As the Dutch politician Geert Wilders nears the release of his film expected to present the Koran as analogous to Hitler's Mein Kampf ("My Struggle"), a point he has already made, it is worth recalling who else has made this comparison. Yes, in recent years, it's become a quite common theme on the right – for example, Fox News Channel host Bill O'Reilly did so on his show in 2002.
But the really interesting comparison is Winston Churchill's, though he did it the other way around. It comes on p. 50 of "From War to War," the first part of the first volume, The Gathering Storm (1948) of his 6-part Second World War. Chapter 4 deals with Adolf Hitler, including a close look at Mein Kampf, which Churchill called "the new Koran of faith and war: turgid, verbose, shapeless, but pregnant with its message."
Comments: (1) I disagree with the comparison (and also reject the idea to ban Islam or the Koran), seeing this as counterproductive: it won't happen and it need not, as Muslims' understanding of their religion and scripture are potentially flexible. That said, the Churchill quote points to the undeniably deep-felt Western hostility to the Koran.
(2) For Churchill's disdain for not just the Koran but all of the Islamic religion, see his observations in The River War of 1899 ("No stronger retrograde force exists in the world" and so on). (February 21, 2008)
Dec. 28, 2014 update: Contrary to the above sentiments, Churchill may also have been tempted to convert to Islam. Matilda Battersby writes in today's Independent about a letter from August 1907 in which Lady Gwendoline Bertie, Churchill's soon to be sister-in-law, wrote to him:
Please don't become converted to Islam; I have noticed in your disposition a tendency to orientalise, Pasha-like tendencies, I really have. If you come into contact with Islam your conversion might be effected with greater ease than you might have supposed, call of the blood, don't you know what I mean, do fight against it.
Also, in private, he took occasionally to dressing in Arab clothes.
Jan. 1, 2015 update: The eminent historian Andrew Roberts responds: "The idea that Winston Churchill wanted to covert to Islam ... is utter tripe. Goonie Bertie was very clearly joking."
Apr. 25, 2015 update: The Churchill Project at Hillsdale College finds that "Lady Gwendeline was clearly writing in light-hearted mode" and dismisses her letter as mere fun.
