JULY 16 — For the love of your sanity, try not to Google “Hitler” and “Islam.” Run to your nearest library or the safe, welcoming arms of a legitimate bookstore.

Big hint: if the bookstore proudly displays Mein Kampf along with various books about Hitler and the evils of Jews, keep running. I wish I was making this up but I actually saw an anti-Semitic, pro-Hitler book display in a local chain’s bookstore at a mall.

Malaysians are a funny lot. That up-and-coming tennis player’s mother is Malaysian? We claim him as ours. That MasterChef contestant cooking food “inspired” by Malaysia? We claim her too.

But deifying Hitler? Really? When in the Western world calling someone “Hitler” brings up images of a nightmarish dictator who would kill all you love, instead we see popular singers wishing Hitler were still alive, as presumably if Hitler was around, Gaza wouldn’t have happened.

The latest Internet rumour is that Hitler apparently converted to Islam and died in Indonesia. Instead of, oh, found dead in a bunker after having committed joint suicide with his wife Eva Braun. What do the historians know, eh?

Now, dear deluded Nazi-worshipping Malaysian, if you had stayed in school and read up on your world history, you would know that if Hitler was still around Israel might not exist and perhaps, neither would you.

If you read a proper, legitimate biography of Adolf Hitler you would find he was not a man who ordinarily would be admired. The more you read about him, the more you feel sorry for the bloke. If Hitler were born in the 21st century, he would probably be that anti-social weirdo who keeps messaging strange women on Facebook asking them to have white babies with him to help stop the destruction of the Aryan race.

In a normal, sane world you would want to lock mass murderers up forever. But for some reason, we have compatriots who think genocide is heroic.

Remember the Bosnian conflict? Remember how we railed at the United Nations, took in Bosnian refugees and even had people who wanted to marry Bosnian orphans off to locals as though they were exotic breeds of cats?

Did we offer to take in people from Syria? Afghanistan? Iraq? Sudan? Congo? Oh, yes and what about Palestinians? Why were we so fixated on the Bosnians? Fortunately Bosnia and Herzegovina now exists so the Bosnians had somewhere to return to unlike, oh, the Rohingya in Myanmar.

If Malaysians would open their eyes and look around, they would see people around them who they could actually physically help. Those Myanmar folk working at the Chinese restaurant? Probably escaping persecution or dire economic conditions. That downcast-looking maid walking after her employers? They likely aren’t feeding her or treating her well, making her eat leftovers and even then, only after the family has eaten.

The “Awang Hitams” we blame for crime and other social ills might not be Nigerian scammers but legitimate students looking to make better lives for themselves by getting an education. Ordinary people, with ordinary struggles, are around us all the time and everyday. But who do we lift up? A known mass murderer and possible psychopath.

You can tell a lot about a person from the people he/she looks up to. So what does it say about us when there are people who exalt a man who thought nothing of gassing to death an entire race?

If Hitler hadn’t existed, Israel would have no reason to exist. So before you make that Nazi salute in the name of Gaza, do us all a favour and read up on World War One and Two. Maybe you’ll learn something or at the least, learn not to say something as stupid as “If only Hitler was still alive.”

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.