62
CAIRO TO DAMASCUS
Hussein and I were again alone. It seemed to me that the
suspicion evident earlier had now died down. As we talked
casually of our mutual impressions of Egypt and the United
States, I could see that Hussein burned with a passion he
could scarcely control. He was violently anti-British: "England
is a senile criminal, a dirty country that pretends to be Egypt's
friend. England is a bloodsucker that could not be decent even
if she tried," Hussein declared. His voice rose to an oratorical
fervor: "The slogan of Misr el Fattat is 'Glory to Egypt!'
Egypt is the mother of ideas. For four thousand years we have
given birth to ideas. We want to make Egypt a nation at the
top of all the nations of the earth! I want to see Egypt greater
than America, Britain, and Russia!"
I asked him why the Arabs were so deeply religious.
"Our religion is a simple one. It needs no interpreters. We
believe in Allah, Master of the world, who holds in his hand
the destiny of all people, and of everything. Every piece of
paper fluttering in the wind is destined to fall at an appointed
spot. Your visit was pre-destined. You came here because
Allah led your steps here. What you Americans call fatalism
is the very thing that makes us strong. We do not think for
ourselves, but place our fate in the hands of Allah. We go
through fire, and face a bullet without fear because we know
that Allah wills our destiny. We are not afraid of the future.
We live today, or die tomorrow. We eat, or not. It is all in
the hands of Allah. Our mind, our body, our soul, our life,
everything we are and hope to be, belongs to the Master. We
are creatures of His will, and have no will of our own over our
daily actions, or over our destiny. This is what our religion
and our Prophet teach us!"
I nodded sympathetically. Hussein looked at me for a moment, then got up and locked the door. "I am glad to talk to
you. I must thank my American brothers for sending you.
Now an Arab," he resumed, "is affected more by his feelings
than by reason. He is easy to get along with if you understand
him. He is ugly if you cross him. The Jews have crossed us—