Al-Muthanna Club

The Al-Muthanna Club (Arabic: نادي المثنى) was an influential pan-Arab fascist society established in Baghdad ca. 1935 to 1937 which remained active until May 1941, when the coup d'état of pro-Nazi Rashid Ali al-Gaylani failed.^[1] It was named after Al-Muthanna ibn Haritha, an Iraqi Muslim Arab general who led forces that helped to defeat the Persian Sassanids at the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah.^[2] Later known as the National Democratic Party, Nadi al-Muthanna was influenced by European fascism and controlled by radical Arab nationalists who, according to 2005's Memories of State, "formed the core of new radicals" for a combined Pan-Arab civilian and military coalition.^[3][4]

Al-Muthanna Club Nadi al-Muthanna
Chairperson	Saib Shawkat
Founded	1935 (1935)
Dissolved	1941 (1941)
Succeeded by	Iraqi Independence Party (not legal successor)
Youth wing	Al-Futuwwa
Ideology	Arab fascism Pan-Arabism Fascism
Political position	Far-right
Colours	Black
Politics of Iraq Political parties Elections

Saib Shawkat

In 1938, as fascism in Iraq grew, Saib Shawkat, a known fascist and pan-Arab nationalist, was appointed director-general of education.^[5]

With co-founder:Taha al-Hashimi, Shawkat founded the al-Muthanna club in 1939,^[6] and the club remained under his guidance.

Under German ambassador Fritz Grobba's influence, The al-Muthanna club developed a youth organization, the al-Futuwwa, modeled on European fascist lines and on the Hitler Youth.^[7]

Yunis al-Sabawi

Yunis al-Sabawi (يونس السبعاوي) (who translated Hitler's book Mein Kampf into Arabic in the early 1930s) was active in the al-Muthanna club^[8] and in the leadership of the al-Futuwwa.^[9] He was a deputy in the Iraqi government,^[10] minister of economics.^[11] Al-Sabawi had become anti-Semitic; on 1 and 2 June 1941, members of al-Muthanna and its youth organization led a mob that attacked Baghdad's Jewish community in a pogrom later named the Farhud.^[12] Two days before Farhud, Al-Sabawi, a government minister who proclaimed himself the governor of Baghdad, had summoned Rabbi Sasson Khaduri, the community leader, and recommended to him that Jews stay in their homes for the next three days as a protective measure. He had planned for a larger massacre, planning to broadcast a call for the Baghdad public to massacre Jews. However, the broadcast was never made since al-Sabawi was forced to flee the country.^[13]

After the British overthrew the coup government, Sabawi was court-martialed for the mutiny, sentenced to death, and hanged on 5 May 1942.^[14][15][16]

See also

• Mohammad Amin al-Husayni
• Rashid Ali

References

1. Party, Government and Freedom in the Muslim World: Three Articles Reprinted from the Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2d Ed., V. 3. E. J. Brill. 1968. p. 9. ISBN 9789004017061. Retrieved 2014-12-14.
2. Edmund Ghareeb, Beth Dougherty. Historical Dictionary of Iraq. Lanham, Maryland, USA; Oxford, England, UK: Scarecrow Press, 2004. Pp. 167, 1.
3. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Volume 4, p. 125, by Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb, Johannes Hendrik Kramers, Bernard Lewis, Charles Pellat, Joseph Schacht, 1954,
4. Davis, E. (2005). Memories of State: Politics, History, and Collective Identity in Modern Iraq. University of California Press. p. 74. ISBN 9780520235465.
5. Saddam Hussein and the crisis in the Gulf p. 73, Judith Miller, Laurie Mylroie, Biography & Autobiography, Times Books, 1990
6. N.Y.), Nation Associates (New York (1948). The British Record on Partition as Revealed by British Military Intelligence and Other Official Sources. Author. p. 74.
7. "'You boys you are the seeds from which our great President Saddam will rise again' - Telegraph". telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-12-14.
8. Intellectual life in the Arab East, 1890–1939, Center for Arab and Middle East Studies, American University of Beirut, 1981, p. 172
9. "The Farhud". ushmm.org. Retrieved 2014-12-14.
10. Documents on German foreign policy, 1918–1945: from the archives of the German Foreign Ministry, H.M. Stationery Off., 1966, p. 566
11. Britain's informal empire in the Middle East: a case study of Iraq, 1929–1941, Daniel Silverfarb, Oxford University Press US, 1986, p. 135
12. Davis, E. (2005). Memories of State: Politics, History, and Collective Identity in Modern Iraq. University of California Press. p. 70. ISBN 9780520235465. Retrieved 2014-12-14.
13. Gilbert, Martin (2011-09-20). In Ishmael's House: A History of Jews in Muslim Lands. McClelland & Stewart. p. 189. ISBN 978-0-7710-3569-2.
14. mbih. "The Farhud (Farhoud). MIDRASH ben ish hai lecture". midrash.org. Retrieved 2014-12-14.
15. "The Scribe - Issue 11 (May-Jun 1973)" (PDF). Retrieved 2014-12-14.
16. "The Iraq coup of Raschid Ali in 1941, the Mufti Husseini and the Farhud (Farhoud)". mideastweb.org. Retrieved 2014-12-14.