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It is indeed true that Germany and the Arabs have old ties. I am not speaking about the irrelevant BS between Hitler and the Mufti of Jerusalem during WWII, who should have known that his racial background was not that different to the one of the Jews. If Hitler would have succeeded, the Mufti and his people would have gone into the ovens of Auschwitz sooner or later. But that is another issue.

I.e. during the crusades in 1229 a.D. the German Emperor Frederick II did not attempt to take Jerusalem by force of arms. Instead, he negotiated restitution of Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem to the Kingdom with sultan Al-Kamil, the Ayyubid ruler of the region in that time, who was nervous about possible war with his relatives who ruled Syria and Mesopotamia and wished to avoid further trouble from the Christians. The intelligent way Frederic solved some basic problems between the Christians and the Muslims (regrettably only for a decade) is still present to many intellectual people of the Middle East and gives still hope to those who dream of a peaceful solution.

Even the "God" of German literature Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was fascinated of the Orient. He wrote his famous "West-Oestlicher-Divan" , in which he admires the culture of the ME.

During WWI Turkey was one of the closest allies of Germany. Today the existance of a Turkish minority in Germany is only in parts a problem. Most of those Turks adopted the German way of living and act as a cultural bridge between their old and new home, although it is true that there is also lots of islamic fundamental scum among them.

What I want to say is, that Germany has to loose something in that mission. It is much more to us than just sending some soldiers into a godforsaken region like Kongo or Afghanistan. The backing of Israel may cost us many sympathies in the Arab world, but it is worth the price.

Oops!

I obviously forgot the link:

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,437248,00.html

The obvious reason why Germany is popular in the Middle East can best be seen from the attitude of the leader of Iran.

They don't love Germany because of the Intelligent Frederic (who went to the Middle East with a Crusader army not negotiators).

And still Muslims put bombs on German trains and kidnap Germans, etc.