Christopher Davidson > Quotes

“Indeed Allah commands you to render the trusts to whom they are due and when you judge between people to judge with justice’.”
― Christopher Davidson, After the Sheikhs: The Coming Collapse of the Gulf Monarchies

“the jihadists were ‘genuine freedom fighters, fighting to free their country from an alien oppressor’,”
― Christopher Davidson, Shadow Wars: The Secret Struggle for the Middle East

“Nasser was proving to be quite an adept administrator, with Britain’s ambassador admitting that the new government was ‘as good as any previous... and in one respect better than any, in that it is trying to do something for the people of Egypt rather than merely talk about it’.”
― Christopher Davidson, Shadow Wars: The Secret Struggle for the Middle East

“As early as 1953 Prime Minister Anthony Eden reportedly considered a British-sponsored coup d’état, with Nasser’s colleague Naguib identified as a possible frontman.”
― Christopher Davidson, Shadow Wars: The Secret Struggle for the Middle East

“The relationship between Britain and the Brotherhood was of course nothing new, as ever since its formal founding in 1928 it had been identified as primarily an anti-nationalist and anti-liberal vehicle rather than a pro-democracy movement, even though its most prominent ideologue, Hassan al-Banna, publicly endorsed the parliamentary system and constitutionalism.83”
― Christopher Davidson, Shadow Wars: The Secret Struggle for the Middle East

“Brotherhood leaders appeared to have found common ground with German agents, with former CIA officer Miles Copeland having described the organization as ‘virtually a German intelligence unit’, while others claimed German officers were helping to set up its military wing.”
― Christopher Davidson, Shadow Wars: The Secret Struggle for the Middle East

“unlike the narrowly focused national liberation movements British planners had had to contend with before, there was a growing concern that Nasser might try to form some sort of Arab superstate, especially if he was able to unify Egypt with other Arab states and perhaps even spark revolt in the Gulf sheikhdoms. Such a nightmare scenario would have led to a manpower- and resource-rich greater Arab republic or, as US president Dwight Eisenhower warned, Nasser would become the head of an ‘enormous Muslim confederation’.74”
― Christopher Davidson, Shadow Wars: The Secret Struggle for the Middle East

“Eisenhower’s public comments notwithstanding, elements of the US government also seemed to have formed a favourable impression, with declassified reports having revealed fairly close relations with Nasser’s government, at least in the early days.79 Britain’s”
― Christopher Davidson, Shadow Wars: The Secret Struggle for the Middle East

“In 1954 both MI6 and the CIA began considering a plan to assassinate Nasser with Brotherhood assistance, with a CIA telegram to London stating that they had ‘been in contact with suitable elements in Egypt and in the rest of the Arab World’.92 The US ambassador in Cairo had also been holding secret meetings with the Brotherhood’s senior leadership, who had told him they would ‘be glad to see several of the Free Officers eliminated’.”
― Christopher Davidson, Shadow Wars: The Secret Struggle for the Middle East

“it proved difficult to link Nasser to a global communist plot as he himself ‘suppressed the Egyptian left and the various communist parties vigorously’.75 Even the Foreign Office internally decided Nasser was ‘avowedly anti-Communist [and] unfortunately... strongly neutralist’.”
― Christopher Davidson, Shadow Wars: The Secret Struggle for the Middle East

“the building of the Ismailia mosque, which was to become the Brotherhood’s first headquarters, was even funded by the Anglo-French Suez Canal Company.”
― Christopher Davidson, Shadow Wars: The Secret Struggle for the Middle East