Al Arabiya publishes editorial trying to convince Middle Easterners Hitler was bad

It’s fair to say that the Hitler cult is a bit passé in Germany these days. We are well versed in the atrocities committed in his name, and only the racist fringe still endorses his ideology.

It was thus a surprise to find out that much of the world thinks differently, and that the murderous dictator is held in high esteem in the Middle East in particular.

I first cottoned on to that fact when I stumbled upon an edition of Adolf Hitler’s infamous autobiography Mein Kampf in a bookshop in Dubai. At that stage, it was impossible to buy newly printed editions of the book in Germany, since the state held the publishing rights and simply refused to print it. (With the expiration of these rights, things have since changed, and a heavily edited version can now be purchased.)

But it was not until after I had left the expat-heavy, apolitical bubble of the UAE that I truly realized how pronounced the reverence for the erstwhile German leader in the region is. I have yet to speak to anyone in the Middle East who thinks badly of the genocidal Führer, who is responsible for the extermination of six million Jews and a World War that caused the death of twenty million Russians alone.