World Threats

A new book by Ian Johnson titled “A Mosque in Munich” details how the CIA supported the Muslim Brotherhood as part of the fight against the Soviets. My good friend John Loftus has talked about how, when he had access, he saw files detailing that British and American intelligence was financing the Brotherhood despite their past collaboration with the Nazis–another story tackled in his book.

Hitler himself recruited some 2,000 Muslims from among his Soviet prisoners. These served in special units of the Waffen SS with their own SS trained officers and with their own religious leadership.

These wartime efforts were co-ordinated by a shadowy and talented leader of the Ostministerium. He was an expert on Soviet nationalities and an enthusiastic Nazi by the name of Gerhard von Mende.

After the war, von Mende continued his anti-Soviet work in company with former Nazi colleagues and his Muslim protégés. These people formed a core of dedicated anti-Soviet propaganda and intelligence-gathering operatives.

Johnson traces the complicated story of von Mende’s involvement with American and German intelligence services and with Radio Liberty. It was von Mende who played a central role in the decision to provide an organizational and spiritual centre for the West’s Muslim allies in Germany. This took the form of an Islamic centre and mosque in Munich.