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CAIRO TO DAMASCUS
to recede." Mohammedanism had a powerful hold on the
Arabs, he explained, because "it penetrates the human being
without difficulty or mental effort." When I ventured to ask
him about the role of El Azhar, his answer was one that I
found difficult to reconcile with what I had seen so far:
"Moslems from all over the world come to drink from its
fountain and be enlightened by its radiance. El Azhar has
been the source of all progressive movements and social
revivals. El Azhar has shown the way to all reformers and has
shown the people their rights."
Was the sheikh acquainted with the Mufti?
"Indeed I know him," he said, his eyes brightening momentarily. "I know him personally and I like him very much."
We salaamed respectfully, and left.
It was about this time that I found plastered on the walls
of Cairo buildings huge, luridly colored posters, violently antiJewish. One of them, showing a bloodstained dagger with the
Star of David on its handle, and blood dripping from it, exhorted: "Arm Arabism!" Other posters read: "Don't talk to
the Jews. . . . Don't do business with them. . . . Kill their
business and they die. . . . Consider them as our deepest
enemies."
A large colored placard, printed in English, Arabic, Spanish,
French and Italian, showed a sketch that purported to be the
desecration of a holy relic in Jerusalem by the Jews, and read:
ZIONISTS' NEW YEAR PRESENT TO CHRISTENDOM
The Archbishop of Canterbury, in a recent letter to the
Times, said he would not entrust the Holy Land to the Zionists because he was sure they would lose no time in desecrating every relic of the Christ or the Prophet Mohammad to
be found in the Holy Places.
The photo of the statue of the Virgin Mary in Ratisbonne
Church, Jerusalem, battered beyond recognition and thrown