Haj Amin el Huseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem, who is now in Berlin as an adviser on Arabic affairs to the German Foreign Ministry, is still titular head of the Palestine Moslem community. Colonial Secretary Col. Oliver Stanley stated in Commons today in reply to a query by S. S. Hammersley, Conservative.
Col. Stanley asserted that since no legal machinery exists by which the holder of a religious office may be deposed, Husseini technically remains Mufti. He added, however, that the fact that the government has no intention of allowing him to return to Palestine, “reduces the importance of the technicality.” Queried as to what steps the government plans to take to secure a successor to the Mufti as head of the Supreme Moslem Council, the Colonial Secretary replied that “the government does not propose to intervene in the matter, which would cause trouble and impede the business of the Council.”
Husseini fled Palestine to Syria in 1937 shortly after he had been deposed as head of the Supreme Moslem Council by the British. Later he went to Iraq where he resided until that country was occupied by British troops.
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