88
CAIRO TO DAMASCUS
bully-boys in Germany. "Everything in Germany was fine before they were defeated—and it took the whole world to defeat them. Everything the Nazis made was good, like that
camera you have." He added: "Our boys believe that by fighting the Jew they will make a place for themselves in paradise.
We will not leave Palestine until the last Zionist Jew is
silenced."
Like the Green Shirts, the Moslem Brotherhood also had its
volunteer fighters. Labib Bey told me there were at least
twenty thousand. Ikhwan el Muslimin, the Brotherhood newspaper, described how one Palestine-bound contingent had
fared:
Last Sunday was one of Allah's days in Port Said, for at one
o'clock in the morning there arrived the Cairo train filled with
people going to fight in the Holy War of Palestine. These
faithful believers jumped on to the platform in Port Said, each
carrying his own belongings, and marched in line to the Moslem Brothers' House as compact as the stones of a building.
They were enthusiastically and energetically prepared to go on
their way to the field of action and to fight for Allah. It was
lovely to hear them singing: "Struggle is our way, and to die
for Allah our highest ideal,"
There was even a women's unit of the Ikhwan—a rare
phenomenon in a country where women are relegated mainly
to the kitchen and the fields. The Moorshid addressed them
through a screen. Merchants were compelled to contribute
to the Brotherhoods, often on the threat of reprisals, and
there seemed to be no stratum of Cairo life that was not intimidated by them. I gained an inkling of the respect in which
the Ikhwan was held one afternoon when my cab driver made
a turn against traffic, and was roundly bawled out by a policeman. My driver broke into the rushing torrent of words long
enough to utter a short sentence. The policeman shut up so
quickly he almost bit his tongue. He made what appeared to