soil. It’s no accident that the Munich Massacre happened on German soil Sept.5-6, 1972 where Palestinian radicals under the name of Black September murdered 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team at the Munich Olympics. Less than 30 years removed from Auschwitz-Birkenau’s liberation, another Jewish massacre took place on German soil.
Germany’s official response to the Munich Massacre was utter disgust but some controversy lingered how Black September could have breached German security without some internal complicity. Setting foot in Auschwitz-Birkenau by Muslim leaders goes along way in normalizing relations between Saudi Arabia and Gulf States with Israel, despite the ongoing Palestinian conflict. Bin Salman’s decision to mark the 75th anniversary of Auschwitz-Birkenau’s liberation by hosting a delegation of 62 Muslim leaders from 28 countries indicates that the Palestinian question no longer acts as a barrier to normalizing relations with Israel. Saudi Arabian officials acknowledge the war crimes committed by Germany, killing an estimated 1.1 million Jews in gas chambers and crematoria in Auschwitz-Birkenau alone. Polish officials reject that it had anything to do with Holocaust.
Poland fueled the controversy passing a Holocaust law Feb. 1, 2018 making it a crime to blame the Polish state for the Holocaust. Before Germany occupied Poland in 1939, it was home to the largest Jewish population in Europe. An estimated 20,000 Jews live in today’s Poland compared to some 3 million before the Holocaust. For centuries Poland had no distinct borders occupied before WW I by Germany’s Prussian Empire and Tsarist Russia. Poland only restored its boundaries after WW II, proudly ending its history of occupation for hundreds of years. Poland’s been a proud member of the European Union since May 1, 2004. Its conservative President Andrzej Duda 100% backed the anti-Holocaust bill to underscore Poland’s nearly total destruction by the Nazis in WW II. While opposed by the U.S. and Israel, the Polish law separates for posterity Poland’s government from the Nazi regime.
Joining hands at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Jews and Muslims showed their solidarity against tyranny but, more importantly, against the kind of racism that led Germany to the worst genocide in human history. Bin Salman sends a powerful message to Tehran that it’s not OK to use the Holocaust to litigate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Since
Saudi-born Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered by Saudi agents Oct. 2, 2018, Bin Salaman has moved full-steam ahead reforming Saudi Arabia. Despite punishing the perpetrators of Khashoggi’s state-sponsored murder, most foreign leaders still blame Bin Salaman for backing the Saudi operation that orchestrated the plot. Reaching out to the American Jewish Committee, Bin Salman intends to enlist Israel’s help in clearing his good name. Ordering Al-Issa to recognize the Holocaust is a step in the right direction for Saudi Arabia.
