Al-Husseini used his influence and ties with the Germans to promote Arab nationalism in Iraq. He was among the key promoters of the pan-Arab Al-Muthanna Club, and supported the coup d'état by Rashid Ali in April 1941. When the Anglo-Iraqi War broke out, during which Britain used a mobile Palestinian force of British and Jewish troops, and units from the Arab Legion al-Husseini used his influence to issue a fatwa for a holy war against Britain. The situation of Iraq's Jews rapidly deteriorated, with extortions and sometimes murders taking place. Following the Iraqi defeat and the collapse of Rashid Ali's government, the Farhud pogrom in Baghdad, led by members of the Al-Muthanna Club, which had served as a conduit for German propaganda funding, erupted in June 1941. It was the first Iraqi pogrom in a century, one fueled by violent anti-Jewish feelings stirred over the preceding decade by the ongoing conflict between Arabs and Jews in Palestine.