“Even when I started the paperwork seven months ago to register my restaurant’s name, I did not receive any negative reactions from the government or security forces. It was quite normal.”
Sure, although that has now changed: the international publicity that the restaurant has received has led Kurdish authorities to close it until the owner changes its name. However, its popularity was telling. Naming a restaurant after figure who is beloved among the eatery’s potential customers is a canny move. And thanks to Islam’s deeply rooted antisemitism, Hitler is indeed a popular individual in many Muslim countries. In May, the President of the British Pakistani Youth Council praised Adolf Hitler for killing Jews. Last February, an Egyptian researcher declared: “We should erect a statue of Hitler for what he did to the Jews.” In Paris in July 2018, a Muslim screaming “Allahu akbar, long live Hitler, death to Jews” assaulted a Jewish man. In 2017, a UK: Muslim migrant paraded a “Hitler You Were Right” sign in Britain. In 2016, an Egyptian Muslim “human rights activist” said that Hitler was a “great man” who “exposed truth about Jews.”
And so on and on. It is no wonder that the Hitler Restaurant was popular. It’s too bad that Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar couldn’t drop by before it was closed.
“Owner of ‘Hitler Restaurant’ in Duhok wanted his restaurant to be ‘famous,’” by Zhelwan Z. Wali, Rudaw, September 3, 2019:
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A restaurant named after the genocidal German dictator Adolf Hitler in Duhok has triggered much controversy on social media, with some welcoming the move and others criticizing the government for permitting the issuance of licences under such notorious names.
The owner of the restaurant said he does not necessarily like the mastermind behind the Holocaust, despite naming his restaurant after him, and simply wanted publicity.
“Hitler was the dictator of Germany and has nothing to do with me. I know I have named my restaurant ‘Hitler’, but that does not mean that I love him,” Rebar Mohammed told Rudaw English. “I have done it just to make my restaurant famous among people.”
Hitler led the National Socialist German Workers Party, commonly known as the Nazi party, and Germany in the 1930s and 1940s. His invasion of Poland in 1939 brought about World War II. During the course of the war, which ended in 1945, Hitler was responsible for the mass murder of six million Jews in concentration camps, as well as five million gypsies, political dissidents, Poles, homosexuals and others. Overall, more than 70 million died in the war.
Mohammed said officials did not pay the name much attention when he was registering the restaurant.
“Even when I started the paperwork seven months ago to register my restaurant’s name, I did not receive any negative reactions from the government or security forces,” he said. “It was quite normal.”
Customers have a similarly nonchalant attitude to the Hitler signpost hanging on the wall, according to Mohammed.
“Whoever visits my restaurant says they do not care what the name of my restaurant is,” he said. “What is important for them is the cleanliness and taste of my food.”
Some customers agree. Hitler Restaurant was bustling with customers on Monday, many of whom seemed to not care about Hitler’s involvement in crimes against humanity and genocide.
“For me, the name of the restaurant is not an important thing,” Tahir Mohammed, a customer at the Hitler restaurant, told Rudaw while waiting for his meal. “I come here because I prefer the dishes they serve.”…