Nazism was a religion. Hitler declared, “We do not want to have any other God, only Germany.” Hitler was a preacher, inspiring his flock to worship the German nation. Deutschland ueber Alles (“Germany Above All”), Hitler explained, was a “profession of faith that fills millions with a strength that is mightier than any earthly might.” Our love for our people, he said, will never falter, and our “faith in this Germany of ours is imperishable.”

The other side of the coin of Hitler’s love for and faith in Germany was anger toward those who—he imagined—did not share his faith. Hitler declared:

We are fanatic in our love for our people. We can go as loyally as a dog with those who share our sincerity, but will pursue with fanatical hatred the man who believes that he can play tricks with this love of ours.

Well before Islamic terrorism became prominent, I used the phrase “death to the non-believers” to crystallize my understanding of why Hitler felt compelled to exterminate the Jewish race. Hitler conceived of Jews as unbelievers: people who did not worship Germany sufficiently: were unwilling to embrace and surrender to the national community.

Hitler became enraged contemplating the idea that some people sought to avoid sacrificing their lives for Germany. The essence of the Jew, according to Hitler, was precisely the inability or unwillingness of Jews to become attached and devoted to a national community; and to give their lives to such a community.

Bin Laden—like Hitler—believed that everyone had to embrace and worship Allah, the object or entity that he embraced and worshipped. There could be no exceptions. Bin Laden stated that—according to the Muslim religion—Allah has “created us for the purpose of worshipping him.” As a corollary to this proposition, Muslims are required by God to punish people who do not worship Allah.

Citing a passage from the Qur’an, Bin Laden urged believers to fight for the cause of Allah and to "kill pagans wherever they are found.” When a believer meets an unbeliever, he is encouraged to “smite the neck” of the unbeliever: to fight those who “believe not in Allah.” The purpose of Jihad is to rouse the believers in order to “restrain the fury of the non-believers.”

According to Hitler, every single German was required to embrace and to serve the German nation. No one was exempt. There “cannot be a single person,” Hitler proclaimed, who “excludes himself from this obligation.” The aim of National Socialism was dictatorship of the “whole people, the community.”

In spite the enormous popularity that National Socialism had achieved, Hitler imagined that there still were a few “incurables:” people who had never understood the "happiness of belonging to this great, inspiring community.” Nazism revolved around eliminating these incurables, “party poopers” so to speak, who—Hitler believed—refused to embrace and devote themselves to the German national community.

Like Bin Laden, Hitler encouraged followers to “smite the neck” of those who did not bow down to Germany: to kill people who did not believe in Nazism (wherever these people might be found). The Final Solution was a massive act of terroristic violence, the purpose of which was to punish—eliminate—infidels.