The Moslem (Black) Brotherhood
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than the Green Shirts. Most of its members wore beards, because Mohammed had worn one, and the day after Moustafa
spoke to me I began to raise a beard in preparation for my adventure in fanaticism.
The next week Hussein glared at me angrily when I came
to see him.
"Shave off your beard!" he snapped. "The political police
will think yon are trying to change your appearance. Besides,
you are beginning to look like a member of the Ikhwan." The
Ikhwan, he said, was a curse upon Egypt. "They are dangerous.
They always look backward. We look forward. Egypt will
never progress by looking back oveT its shoulder and trying to
live in yesterday's world." And he added: "I tell you, shave
it off now if you want to remain with us."
Ma'alesh! No matter! I shaved off the beard.
Hussein had nothing but hatred for Sheikh Hassan el
Banna, the Moorshid, or Supreme Guide of the Ikhwan.
Hussein spoke of him as the Rasputin of Egypt. They charged
him with accepting money from the British as well as the
Communists. They ascribed to him many immoralities, sexual
and otherwise, as well as violence and intrigues without number. And the Ikhwan had no love for the Green Shirts.
To me this made the challenge all the more intriguing. I
went ahead with undercover plans to gain the confidence of
the Ikhwan. This meant keeping the left hand from knowing
what the right was doing, for Ikhwan headquarters were only
a short block away. If I were seen there by Hussein's scouts, I'd
be charged with consorting with the enemy. If Ikhwan prowlers saw me at Green Shirt headquarters, they would suspect
me of collaborating with Hussein, whom they considered a
pro-Western quisling because of his visits to Europe and the
United States. The Ikhwan had its own smear methods. A
critic or opponent was not called a "Communist" or a "Jew";
he was damned as a "European who has eaten the crumbs
from the tables of Europe."
I had heard that El Banna had a large following among the