President Mubarak's Advisor Osama Al-Baz Condemns Holocaust Denial

The following are excerpts from an interview with Osama Al-Baz, political advisor to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak:

Al-Baz: (The Jews) fear annihilation and so on. We must take into account the Israeli mentality and fear because of various massacres they experienced and the massacres carried out in World War II by Hitler and Nazism. I'm against those who say it didn't happen, it is a lie, etc. It did happen. Why do they say this? Did we do those things? Even the Germans of our days did not do it. It was perpetrated by a specific party that invented a foolish theory, a theory that claims there are different races, including the superior Aryan race and the Semitic race. To the Europeans, the Semitic race meant the Jews, because they lived there. What Hitler did to the Jews who labored in the Auschwitz camp, in the camp of Babi Yar, and all those things – whoever (hears of) this believes that these acts are a crime against humanity, not just against the Jews. We must condemn these things and not doubt whether it happened and how many millions died. They say six million. Let's assume there were six million, after all even if there were 600,000 the notion is the same notion.

Do you accept that people are destroyed without having done anything, just because they belong to a certain religion? You cannot attribute such acts to any religion, rationale or morality.

Another guest: I'd like to clarify that throughout Arab history, Arab culture has never perpetrated such things. On the contrary, it took in the Jews in their crises.

Al-Baz: Of course! Let me tell you something, when Hitler invaded France, French Jews were terrified but could not flee to Spain, which was under Franco's fascist regime that was not a Nazi ally, but was ideologically similar. No-one offered them (shelter) and they didn't know where to turn. Then Muhammad V, king of Morocco, said to them: "Come!" He welcomed them and they lived there. The Arabs were fair towards the Jews and dispelled any fear by hosting them.

There is no enmity or hostility between the Jews and us. We treat Israel as a state and not as the Jewish people, because the Jewish people are dispersed worldwide. Many of the Jews are moderate and many Israelis are moderate.