File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎377r] (762/834)

To revert to the growth of the movement, the methods of
Ibn Sand would seem to have been after the following fashion.
With a tribe that was not of itself anxious to become converted,
he would send for the Sheikh and tell him in blunt terms that his
tribe had no religion and that they were all jahl. He would
next order the Sheikh to attend the local school of 'Ulema, to
undergo a course of religious instruction. At the same time,
half a dozen selected 'Ulema, attended by some genuinely
fanatical Ikhwan, such as El Duwaish, the Sheikh of the Muteir,
would be sent off to the tribe. These would hold daily classes,
teaching the people all about Islam in its original simplicity.
Much enthusiasm was thus aroused in the tribe, and the teachers
were careful to appeal to the sleeping fanaticism inherent among
all simple and serious savage men. The teachers insisted on all
new converts wearing a white turban over their head-dress,
and, among other things, they filled the new converts with won
derful ideas regarding the “ Imam.” To them he is their father,
spiritual leader and sheikh, all in one. Those who joined the
new movement were told that they had become members of the
new brotherhood, and so the name 4t Ikhwan ” arose.
When the Sheikh of the tribe was supposed to have received
sufficient instruction, he would be invited to build a house in
Riadh and remain in attendance on the Imam. This, again,
was part of the control scheme. When Ibn Sand to-day desires
to mobilize his Ikhwan forces, he merely gives the word to this
bodyguard of Sheikhs, and the countryside is in a flame inside
two days.
Much importance is attached to prayer, and it is part of the
Ikhwan creed that men should pray together. The result is
remarkable. At the call to prayer on all sides you hear men
shouting out, “ Arise, you lazy ones, get up and pray. A
group is then formed and a leader appointed, and prayers are
said in regular military style. I have seen Ibn Sand’s body
guard of 500 Ikhwan saying prayers, and was greatly struck with
the military precision of their movements. Added to this, the
fierce, fanatical abandon of the leader of the prayers made one
realize the danger of the force behind the movement.
Beliefs.
An akh (brother) puts before everything else two things :
{a) worship of one God, (6) brotherhood among all true believers.
Under (a) the actual articles of faith required of him are :—
(1) Indivisibility of God (to say there is no God but God).