Well, the story (the first post and link in this thread) is taken out of its historical context. There was a reason for Adolf Hitler to agree for these SS units to be established; namely to use the locals to fight off partisans and defend the areas they knew as their own pocket. I have a pretty hard time to see how this can be linked to terrorism of today....

Anyways there were in particular three SS units that are of interest in this matter.

13. Waffen-Gebirgs-Division der SS «Handschar» Recruited in particular men from the Balkans and the muslim population. Participated in anti-partisan warfare on the Balkans.

23. Waffen-Gebirgs-Division der SS «Kama» Mostly German troops, but also including Croats and Croat muslims. Founded on the 17th of june 1944, dismounted in 1945 not seen any action (not to be confused with 23. SS panser grenaderdivision Nederland)

21. Waffen-bergdivisjon av SS Skanderbeg (1. albanian) - consisted of personell primarly from Kosovo.
The "Skanderbeg" was indeed a major failure and was later dismounted.

Weather Saddam was connected to Terrorism is still debated, but there was a History Channel program linking Saddam with members of the anti-British movement from WWII, & they(Grand Mufti & friends) did have ties to the Nazis. They had hoped for the Germans to airlift troops into Iraq.

The same could be said about the Ukranians; my grandfather was in Poland during the war, and he said that Ukranian troops serving in the SS rounded up the Jewish community of his town. It wasn't that they particularly supported Nazi doctrine, they just thought that if they played nice they could win independence from The Soviet Union.

Originally Posted by The Other Guy

It wasn't that they particularly supported Nazi doctrine, they just thought that if they played nice they could win independence from The Soviet Union.

Follow that line to the approx 2000 Norwegian volunteers that joined the SS; they wanted to help the Finnish beat off the Russians and the only way to help our brothers in the east was to join the German army.

The propaganda boosted the urge to stop the Bolsjevism, to create a new Norwegian army (which was soon stopped as the High Command was dismounted and the unit rapidly set under German command...) and last but not the least many people believed the war would come to Norway and by joining the German army they would participate defending the country.

You can draw this line to the many Danish and Swedish men that joined the Waffen SS, people in France, The Netherlands and of course the Eastern parts of Europe as already mentioned.

I dislike this thread, because it highlights the few thousand Muslims who fought for the Nazi's, while ignoring the millions of Muslims who fought in the British Indian Army, and the Soviet Red Army.

Originally Posted by redcoat

I dislike this thread, because it highlights the few thousand Muslims who fought for the Nazi's, while ignoring the millions of Muslims who fought in the British Indian Army, and the Soviet Red Army.

No one is ignoring the fact that Muslims fought in the British Army, the fact of the matter is, some did "go over" to the enemy including the Japanese.

Originally Posted by redcoat

I dislike this thread, because it highlights the few thousand Muslims who fought for the Nazi's, while ignoring the millions of Muslims who fought in the British Indian Army, and the Soviet Red Army.

Well this thread is about the muslims that joined the German army - not the millions who fought in the British Army or the Soviet Red Army. If you feel this part of the history uncomfortable why not start a thread about those who fought with the allies?

Originally Posted by sunb!

Well this thread is about the muslims that joined the German army - not the millions who fought in the British Army or the Soviet Red Army. If you feel this part of the history uncomfortable why not start a thread about those who fought with the allies?

I think the problem is that people are using this as a "Muslims=Nazi's" argument because of modern developments, it is someone like drawing a conclusion that any foreign units in the German army or SS is the same as tacit national support. Lots of Dutch served in the SS would it be accurate to say Dutch were allies with the 3rd Reich?

Even the title of the thread leads people to the conclusion that all Muslims were allied with the Nazi's when in reality the vast majority of Muslims serving were in allied armies.

That being said there is no good reason to ignore Muslim units (or any non-German units) serving with the German army after all it is history.