(CHAPTER IV)
THE MOSLEM (BLACK) BROTHERHOOD
"Ours is the highest ideal, the holiest cause and the
purest way. Those who criticize us have fed from
the tables of Europe. They want to live as Europe
has taught them—to dance, to drink, to revel, to
mix the sexes openly and in public."
Sheikh Hassan el Banna
Supreme Guide, Moslem Brotherhood
A FEW days later Moustafa looked at me and said: "Artour,
when you first came we thought you were a spy because you
looked like an American. Now I gaze at your face. I find it is
as dark as ours. You have a mustache. You dress like us. You
eat with us. You are one of us, Artour. I can now call you
akhi, brother." With this Moustafa placed his hand on my
shoulder affectionately. I had "arrived."
It delighted me to know this, for it meant I had taken on
sufficient Arab coloration to attempt getting inside the Ikhwan
el Muslimin—the Moslem (often called the Black) Brotherhood1—the ultra-fanatically religious Moslem group, which
even the Green Shirts feared, and which they suspected had
placed the bomb that exploded in front of their headquarters
the day I first called on Hussein. The Moslem Brotherhood
was, in fact, far larger, far more powerful, and far more deadly
1
The American organization called "The Moslem Brotherhood of the
U.S.A." has no connection with the Ikhwan el Muslimin. My references are
to the Egyptian organization only.