The head of the Egyptian Unique Moustache Association said on Egyptian television that he respects all types of moustaches, even Hitler's "because he humiliated the most despicable sect in the world." The program was shown and translated into English by The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
The interviewer asked Fathi Ahmad Mahmoud, who sports a graying and flowing handle-bar moustache, if people pressure him to shave his thick fuzz. He replied, "My personality forces people to treat me with respect."
In reply to the question if he respects all moustaches , including Hitler's, "Captain" Sayyed Shahada Mahmud chimed in and praised Hitler because "he subdued the people who subdued the whole world--him with his '11' moustache. By the way, that kind of moustache is called '11.' The generation of this Hitler...When I was little, my father, may he rest in peace, grew that kind of moustache, and so did all his classmates. They all had this '11' moustache."
"A cartoon in the Egyptian Al-Akhbar shows [Former Prime Minister Ehud] Barak dressed as a Nazi with a Hitler moustache, blood dripping from his hands," according to Dr. Joel Kotek, a political scientist expert interviewed by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
One source maintains that Hitler was only following orders when he grew his moustache. A Gulfnews.com clip reported, "A previously unpublished essay by a writer who served alongside Hitler in the First World War trenches reveals the future Fuhrer was only obeying orders when he shaped his moustache into its tightly-clipped style. He was instructed to do so in order that it would fit under the respirator masks, introduced in response to British mustard gas attacks.
"Had that order never been issued, the tyrant who brought most of Europe to its knees would be remembered as a man with a large Prussian moustache."