Mufti of Jerusalem to a Cairo Correspondent of the London Times, Aug. 1946.

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When World War II broke out in 1939, and I felt the increased British pressure on the French authorities in Lebanon to hand me over, I tried to take refuge in Iraq and then in Persia. The British military authorities tried to capture me there and I found myself compelled to seek refuge in Turkey; but Turkey, through diplomatic arrangement with Great Britain, refused my demand. Therefore, finding no Moslem or Arab country in which to take refuge, I had to go to Europe, which at the time was almost entirely under German domination. Since I am not a British subject and there is no treaty between us [that is, Great Britain and the Palestine Arabs] and furthermore as there existed no enmity between us [the Palestinian Arabs] and Germany, I could see no reason to prevent my taking refuge there at a time when Great Britain was seeking to expel me and to suppress my nation in order to further the Zionist ambitions, which were trying to destroy utterly our national integrity.