Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1958-05-04

become expert on writing To-
those who read between the lines
So the Soviet Union Il being held
up 10 the Arabs-by Implication
r-as a country and q system doing
much for It's people.
Poverty Is the Arab worlds
Number I enemy. There Is no
standard Of living In the Arab
world. There is Just living. Any
thing below that Is death. In
Egypt today. the average life ex-
pectancy Is IS years.
Despair Is q very hard driver.
And to the average Arab. who has
never heard Of Marx. communism
equals change. II appears as a
system that can't make things
worse and that might make things
better. Il Is because IL Is UNDER
stood thus. by the general public,
who are easily misled--that COM
munism Is q serious menace In the
Arab world today.
A Push Is Needed
What our economy desperately
needs right now is q push to get
II going. We've got 10 overcome
the inertia Of this age-old poverty,
and the ancient way Of living that
perpetuates 1t.
The time is past when we can
afford to take the easy line Of
approach: islam is incompatible
with communism, therefore there
is no real danger from commu-
nism in the Middle East"
After all. there are some 40
million Moslems in Russia and
Communist China. Furthermore,
what is there to be found in Islam
that is not in Christianity? What
special strength does Islam have
to fight Communist materialism
that Christianity doesn't have?
Most Of the people in the Soviet
and satellite countries are or were
Christian. and Christianity didn't
stop communism.
On the positive side, there is in
the Arab world an increasing real:
ization Of the fact that political
maturity is necessary before any
one can live under a democracy,
even under very good constitu-
ton, such as the one we had in
Egypt, modelled after the best in
the United States, Britain and
France.
So you find today disillusion-
ment with the superficial democ-
racy that has been tried. For in
stance, in Egypt we had a gov
eminent labeled a democracy"
from 1928 to 1858. But what did
that mean to us?
Instability Of government, cor
ruption. feudalism, and Farouk.
Worse still. a complete absence
Of reform. Therefore many in the
Arab world are beginning now to
favor q benevolent dictatorship.
Nasssr Is Acceptable
Today in the Middle East, die
tatorShip would be accepted as o
way out only II 1t is safe, steady.
progressive-as we believe 1t would
be under Nasser. He is popular,
daring, cautious, serves the public
interest to the utmost. There have
been more reforms in Egypt in the
past six years than IN the pre-
ceding 900 years. That is sufficient
proof for the practical minded.
People accuse the Arab world Of
not being democratic. But it is
really the most democratic society
know. There aren't any preju-
diceS on account of class, race,
color. religion. Anyone. no matter
what his background, can make
it-for example, NaSser. I have
no idea who Nasser's father was.
And / don't care.
There are three things all Arabs
agree on: Determination to keep
their new freedom; rapid economic
and social development; and
adapting what is Of value, and is
suitable. from Western civilization
while preserving their Arab char
acteristics, their Arab identity.
The men Of the Arab world are
the impoverished sons Of great par
ents. They have pride in their
cause. But they haven't the money
to keep it up. They are the new
poor'-dike the "nouveau richeO.
They are ashamed of their poverty.
They really are in rags, but they
put their festive clothes on to go
out.
If people don't know the Arabs,
they can't possibly deal with them.
They take them at face value, and
that's the worst mistake you can
make with an Arab.