| Comment | This is John Roy Carlson's rare and shocking book Cairo to Damascus (1951) which records the Nazi recrudescence in the Middle East after the end of World War II. Best known for his bestseller Under Cover (1943), Carlson's assessment of the Arab-Israeli conflict is as relevant today as when the book was first published. He writes about the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic fascist organization that is the parent organization of Al Qaeda, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The author interviewed Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, finding his totalitarian interpretation of Islam to be identical with the way Western totalitarians approached Christianity. Enunciating the Muslim Brotherhood’s goal of establishing a worldwide totalitarian Islamic theocracy, al-Banna anticipates the doctrine expressed in the Brotherhood document The Project. In addition to relating his personal encounters with Nazi combat veterans of World War II, Carlson writes extensively of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem - a SS officer, Axis spy, recruiter of numerous combat units for the Third Reich, and the first leader of the Palestinian national movement. The author relates the Grand Mufti’s creation of the World Muslim Congress which eventually became the Islamic branch of the fascist World Anti-Communist League and a primary element in the U.S.-backed Afghan war against the Soviet Union which ultimately spawned Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden as a military leader. Cairo to Damascus gives a stern warning that if the situation were not corrected, the Third Reich alumni in the “Holy Land” would precipitate a catastrophe of epic proportions. Find out how the Nazi postwar insurgence into the Middle East created various terrorist organizations which are today making headlines and creating havoc in this unsettling area. 480 pages. A must read for everyone. |
