The Moslem (Black) Brotherhood
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neither Gamal nor EI Banna appeared. I was disappointed, but
was not too put out, for most Arabs are rather careless about
keeping appointments. It's not unusual for them to be an hour
or two late. Fortunately, I found one of the English-speaking
students whom I had met the night before.
"Assalamu aleikum," he said. "Peace be upon you."
"Wa aleikum salam," I answered. "And upon you peace."
I made myself at home in a large reception room in order
to study the faces about me. It was an interesting if not entirely comforting sight. I was surrounded by what were undoubtedly some of Egypt's most vicious thugs, who were
studying me with as much grim interest as I was them. Here
were zealots of every description—ultra-nationalist, ultrareligionist, ultra-fanatic Moslems who had vowed to make
every day a day of Jehad against nonbelievers. From every
Arab country, from North Africa to Pakistan, they were flowing into the Cairo headquarters: Arab trigger-men carrying
daggers and pistols; men from the Sudan with t heir cheeks
slashed; fighters from the Sinai desert; recruiters from Palestine; gun-runners; spies; lice-ridden Bedouins from everywhere.
Greasy, bearded men with diseased eyes and mutilated faces,
crude and barbaric, all sat sullenly, sizing up the Amrikani.
The fires of fanaticism had consumed them deeply, and the
flames had burned out all warmth and humanity from their
faces. They said nothing—only sat there in sullen silence in
my presence. The most antiforeign, murderous crew in Egypt,
to whom nothing counted but the Koran, the sword of Islam,
and the dictates of their Moorshid. Compared to these, it
seemed to me, Hussein's Green Shirt legions were cherubic
angels.
"MY MEN WILL TEACH YOU TO KILL"
SEATED next to me was a fiercely mustachioed giant of a
man, with a face bronzed by the desert sun, his eyes fearless