Cairo, March 9, 1933

My dear friends,

... Before the arrival of Sheik Abdelhay Kettani to Egypt, Ahmed Cherkaoui preceded him coming from Rabat -- and you should know much about this patriot who was among those who paid the price of torture and was subjected to many wrongs for fighting with much dedication against the Berber Decree. He is resolved to unveil Abdelhay Kettani's underhandedness and to reveal his true nature. He immediately set upon this task and has begun to relay to all the Egyptian key figures that he could reach a depiction of this individual based entirely on the truth. He met with Sheik Rashid Réda and Mouhib Eddine Al Khatib to unmask the man the same day he arrived in Cairo.

After having passed some time in France and in Italy where he was received with honors by the Pope, the Sheik in question arrived here followed by a large entourage of his partisans.

Two days after his arrival. Ahmed Cherkaoui came to see us, his face ashen. We asked him what happened. He told us that Mouhib Eddine Al Khatib had shown him a letter from the Emir Chakib Arsalane. In this letter he recommended Abdelhay and informed Mouhib that the aforementioned person had visited him in Switzerland and had complained that the Moroccan youth had behaved abysmally to say the least towards him and had conjured all sorts of accusations about him. He also griped about those major Islamic figures who let themselves be influenced by the youth's white lies and ceaseless attacks on his person.

He added that his allegiance to Islam was far superior to theirs and that he spares no effort to serve his religion. And if he gives the impression of giving fealty to France, it is in part to draw some advantage for the great benefit of the Muslim community. On the other part wishes to save the Islamic sanctuaries of his religious brotherhood dispersed across the Berber countryside whose preservation can only ensure keeping the Islamic faith alive in these lands. He believes that a policy of flexibility and compromise is far more productive than one of harshness and violence.

In support of his allegations, he told the Emir that he had to expel his son from from his residence after the latter had refused to comply with his order to cease writing in the government magazine "Al Maghrib" which had released several statements (alleging) his treachery.

After hearing all this, Emir Chakib Arsalane wrote, "This man could perhaps be honest in words and be well intentioned in his deeds." He implored Mouhib Eddine El Khatib to not give him a cool reception when he arrives in Egypt and to receive him as he is due when he comes to pay a courtesy visit. Ahmed Cherkaoui made us aware of this somewhat strange recommendation letter penned with Chakib Arsalane's handwriting. For all of us, it appeared to have dealt a mortal blow to all efforts we had undertaken for our national cause. I immediately went with him to Sheik Rashid Réda to inform him of what we had learned. We found out that the recommendation letter was sent to him as well however he refused to be influenced by its contents. He deemed that Chakib Arsalane displayed way too much goodwill with this man. In any event the Emir's intercession was likely to paralyze all actions we had envisioned to undertake across the Muslim world to unmask this man. We had no doubts that he undertook to write several recommendation letters destined to the great political leaders in Palestine, Iraq, Syria and India as well as all the countries he planned to visit in the region.

We wrote to Chakib Arsalane to express our fears about this individual who was commissioned by France to perform this promotional tour to attain its goals by exploiting the Emir's peers in Muslim countries. We shared with him our apprehensions that the trust he has given him would draw away that of (other) Moroccans and would further aggravate the danger and harmfulness that he represents. We asked him to use his wisdom to redress this blunder so as to put this traitor back into his proper place. Then we wrote a communique that we dispersed amongst the press corps. But only the newspaper " Al Wadi" has published it so far. There is every reason to think that Chakib Arsalane's letter has had a major impact on Mouhib Eddine El Khatib since he abstained at first from publishing our communique in his newspaper, "Al Fateh" and did not consent to do so until after much difficulty and after seeing it in print in several columns of other papers.

That being the case, as Sheik Abdelhay Kettani was visiting several notables, we learned that day that Chakib Arsalane wrote a lengthy letter to Mouhib Eddine El Khatib and instructed him to pass it on to the Sheik where he wrote to him the following: "After your departure, I have been harassed by letters from all corners that warned me to beware of you and revealed some background information on your activities. I ask you now to provide me irrefutable proof of the allegations you invoked in my presence. If you fail to do so, then I shall waste no time to show to anyone who tries to exploit me for their own ends or to mislead me the wrath I am capable of. I have set myself as a shield to struggle against empires and I would not hesitate one second to crush and annihilate you."

I wish to also add that Sheik Abdelhay Kettani asked the director of "Al Jihad", Mohammed Ali Taher, to dedicate a praiseworthy note on his behalf and in response, the director wrote back, "I have confirmed of the treachery of your Eminence and so it is not possible to publish anything of this sort about you." Then he released an article in "Al Jihad" titled. "The Second Ben Ghabrit"

My dear friends,

We have received your first letter dated April 24 which included in its folds four guineas. Then today your second letter arrived with the articles intended for the Egyptian press. We beg forgiveness for the delay in writing back which is due to this period of increased scholastic activity. You had asked if we have published the news bulletin of which you received a copy. We have in fact effective today printed this bulletin and have sent a certain quantity to ensure its dissemination amongst the Moroccan contingent residing in Syria. Our friend Hassan Bouâyad wrote to us prior to the arrival of your letter and provided a number of addresses in Paris and London to be used to send on their behalf a number of copies to Morocco. He also provided us with the address of someone in Tetuan. We proceeded to send to these addresses and we think that it is no longer necessary to send other copies to the addresses you mentioned in your letter.

We have received the (news) bulletin put together by our comrades from Nablus and we have ensured its distribution by the news agencies. It has been picked up by most of the newspapers we targeted and we have sent you a copy of each release. You have asked us to make you aware of all that is published in Egypt about our country so as to ensure you having it forwarded to Morocco. We will not fail to follow up on your request but, in order to so, you will need to let us know the number of copies you wish to receive for each edition containing the editorial fallout due to our efforts.

We published the news concerning the dust up between Jews and Moslems in the columns of the "Assiyasa" (Politics) newspaper. In return we received news reports which were redirected to us by the Jerusalem magazine, "Al Arab". Since we are still waiting to receive (from you) the news articles which we must send to the "Al Fath" magazine, we held on to the ("Al Arab") articles. When we gathered all the texts we will choose the quantity required for the "Special Edition on Morocco" and then distribute the rest to other news agencies. We believe that it will be better to proceed in this fashion rather than put all our eggs in one basket by limiting ourselves to one press outlet. (That said), we have not made a final decision on this matter. Furthermore it is not necessary (at this time) to send us the amount of funds needed for this purpose.

Dr Abderrahmane Chahmandar has promised to write a paper on the anniversary of the Berber Decree and to have it published in one of the big monthly magazines, "Al Hilal," "Al Muqtataf" or "Al Maârifa." For our part we will write to a number of organizations in Haifa requesting they join us in the commemoration on the anniversary of this painful event.

We received a letter from Mecca by our friend Haj Ahmed Cherkaoui in which he tells of an encounter he had with supporters of Abdelhay Kettani who wanted to assault him. Miraculously he managed to escape. He sent us an article signed by him to be published in the Egyptian newspapers.

Cairo, 1934. Sitting from right to left: Mohammed Al Khatib, Mohammed ben Abdelwahab. Standing from right to left: Said Hajji, Mohammed El Fassi Al Halfaoui, Abdelkrim Hajji, Mohammed Aziman